Day 3- Square One

Yesterday was rough and today I’m playing catchup. I learned a lot and realized I needed some structure to bring some of these elements together and create a Monk Mode experience that made sense and is productive. Yesterday was not productive, but it’s gone and all I’m left with is right now, so here goes.

First, let’s talk about what went well and not so well today.

What went well:

-Meditated, then journaled, and just barely got my steps in (10,000 is a shit-ton of steps)

What didn’t:

-Got out of bed at 6, ate after 1pm, didn’t work out

One thing I want to address if curious minds are interested, is that most people can only take on one or two new habits at a time with any hope for success at maintaining them. I certainly qualify as “most people” The thing here is that most of this stuff like meditation, getting steps in, and intermittent fasting I’ve been doing here and there for a long time, but not with any sort of rhyme or reason or specific intention other than, “It’ll be good for me.”

No more of that silliness.

Before I began this residency, I stumbled across a journaling technique I found quite useful and have been eager to put into practice. this being the first of the month, I sat down and did it. It’s a habit tracker that seems too simplistic to work, the thing I like about it is that it forces me to look at my goals and habits every single morning and be accountable for what I did the day before. AND, it’s already right there in my journal, so it’s really not any extra effort.

The idea will be that once key habits are established and being done consistently, then I can shift to tracking other metrics like body fat, or word count on my next book project, or number of podcasts edited and ready to post.

That’s all good, but where is the structure I was missing yesterday? What’s going to be different tomorrow?

Great question. First, I’m going to go to bed on time tonight and get a solid night’s sleep. Wipe the slate clean.

I work well with a schedule, so here it is.

5am- wake up, get in some steps and do the workout. Doing the hard thing first, because that workout crap is for sure something I’m going to have to change my mindset around. I know this is going to be a big adjustment for me because THE first thing I want to do when getting out of bed is to walk straight into a hot shower. Then I’m all clean and relaxed and useless for working out. No more. Shower now happens at the end of the workout.

6am- Make coffee, meditate, journal, fill out habit tracker, review goals, the day’s todo list and calendar

7am- Get to work! Whatever work is that day, get to it. Take breaks every 45 minutes

10am- Zero Inbox, manage calendar, process misc tasks, review daily goals

11am- Make/ eat meal

12pm- Back to work! Take breaks every 45 min

3pm- Done with work, do home stuff. Run errands, shop, clean, transport G, whatever at that point. If there is extra time here, work on personal goals like weight training.

6pm-Zero inbox, review goals, add items to tomorrow’s todo list

7pm- Get the rest of those steps in if I haven’t yet. Clean house, or just chill.

9pm- wind down, shower, get ready for bed.

10pm- Gotta be in bed