Big realisation, I am procrastinating on my other, bigger priorities, with the 100WordHabit project.
Bigger realisation, if not this, I’d find something else.
Biggest revelation, even if life sucks donkey balls, I need to focus, be disciplined and do what needs doing.

So here’s a few stream-of-consciousness observations & suggestions, to future Jason, when doing the project.

1. The writing almost never takes you that long. You write at a fairly decent clip.
2. What does take you a lot of time, is that while you do know what to say, you take an inordinately long time, trying to figure out just the right way to say it, to present it.
3. It’s the rabbit holes that you get into.
   a. You take too long researching, finding just the right image and the right words.
   b. You just spent half an hour trying to figure out the right way, to attribute an image.
   c. You spent another trying to find out how to jump to a specific column in Emacs (M-g followed by tab followed by the column number and return)
   d. You started curating and tagging some mp3s that have being lying around for years now.
   e. then you went and forked the music jukebox library you used on Github
4. You hate doing the hard stuff.
   a. It makes you really uncomfortable
   b. It makes you want to take breaks
   c. You keep switching to obssessively checking all your feeds.¹
   d. You then find something that you just have to learn more about and that leads you into another rabbit hole.
   e. Besides you’re a completionist. All those tabs and notes to self, just have to be read and squirreled away
5. All of this is taking time away from stuff you really have to do considering your age.
   a. You hardly get time to exercise. Yes life is busy, but you don’t have to make it worse.
   b. The career pivot is going slower due to this.
   c. You don’t have time to execute your diet.

Here’s a few things you could do …

1. Remember, this is only during your deep work hours. We need to make the most of them. Go nuts when you aren’t working.²
2. Figure out what your process is. I realise you’re a pantser, but a little bit of outlining will do you no harm. You already have a running list of topics to prevent writer’s block and time waste. You’ve already lowered the bar, to become more consistent. So see what else, you do in your writing process that takes the longest. In fact, what do you do? Will recording yourself help?
3. (Added, 2024-02-18,) Don’t check your feeds in the mornings. This one’s a huge timesink. You find issues that interest you. Then you go to find someone who speaks with a nuanced voice. Nuanced voices are rare. They’re hard to find! And if you decide to listen to Munger, and go do the work to have an opinion, by trying to find an opposing nuanced voice? That’ll take you even longer. Just STOP! Now is not the time to get better informed. Do it later.
4. Start clocking times with Org. You want to get a better idea of where the time goes.
   Don’t spend too long reading the manual. Just figure out how to clock in, clock out, get a summary
5. Set a time block? Posts just have to be published once you hit a hundred words or a hour, whichever is longer? If you still want to continue, do it the next day. The posts could be part one / two / three / blah?
6. IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE PERFECT! Be ok with “mediocre”, unstructured posts. This phase will not last long.
7. Don’t let this take over your life. You already have one vice.

The most important thing though? Kudos to you!
The meditation practice is really paying off in spades. You notice things. And you try and do something about it. You don’t let it bother your present. Most importantly, you don’t let it devolve into self loathing. You’re a lot less stressed, a lot more peaceful and a lot more resilient than you used to be.

Update: The planet strips video embeds.
So, please read it on the blog to get the right flow.
Links to the videos also at end of post if you do not wish to leave the planet window

Mamata Venkat¹ set out to be a doctor (her passion; or so she thought), started out as pre-med and got halfway through her freshman year (first year) of college before she realised medicine wasn’t for her. She went on to switch majors about four times before finally landing on international studies and eventually choosing public health.

She’d struggle with self-confidence, set high standards for herself and then be crushed when she failed to reach them. She felt like she wasn’t doing what she was supposed to be, with her life.

Daily life was a blur, an unfocused haze. In her words …

I would get to class and it’d be fine and then about halfway through class, I’d keep thinking about the video I watched that morning.

And there’d be so much chaos coming around me, and in me because of my thoughts and all these distractions, that I’d come home and feel frustrated and let out that frustration of my family members.
Because I didn’t know what to do with it.

I start my homework and feel frustrated because i wasn’t understanding the concepts …

So how did she turn it all around? What did she do?

Exactly, what I’m about to tell you to do, right now.

• Take a few quick, but deep breaths. (deeeeep … from your tummy)

• Count to 5.

• Take a few more deep ones. (Breathe. Really breathe.)
  

• Now, start counting your breaths.

• Breathe in (1)

• Breathe out (2)

• Breathe in (3)

• Are you thinking of food? or what to do next?
  Just come back to the breath.

• Breathe out (4)

• Breathe in (5)

• Breathe out (6)

• Mind flitting somewhere?
  Gently, back to the breath.

• Breathe in (7)

• Breathe out (8)

• Breathe in (9)

• Breathe out (10)

There you go.
You just meditated! So did Mamata.

This is all you do. This, in effect, is the practice.

• Focus on your breath.
  Focus only on your breath.
• Bring your mind back gently if your attention drifts.

Stick with it daily. Increase your mental endurance slowly, a minute, two minutes, five minutes at a time, until you can do ten comfortably, twice a day.

Andy Puddicombe has a marvelous video on the whys and the wherefores of meditation. Give it a look see, and I’ll meet you below the video.

I’ve been reading Tools of Titans, where Tim Ferriss distills knowledge & tactics from his various two–three hour long podcast episodes with achievers.

The number one tool or life habit they use? – Meditation

• Arnold Schwarzenegger, action star, meditates.
• Tony Robbins, self help guru par excellence, meditates.
• Chase Jarvis, ace photograpger, meditates.
• Ed Catmull, animation genius, President of Pixar, meditates.
• John Favreau, Monica’s boyfriend, Iron Man director, meditates.
• Heck, even Matt Mullenweg, founder of Wordpress, meditates.

So I got you convinced? Are you raring to go? How do you meditate? Need help? The simplest thing to do, would be to get the Headspace or Calm apps and just use their free packs. Or do what Maria Popova does and just stick to one guided meditation daily.

And what happened to Mamata? A look at her AngelList bio, speaks volumes.

Here’s Mamata again

… to me true success is being able to learn about myself more and more every single day with my meditation practice and using that and expressing it in any situation that I’m put in.

Thank you

I leave you with Mamata, expressing her journey with meditation in her own words.

I hope, this post inspires you to, too!

• Andy Puddicombe’s video.
• Mamata Venkat’s video.