Recall about two weeks ago I declared I was starting monk mode. Week 1 went about as well as you'd expect for the first week - not terrible, not great.

For week 2 I feel I have either regressed or stalled in many respects. Let's see what's going on.

  • Focus on three main hobbies: reading, writing, programming:
    • Reading: I set up the task scheduler event on my laptop, so that Lord of the Rings opens every day at 4 PM. Slowly getting into the habit.
    • Writing: June is here and with June comes the writing! Last week I said I needed 1,667 words daily. It turns out if I want to reach 50,000 words by the end of the month, I only need 705 words a day. It remains to be seen how much trouble I'll have.
    • Programming: This is coming pretty natural to me. Even the bumpy parts are resolved with just a little pre-planning. I'm already looking forward to my next project.
  • Reading RP literature:
    • Finished Models. If you as me, it references enough concepts from No More Mr. Nice Guy while adding new content that it felt like a natural sequel to NMMNG. The main thrust of Models seem to be "care more about yourself than their opinion and shoot it straight. Forget the fancy stuff, just approach them and shoot it straight. If they like you, they'll tag along." Now reading The Book of Pook.
    • Scattered reading of Rational Male, Return of Kings, and Illimitable Men. I also want to be reading Art of Manliness, but that's a bit less RP-oriented so I haven't. I should maybe come up with a structured reading plan. Each day, read a post or two from one site, the next day read a couple posts from the next in the list, and just cycle through.
  • Cutting out junk social media
    • Back to my old social media habits. Partially it's due to boredom, partially it's due to not really talking to anyone during the week. Since I'm back in my hometown, I have next to no friends around here. We've either grown apart or they have moved away, and I don't have a vehicle. For the boredom I need to add more variety in my life, hopefully finding something that doesn't involve being in front of the computer. For the social aspect, a good idea would be to collect a list of people who I could text with during the week - and actually reach out to them. I just don't like being the one who starts the conversation, but it's detrimental to keep acting that way.
    • Reddit: Have not yet made that multireddit. Wtf.
  • Better eating habits
    • So I told myself I would experiment with a healthier eating system, and then I didn't do it. What the hell. This is inexcusable.
  • Physical activity
    • I told myself I would start walking in the morning. Again, I didn't do it. Again, this is inexcusable.
  • Physical discomfort
    • The thunderstorms around here has been keeping the temperature in the 75-80 range, and humidity has been relatively low. Still a little discomfort, but not much.
    • My sleep habits are really variable. The other night I couldn't get to sleep til about 1 AM. Then last night I was out before midnight. 8:30 AM seems to be my average wake time.
    • Mealtimes are slowly stabilizing. I've noticed that after my 1 PM lunch, I'll get hungry again around 3. Usually I snack there, and then don't get hungry again until around 7.
    • Fapped twice.

Action Items:

  • Commit to the 8:15 AM wake time.
  • There's a podcast I want to listen to during my hourly walks. Start grabbing those and putting them on my phone. It could be handy to write a script in Python that retrieves the right amount of files on Sunday for the week. Also, start putting clothes near where I sleep so that in the morning I can just change into those and get to walking.
  • Implement that damn meal plan, wtf.
  • I am badly in need of a new laptop. The one I have now is just too slow and old to effectively meet my demands. I have a model in mind but I don't have a credit card and I'm very anxious about getting one. So maybe research ways of being able to buy the model I have in mind (or something with similar specs) while also being able to follow the credit card-like system of only paying a certain portion at once.