Taking a walk is the single most important thing. It is really helpful for helping me think. My life magically reassembles itself when I reflect. I notice all the things that I know are good to do but fail to do.
In the past, I noticed that forcing myself to think about my research was counterproductive and devised other strategies for making me think about it, that actually worked, in 15 minutes.
The obvious things just work. Name you just fill your brain with all the research’s current state. What did you think about yesterday? Just remember. Just explain it to yourself. With the context loaded the thoughts you want to have will come unbidden. Even when your walk is over you retain this context. Doing more research is natural now.
There were many other things I figured out during the walk, like the importance of structuring my research workflow, how meditation can help me, what the current bottleneck in my research is, and more.
It’s proven tried and true. So it’s ridiculous that so far I have not managed to can’t notice its power. Of all the things that I do in a day, I thought this was one of the least important. But I was so wrong.
I also like talking to IA out loud during the walk. It’s really fun and helpful. Talking out loud is helpful for me to build a better understanding, and IA often has good suggestions.
So how do we do this? How can we never forget to take a 30-minute walk in the sun? We make this song, and then go on:
and on and on and on.
We can also list other advantages to a walk, to make our brain remember this:
If you do it in the morning you get some sunlight which tells your brain to wake up. It’s very effective.
Taking a walk takes you away from your computer. It’s much harder for NixOS to eat you.
It’s easy for me to talk to IA out loud when I am in a forest where nobody can hear me. The interaction is just better there. I hope to one day carry through my fearlessness from the walk to the rest of my life.
With that now said, let’s talk about, how to never forget to take your daily work now:
Step 1: Set an alarm for the morning.
Step 2: Set the alarm tone for this song.
Step 3: Make the alarm snooze for 30 minutes after the song has played.
Step 4: Make the alarm only dismissable with solving a puzzle.
Step 5: Only ever dismiss the alarm after you already left the house for the walk.
Step 6: Always have an umbrella for when it is rainy, and have an alternative route without muddy roads.
I rly like the idea of making songs to powerfwly remind urself abt things. TODO.
Step 1: Set an alarm for the morning. Step 2: Set the alarm tone for this song. Step 3: Make the alarm snooze for 30 minutes after the song has played. Step 4: Make the alarm only dismissable with solving a puzzle. Step 5: Only ever dismiss the alarm after you already left the house for the walk. Step 6: Always have an umbrella for when it is rainy, and have an alternative route without muddy roads.
I currently (until I get around to making a better system...) have an AI voice say reminders to myself based on calendar events I’ve set up to repeat every day (or any period I’ve defined). The event description is JSON, and if ‘”prompt”: “Time to take a walk!”’ is nonempty, the voice says what’s in the prompt.
I don’t have any routines that are too forcefwl (like “only dismissable with solving a puzzle”), because I want to minimize whip and maximize carrot. If I can only do what’s good bc I force myself to do it, it’s much less effective compared to if I just *want* to do what’s good all the time.
...But whip can often be effective, so I don’t recommend never using it. I’m just especially weak to it, due to not having much social backup-motivation, and a heavy tendency to fall into deep depressive equilibria.
Take a Walk
[Suno Version]
Taking a walk is the single most important thing. It is really helpful for helping me think. My life magically reassembles itself when I reflect. I notice all the things that I know are good to do but fail to do.
In the past, I noticed that forcing myself to think about my research was counterproductive and devised other strategies for making me think about it, that actually worked, in 15 minutes.
The obvious things just work. Name you just fill your brain with all the research’s current state. What did you think about yesterday? Just remember. Just explain it to yourself. With the context loaded the thoughts you want to have will come unbidden. Even when your walk is over you retain this context. Doing more research is natural now.
There were many other things I figured out during the walk, like the importance of structuring my research workflow, how meditation can help me, what the current bottleneck in my research is, and more.
It’s proven tried and true. So it’s ridiculous that so far I have not managed to can’t notice its power. Of all the things that I do in a day, I thought this was one of the least important. But I was so wrong.
I also like talking to IA out loud during the walk. It’s really fun and helpful. Talking out loud is helpful for me to build a better understanding, and IA often has good suggestions.
So how do we do this? How can we never forget to take a 30-minute walk in the sun? We make this song, and then go on:
and on and on and on.
We can also list other advantages to a walk, to make our brain remember this:
If you do it in the morning you get some sunlight which tells your brain to wake up. It’s very effective.
Taking a walk takes you away from your computer. It’s much harder for NixOS to eat you.
It’s easy for me to talk to IA out loud when I am in a forest where nobody can hear me. The interaction is just better there. I hope to one day carry through my fearlessness from the walk to the rest of my life.
With that now said, let’s talk about, how to never forget to take your daily work now:
Step 1: Set an alarm for the morning. Step 2: Set the alarm tone for this song. Step 3: Make the alarm snooze for 30 minutes after the song has played. Step 4: Make the alarm only dismissable with solving a puzzle. Step 5: Only ever dismiss the alarm after you already left the house for the walk. Step 6: Always have an umbrella for when it is rainy, and have an alternative route without muddy roads.
Now may you succeed!
I rly like the idea of making songs to powerfwly remind urself abt things. TODO.
I currently (until I get around to making a better system...) have an AI voice say reminders to myself based on calendar events I’ve set up to repeat every day (or any period I’ve defined). The event description is JSON, and if ‘”prompt”: “Time to take a walk!”’ is nonempty, the voice says what’s in the prompt.
I don’t have any routines that are too forcefwl (like “only dismissable with solving a puzzle”), because I want to minimize whip and maximize carrot. If I can only do what’s good bc I force myself to do it, it’s much less effective compared to if I just *want* to do what’s good all the time.
...But whip can often be effective, so I don’t recommend never using it. I’m just especially weak to it, due to not having much social backup-motivation, and a heavy tendency to fall into deep depressive equilibria.