20220421

Hit a new PR while squatting today and I think I could have comfortably done even more. Perhaps I’ll try tomorrow. It’s hard to tell, being an inside observer, if doing this heavy weight lifting routine has change my attitude in any meaningful way and if I am more perseverant with hard activities. I’d like to think that I am, and I think the benefits from feeling physically stronger are very nice. Biking is noticeably easier which I especially appreciate for the hill on my way home.

One mundane daily thing that I’m trying to improve is better use of my idle time. I’m reading quite a few books/articles at the moment, but I haven’t made it super easy to jump into one with this idle time. The main reason behind this is that there is too much friction to open one of the books or articles as it feels psychologically easier to read some news or something open a messenger app and talk to someone. I’m trying to think of what systems would help make this easier. In a fixed environment I was thinking that printed articles pinned to a board would be nice as they would be clearly visible to give you the signal of what it is you are reading/want to read and provide an obvious simple physical action to start reading them. I’m not sure what a good thing to do for a book would be, and the annoying thing about this is that its fixed to a specific location. A step in the right direction at least. Books seem more intimidating to dive into since they’re bigger and it feels like any progress you would make could be more easily made with a longer period of time sitting down with it. This is just a bad mindset around it and I’m just trying to acknowledge it in order to move past it. Points being: I don’t think I use my idle time effectively and I want to read many things so I need to make low friction systems to read during idle time.


Daily Listening

This classic dreamy song from the Cocteau Twins.

Daily Reading

Read a bit out of On The Move. Reading things from people in the medical field can always be a little existential anxiety inducing as they recount stories of people in great health going 0-100 with some health condition and dying shortly after diagnosis. I’m sure these cases are exceedingly rare and stick out in the minds of these people for how traumatic they are, but the reminder that the status quo of our health is not permanent is a hard fact to accept.