More on Modified Navy Showers

I have been sticking with modified navy showers for months now.  I do not know how well the practice will hold up in winter, though.

I really like taking most of my showers this way, particularly when I have productive work to do.  For one, it's quicker, so I can get back to work.  For another, by being cold water, I am given a jolt that puts me in a better mental work space for about two hours.

To my subjective experience, it has about the same effect as 30 minute walk in terms of getting me ready for more work, but it is at least 25 minutes quicker (with the set up, clean up, getting dresses, etc.  The actual shower is almost certainly less than 1 minute 30 seconds).

In fact, often I actively seek out a modified navy shower when I am starting to feel a little sluggish.

Free Hobby: Backgammon

After my incredibly epic Royal Flush challenge, and the subsequent break from poker, the game has lost a bit of its luster. Enter backgammon back into my life, particularly the amazing, awe-inspiring, free-ware GNUBackgammon.

If nothing else, playing a lot of backgammon helps me to achieve my life goals because it costs nothing. I'm all about improved quality of life for free. But more than that, GNU backgammon is like a having a world-class player teaching you the ins and outs of a game that seems simple on the surface but hides a vast complexity. Also, it's a very clear teaching device. One of the truly most enjoyable experiences in my life was getting back into programming using python's GUI – IDLE. I was able to make lots of quick, safe mistakes and they were all clearly, logically pointed out. It was an ideal learning environment (yes, IDLE was ideal).  I'm in this experience because I love to learn, and be able to see my progress in clear-cut systems.  (This is why I now know I can enjoy free times, and will even one day enjoy retirement -- though I may always call it self-employment).

Furthermore, GNU backgammon is a classy opponent who plays quickly and never complains either about my stupidity or my good luck. In poker, on the other hand, I am often bored after folding a huge portion of my hands and left waiting for people to play.   Also I deal with some ill-will and "verbal" abuse (typed abuse?) from time to time.

Beginning Toward Squat Goal: Grease the Groove

I'm hungry to achieve my goals.  So the next one I am going to tackle is the 200 squat challenge.  I'm a long way away, but that's okay -- because now I've started.

My technique is "greasing the groove" which is about getting a lot of "practice" in an exercise instead of training to failure (or near failure) to try to get the muscle to grow.  Instead of working out hard and then needing to take several days off to heal,  I can do the exercise a lot, well below fatigue, and do this day after day, maybe even 5 days in a row, and take the weekend off.  And that's great, because it fits into my schedule and requires no equipment.

Here's an explanation of why greasing the groove works:



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This is just a completely different way of looking at working out.  In fact, it's not working out; it's practice.  You practice the skill of strength.  Today, I did 6 sets of 5. A very light beginning, sure, but I am already slightly sore, so I will take a day off before tackling more greasing the groove.

Procrastination Chronicles #3: Dealing with a Bunch of Crap

On the path to greatness, there will be 100 overcomings.

I will chronicle my attempts to overcome procrastination.  My technique is to start small, really small.

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The cat-box got out of control.  So . .. I had a lot of crap to deal with.  (Ha ha.  I kill me.)

Anyway, it still holds true that once started, a task is 95% finished, but starting here was more problematic than usual. . .  It had become a gross problem, okay? Okay!?!

So I was procrastinating even the tiniest step of starting.  So . . . I got some music, and started playing it.  Common sense, sure, but the key is to make it a systematic go-to step every time.

I am reminded of this "Big Think" video on procrastination.



I want to elaborate some here.  You shouldn't reward yourself after you do something.  If you do that, you risk destroying any motivation to do it at all.  This has been demonstrated in psychological literature, which is summarized in Alfie Kohn's book Punished by Rewards.  Instead, use something you enjoy to help you get started.  That way you can associate the beginning of the task with something you enjoy.  I call this "pre-warding" myself.

The difference is subtle, but important.  So instead of rewarding yourself, I'd say the mind hack is to associate good beginnings with things you like already.  You can probably make it even better by only giving yourself that thing you like (such as a certain song) when you are trying to use it as a momentum builder.  However, that might require more self-discipline and thus fail.  Experiment.

Update: I now pretty much only listen to music as a "momentum builder," or maybe "starter fluid,." if you will.  But that fits into a life that alternates between weeks of putting a lot of hours and now giving myself quite a bit of quiet reflection time, and long-hand writing as my main hobby.  I'm not judging if this mix doesn't work for others.  Experiment.

Spin-Off Goal: One-Hand Push Up

Today is the first Sunday in 3 months that I have not done weight training.  Next week, I begin just focusing one one-set for maintaining strength.  I'll do that for 3 weeks, and then get back to my favorite protocol: Escalating Density Training.

As part of that I want to move through the convict conditioning chest exercises with the ultimate goal of doing some one-hand push ups.  

I don't intend on this becoming my regular chest exercise, but want the novelty of showing off from time to time, even if it is just for myself.  

After hitting the one-hand push up challenge, I'll probably just circle back and do uneven push-ups as my default (and free) chest exercise:

Closing the Royal Flush Saga

I took to the path of playing the solitaire game Poker Squares (Shuffle variant) and it was everything I thought it could be.

After getting a Royal Flush in hearts, I got one in spades, one in spades again, and then I finally got a Royal Flush in diamonds, making it so that I have had a Royal Flush in all four suits.

The only thing that was left was getting a Royal Flush with real cards.  So after playing for a few hands of Poker Solitaire every night for a while, I am happy to say that clubs are my lucky suit:

In fact the total hand that I was able to make was a thing of beauty: 

Each row and column makes a hand that scores points.  This is very rare and lucky in Poker Squares.  The score for all of this, by my reckoning, is 277 points,  a higher score than I have ever scored on the ap.