Month: July 2019

Another week whipping up meals in a single sitting. Once again, I have nothing to say but good things. To conjure some conflict, the only difficulty I would say I experience would be that the meals seem boring before eating. After I’m done eating, I forget there was any resistance. Keeping things simple has let me stick to a core idea in habit building, least effort.

The Principle of Least Effort

Today was a prime example of why I am loving this trial. Sometime around 4:30 PM, I hit a wall at work and felt unmotivated to do anything with my evening. Friends and I planned on meeting up for trivia, a weekly ritual for almost a year now. I couldn’t imagine getting up from my seat, not alone leaving the house.

Luckily, my body requested a meal. In the past, this may have been a day where I order take out or get delivery. However, knowing I had a ready to go meal meant popping it in the microwave was actually less effort. Similarly to how I wear one outfit, I don’t have to think about what I’m wearing. We’ve all had moments where choosing what or where to eat has taken just as long as eating itself.

Minimizing the effort needed to start an activity is a good way to stick to good habits. Introducing the opposite is a good way to stave off bad ones.

Sticking to Simple…For Now

The only downside I can think of is that my meals have been a bit dull. I shared my menu from last week, and this week the only difference was that I swapped out chicken for fish. Exhilarating stuff, I know!

I wonder if having a couple options would help with this. There is a chance that adding more choices would break the simplicity of it all. More meals means more time to prep, cook, and clean. I might look into some good ways to use the same core recipe to shake things up. Share any suggestions you have in the comments below!

Last Sunday, I made a week’s worth of lunches and dinners. The meals were simple, so they took little time to prepare a single dish vs many. Doing this has saved me a considerable amount of time throughout the week. I’m looking forward to continuing and improving the process over the next few weeks.

The Menu

In an effort to eat healthier I set up my meals to be full of good foods.

Breakfast didn’t even require any cooking or prep, I simply ate a handful of mixed nuts and a cup of coffee. As someone who isn’t much of a morning person, I like being able to get a bite without any effort.

Lunch turns things up with a giant salad. I mixed up a big pack of spring mix with tomatoes, green peppers, and cucumbers topped with a homemade salad dressing. I added a clove of garlic per part for some extra flavor.

Dinner was definitely the most prep. I made a few cups of white rice, steamed a few bags of frozen veggies, and baked several chicken breasts. Because of how these dishes were prepped, it would have been nearly the same amount of time and effort to make a single plate.

The Advantage

Not having to plan, cook, and clean every meal took a lot off my mind. Being able to grab a bunch of salad or pop a plate in the microwave has sped up the time usually spent around mealtime. With a lot of things going on in my personal life lately, it’s been really nice to get all the thinking done on Sunday.

I hate to say it, but this trial was kind of a flop. Tracking or noticing if I was ever really in focus on something was a complete failure, at least it felt that way. There were definitely some moments I was able to look back and think, “damn I was in the zone there.” One last thing I won’t really be able to measure the impact of in a few weeks is in regards to long term goals.

Focus on Future

Long term focus is definitely something I struggle with. I find myself constantly pursuing something new with the intention to return to the prior interest. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t, but hey maybe I will one of these days.

Last year, I wrote a few posts on essentialism, one of which was literally a brief discussion of stepping away from all my side projects I have going on. I wish I could say I learned my lesson since that time. There’s definitely improvement, but I still find myself trying to pack a few too many things on at once.

Luckily, my most recent project has a very set end date. Over the past few months, I’ve been learning a lot about game development for the Game Maker’s Toolkit 2019 Game Jam. This is an event in which the goal is to make a video game in 48 hours. My goal is really to make something, anything. I’m totally new to this, but have been interested in participating the last few years.

Because of the amount I’ve needed to learn, I’ve really put a lot of other things on hold. Sure a few things slide into my inbox here and there, but I’ve been able to keep a surprising focus on the game jam.

The Daily Grind

Throughout the trial, I’ve made note of the things that lead to a loss of focus, and and taking steps to mitigate that. For example, I struggle with work sometimes if I’m sitting in silence. I started just putting some music on to get out of that silence. Here are a couple of my go to choices:

• Timecop 1983
• Eighth Grade Motion Picture Score by Anna Meridith

Something else that may have helped recently is setting some time in the day to let distractions reign. Going for walks, I let my brain jump around from thought to thought off the leash. Afterward, it tends to be easier to sit down on something.

In the end, tracking focus kind of seems like an oxymoron to me. If you’re focusing on something, but have to track that you’re focusing, you end up losing focus. Of course the intention to track would be a hindsight thing, but then you have to remember and all that. All in all, I don’t regret this trial, as there are some benefits, but it didn’t quite turn out as expected.

With this one behind me I’m gonna shift my focus from my mind to my stomach. For a while I’ve wanted to try doing larger meal prep days, and am going to try starting this week. My initial plan is going to be preparing all my meals Monday to Friday on Sundays, but might adjust as time goes on.

This week has definitely been an improvement in general. When starting, it was difficult to sit still for what seemed like minutes. In the past few days, I was able to lock down and get through a number of problems that arose.

Finding Time to Wander Again

A habit I’ve started building again is one I’ve mentioned before, late night walks. Taking the time to just allow my mind to wander helps to release all the pent up stuff that builds over time. Without all that junk flying around my head, it’s a lot easier to focus on the task at hand.

Recently, I’ve made sure to make time not just at night, but during the day too. During my lunch hour, I’ve started walking more to help with my attention during work, where it’s critical.

NO-tifications

Another practice I’m putting in more lately is reducing push notifications to only the things I find to be important.

A few years ago, I accidentally turned off email notifications on my cell phone, and it was a godsend. At the time, I was getting a few emails an hour and my phone would bug me constantly. On a related note, unsubscribing from unwanted emails is a satisfying feel.

Notifications don’t only apply to cell phones either. Just earlier today, I turned off all app notifications on my computer and no longer seeing the little popup window every so-often helped me to focus on the task at hand. Extremely beneficial considering it is also the computer used for work.

This week was a step up from the last. Improvement is still needed, but I’m finding opportunities in the day to put everything aside and tackle one problem in front of me. As I write this, fireworks are blasting off around the neighborhood. I even tried using a practice I’ve done in the past, but to my surprise, it may have been more of a hindrance than a help.

Finding Flow

There is definitely something satisfying about losing yourself in a problem and ignoring everything until a certain milestone is met. That flow state of getting things done is something I’m sure many of us, if not everyone is familiar. Whether it’s a task at work or school, getting in the zone in a sport, or getting locked in and powering through some chores, flow can hit in different ways at different times.

Often the hardest part of getting into a problem is a solid start. Sure, sometimes it’s chipping away at something tiny bit by bit. To get into flow though, it takes a good jumping off point to actually get into the deep state of mind.

Tools of the Trade

A method I’ve used before, and seen success with, is called Pomodoro. While it may be the Italian word for tomato, we’re not making pasta sauce here. The idea is to separate states of work into a 25 minute focus period and then a 5 minute break.

The thinking behind this method is that after 25 minutes of focused work, there is a good chance you’ll get lost in the problem, enter a flow state, and only really take the break when needed.

In an attempt to get myself locked into some work, I busted out my timer. Unfortunately, I found myself using the timer as another distraction. Frequently checking how much time I had left before my break was what I filled my “focused work” time with. Of course, ideally the timer would be completely ignored until it went off.

In the last couple days, I’ve felt a better head on my shoulders. I’m hoping to try out a few pomodoro sessions again this coming week, and looking to be more successful this time. Are there any tools or practices you use to stay focused? Let me know in the comments! I’ll give them a try and feature them in next week’s post.