The cheese, losing things, and new apartment goals seem like they can be solved in whole or part by one-time changes. Alicorn’s suggestion about cheese sounds right, and you should also consider switching to healthier cheeses and avoiding or altering situations where you would snack on cheese. Similarly for losing things, I found that I would lose stuff less often once I had dedicated locations for key items (e.g. keeping my wallet by the door, my cell phone in my jacket pocket), which is also a one-time decision followed by a commitment to sustain the practice.
But you might want to wait on physically organizing your stuff until you get the new place. It seems like the move would unlock a lot of extra time you could use to work on all the other goals. You just have to remember to keep up your momentum once you make the move; for me, there’s always the temptation to give myself a pat on the back and permission to relax for a while after doing something big.
Basically, I’d suggest starting with the improvements that are just about removing obstacles, impediments or distractions (for these, you just need a one-time burst of energy, which even many ordinarily akrasic people can do, I think), then use your extra time & energy to tackle the ones that are about altering existing habits or creating new ones.
What sometimes helps me retain my momentum, after a big improvement like a move, is making sure my internal narrative notices that if I’m not working on something now, when I have momentum and a newfound supply of extra time, then I’m not likely to do so in the future; in other words, the way I spend my time now is not being traded with future time, but is instead representative of future behavior. So in this sense when I start now on one thing, I am inclining my future self to start on the next task.
This was helpful (or at least feels helpful right now, before I’ve actually started doing anything). Making the apartment my first priority is a good idea.
The “losing stuff” doesn’t so much have to do with how things are organized around the house, but how they are organized when I’m in transit. I lost my wallet on the train when I set it down next to me (after showing my train-pass to the conductor) and then forgot to pick it up again when I left. I previously lost a hard drive when I was temporarily living at a friends’ house, and then he moved to a new house and I moved home. So it’s not a single one time change I need to make, it’s some kind of change in the way I keep track of things while I’m going places.
Sounds like the losing stuff is also a goal that requires longer term commitment, and should be tackled later with the other habit goals. I used to lose stuff all the time too, and I’m not sure how I stopped.
It might have something to do with wearing more of my stuff (more pockets, wearable bags, etc), though I am really not sure. But if you are going around with a lot of stuff you have to carry separately, and no or few pockets in your outerwear, you might try a week with wearable storage, and see if that helps noticeably.
The cheese, losing things, and new apartment goals seem like they can be solved in whole or part by one-time changes. Alicorn’s suggestion about cheese sounds right, and you should also consider switching to healthier cheeses and avoiding or altering situations where you would snack on cheese. Similarly for losing things, I found that I would lose stuff less often once I had dedicated locations for key items (e.g. keeping my wallet by the door, my cell phone in my jacket pocket), which is also a one-time decision followed by a commitment to sustain the practice.
But you might want to wait on physically organizing your stuff until you get the new place. It seems like the move would unlock a lot of extra time you could use to work on all the other goals. You just have to remember to keep up your momentum once you make the move; for me, there’s always the temptation to give myself a pat on the back and permission to relax for a while after doing something big.
Basically, I’d suggest starting with the improvements that are just about removing obstacles, impediments or distractions (for these, you just need a one-time burst of energy, which even many ordinarily akrasic people can do, I think), then use your extra time & energy to tackle the ones that are about altering existing habits or creating new ones.
What sometimes helps me retain my momentum, after a big improvement like a move, is making sure my internal narrative notices that if I’m not working on something now, when I have momentum and a newfound supply of extra time, then I’m not likely to do so in the future; in other words, the way I spend my time now is not being traded with future time, but is instead representative of future behavior. So in this sense when I start now on one thing, I am inclining my future self to start on the next task.
This was helpful (or at least feels helpful right now, before I’ve actually started doing anything). Making the apartment my first priority is a good idea.
The “losing stuff” doesn’t so much have to do with how things are organized around the house, but how they are organized when I’m in transit. I lost my wallet on the train when I set it down next to me (after showing my train-pass to the conductor) and then forgot to pick it up again when I left. I previously lost a hard drive when I was temporarily living at a friends’ house, and then he moved to a new house and I moved home. So it’s not a single one time change I need to make, it’s some kind of change in the way I keep track of things while I’m going places.
Glad I could be a little useful.
Sounds like the losing stuff is also a goal that requires longer term commitment, and should be tackled later with the other habit goals. I used to lose stuff all the time too, and I’m not sure how I stopped.
It might have something to do with wearing more of my stuff (more pockets, wearable bags, etc), though I am really not sure. But if you are going around with a lot of stuff you have to carry separately, and no or few pockets in your outerwear, you might try a week with wearable storage, and see if that helps noticeably.