EPT1. Manipulating the habitual and ritualistic potential of the Human mind such that my brain pushes me towards productivity rather than fights against me at every turn.
2. Beginning to view my success and achievements based on a weekly, monthly and yearly scale rather than what I can achieve in several hours or less (usually tens of minutes) per day.
I apologize for any obscurities in what I am describing. Before I can explain my methods in detail, I need to prove to myself that they can work (this concept in itself is one of my methods). Also, note that by saying "my methods," I refer to any information that I have absorbed through sources or personal experience. If necessary I'll inform you when it's something I came across through experimentation and practice, but the majority of what I write will have been gleaned from some guru of a particular field.
Procedure:
To be done every day, from July 14th-July 21st:
-Work out at least one muscle group in the body. This could mean as little as performing a quick dynamic tension bicep workout for all I care.
-Perform mindfulness meditation at least 3 minutes. I chose this number as my shortest guided meditation audio is 3 minutes long.
-Play guitar for 10 minutes. Unlike usual, I'll be focusing my efforts on a particular song, uninterrupted for 10 minutes.
-Play piano for 10 minutes. Again, I'll be focusing on learning parts of a particular song rather than messing around with whatever. I may choose to warm up with a few scales however.
-Wash at least 3 dishes before going to bed.
-Put away 3 things before going to bed. My apartment is usually messy and unorganized as I don't generally concern myself with cleaning until I deem it a problem.
By the end of this week, I have the following goals which should be met:
*-Be able to play Fragile, by Sting on the guitar. It doesn't have to sound perfect, I just need to be able to play most of the notes with only a few screw ups.* EDIT: This goal is too ambitious. I'll still be practicing the song, but completion will not be a requirement by the end of the week. I've done very little work on guitar fundamentals and theory, and my practice session has indicated that learning the basics is of much better benefit.
-Be able to play Comptine d'un autre ete by Yann Tiersen, on the piano. It has to not sound terrible.
-As for everything else, simply doing them every day is my criteria for success.
Variables to consider:
-I eat a healthy diet relative to most people. I didn't a few months ago, it's been a recent change.
-I do not have any background in music. Until a few months ago, I told myself that I had no aptitude for music. Aptitude is bullshit and I was lying to myself. I just never practiced.
-I have been working out on and off for many years, and regularly for about seven months. I generally mix and mash Power Lifting/Body Building workouts, or I do calisthenics circuits at a nearby playground.
-I have my sleep schedule more or less reigned in. I don't ever sleep in past 9:30, and I aim for 7-10 hours of sleep, depending on different circumstances.
-I'm currently on call as a fine clothing salesman. I'll be working a couple days during this experiment. Rather than viewing this as a problem, I view it as a challenge.
-Compared to a few months ago, my emotional state is far happier. I've been borderline depressed since I was 12. Through experimentation and practice I've been able to improve my baseline level of happiness.
Final note: In order to avoid potential problems, I'll only be checking/updating this blog after 6pm PST every day. I'm happy to answer peoples questions or listen to any advice, but I won't be monitoring things all day, so please be patient with me.
Day 1:
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Things went smoothly. I read the first half of Tim Ferriss' 4-Hour work week, and got some interesting insights into who he is and his methods. Although I found most of what he wrote quite thought provoking in a good way, he does not strike me as a person who would help others out of anything but money. Regardless, the importance is on whether his information is useful, not where his moral compass lies.
I didn't go much over 10 minutes for piano or guitar, but I still succeeded. The importance here is that I did the deed, any extra time is bonus.
I managed to meditate for a 20 minute session. Much better than 3.
For my workout I did four sets of "dirty thirties" at the playground near my apartment. For this workout, you perform 10 chin ups, 10 dips, and 10 pushups in fairly rapid succession. I took about 3-5 mins of rest between sets, and roughly 30-60 seconds of rest between exercises. I'd like to shorten my rest intervals, but I was still pushing myself hard at the above pace so no need to change it. As I haven't done calisthenics in a while, I didn't complete every rep of every set. Rather, I did as many as I could, then proceeded to do negative repetitions when I was too tired to continue. Checkout "Negative Repetition" on google or youtube to find out what that is if you don't know. Whole workout looked like this:
N - Negative rep
Chin ups:
10
10
8 N2
8 N2
Dips (on parallel pars):
10
10
6 N4
6 N2 (burned out completely. This is not a bad thing, don't treat it as such.)
Pushups (Slight incline to emphasize upper chest):
10
10
10
10
I won't technically know for sure whether I'll clean dishes and put shit away until I go to bed, but I don't think motivating myself will be a problem. That's all for nao.
Day 2:
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Today went similar to yesterday. I studied basic PHP for an hour, then watched more material concerning learning strategies.
Piano went very well. I'm almost able to play the first four staffs at tempo, and my left hand can pretty much play the baseline (I think that's the term, but I may be wrong) through muscle memory. My music reading is getting a bit faster, but a large portion of my frustrations in practice still stem from having to spend so much time translating the notes in my head.
Guitar went okay, but not as well as piano. I managed to play for about 20 minutes of collective time in two 10 minute sessions. I realized that even if I could memorize Fragile, my hands have not had enough time to get used to playing. I'll still work on this song, but I'm also going to find some basic techniques and chords to practice. I'm currently practicing another much easier song, so I may end up working on that primarily. It's a beautiful and simple acoustic piece by this random Estonian band I listen to.
Workout was far lighter than yesterday. I did a couple sets of Frog crunches at a very slow tempo. If you are like me, you need to be careful which ab exercises to perform, and how you perform them. Years of sitting in a chair all day combined thousands of crunches, situps, and leg lifts have given me pretty bad lordosis from tight hip flexors. Essentially, a lot of normal ab workouts also tend to incorporate the hip flexors, leading to their over-development. This leads to an abnormal hip alignment where my ass sticks out. While my friends have remarked that this makes me fairly bootylicious, it's causing problems with many of my lifts. "Frog Crunches" are purported to eliminate or reduce hip flexor involvement, so I'll be doing them to switch things up.
Meditation went well. Did a 12 minute session, felt really great afterwards. Chao
Day 3:
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Today went pretty good as well. I was pretty tired after work, but I still managed to get all of my shit done on the list, and get baked. This shit might actually be working.
Day 4:
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Same shit as others days. This is getting ez pz. I'll write something more interesting for next day.
Day 5:
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Today was slightly interesting. Last day of work, and I was quite tired when I got home.
I played piano for a decent session, and a couple minutes of guitar. Piano is coming along very well, and I'm actually having moments where I really impress myself. I've started following a pattern which seems to work far better than what I normally do. I'll warm up with a few scales (you play a series of notes on the piano, from C to C for example. Depending on the first note you play, you may have to play sharps/flats (black keys) appropriately), then proceed to the piece I'm working on. If I get frustrated, which takes longer to occur now, I just fiddle around with more scales until I try again with the piece or gg for the day. This way I'm never ending the session on a bad note.
Guitar didn't go so well. I found a new practice routine to get better, but it was incredibly boring, and I just wasn't able to spend enough time on it. Still, I picked it up and played a bit.
Meditation went well. I had to spend quite a while rationalizing to myself why I needed to do it, but once I sat down it went well. This is the key behavior that I'm really working on. I trick my mind into doing just a few minutes of said activity, then I do the whole thing.
Workout was meh. I ended up just doing 4x5 sets of pseudo-planch pushups. I felt really tired after the 3rd set, but still did the 4th. It wasn't even to get me sore, mainly because I can't yet perform them with pefect form. You basically have to push up with your hands planted near your waist. It takes a long time to develop the shoulder strength necessary to not fall face first.
Day 6:
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Today was interesting. I got invited to go out sailing with a small crew of 5. It was quite enjoyable, but I now look like rudolph's douchebag red-nose cousin (burnt nose, imprint of sunglasses on my face). I counted the sailing as my workout, because I actually did nearly get a workout in.
Everything except guitar went well. I didn't practice for longer than a couple minutes. I don't feel bad, I clearly see why this is occurring. When I started to practice, all I could think about was playing the piano. I've lost a bit of interest in it after realizing that I need a different practice schedule. I'll do better tomorrow.
Day 7:
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