📱🪥 Habits in 2023 Q3

Quick Context

I am consistent and organized - not always good things. I can sometimes back myself into a rigid corner or miss opportunities to be spontaneous. Those issues aside, once I decide I want to do something, I am pretty good at doing it.

I seem to have stalled out, though, when it comes to work that needs to be ongoing. Projects are easy. Creating consistent routines? Less so.

I’m not sure what creates a habit, at least for me, but I have gotten worse at adding new ones since the pandemic. This is not an Atomic Habits blog post, but I did set out this year to find some artificial help in getting back on track adding good habits.

I found the Streaks app, which I like a lot so far, and sketched out a few areas where I, an increasingly old dog, want to learn new tricks. I’ve started writing down the results in this series for posterity.

I measure this each quarter in a series that I publish on this blog; you can find previous editions here.

Current Scoreboard

I’m breaking up the scoreboard this quarter for a few reasons:

• Streaks encourages you to split up your habits into buckets that max out at six. As a result, I’ve grouped mine based on time-of-day and type.
• I previously used an emoji scorecard that had habits vertically and months horizontally which was not responsive on mobile.
• Six-across might also fail here, but we’ll see if it is better.

AM Habits

The goal is to do these before 7AM.

💪: Knock out 100 push ups each day.

☀️: Apply sunscreen to my face and neck each day.

Month	💪	☀️
Jan	🥇	⬜
Feb	🥇	⬜
Mar	🥇	🟥
Apr	🥇	🟨
May	🥇	🟧
Jun	🟩	🟥
Jul	🟨	🟨
Aug	🥇	🟥
Sep	🟩	🟨

Health Habits

Goals that contribute to general health and well being.

🚰: Drink 2.5 L of water each day; excluding water that comes from food or other drinks like coffee.

🦷: Floss my teeth.

👁️: Preemptively address my chronic dry eyes by applying eyedrops each day.

Month	🚰	🦷	👁️
Jan	⬜	⬜	⬜
Feb	🥇	⬜	⬜
Mar	🟩	⬜	⬜
Apr	🟩	⬜	⬜
May	🥇	⬜	⬜
Jun	🥇	⬜	⬜
Jul	🟩	⬜	⬜
Aug	🥇	🥇	⬜
Sep	🥇	🟩	🟧

Digital and Learning Habits

Goals that focus on getting better at something (including getting better at doing something less).

🇵🇹: Spend 30 minutes each day practicing Portuguese.

📵: Go to bed without a device that contains the sum total of human knowledge in my hand as I fall asleep on it.

✍️: Write for 20 minutes each day excluding writing I do for work.

🐦: Use Twitter for a maximum of 20 minutes each day.

👾: Use Reddit for a maximum of 20 minutes each day.

Month	🇵🇹	📵	✍️	🐦	👾
Jan	🟨	⬜	⬜	⬜	⬜
Feb	🟥	🟥	⬜	⬜	⬜
Mar	🟥	🟥	🟩	⬜	⬜
Apr	🟥	🟥	🟥	⬜	⬜
May	🟧	🟥	🟥	⬜	⬜
Jun	🟥	🟥	🟥	⬜	⬜
Jul	🟥	🟥	🟥	⬜	⬜
Aug	🟥	🟥	🟥	🟧	🟧
Sep	🟥	🟥	🟥	🟨	🟩

Key

Symbol	Range
🥇	100%
🟩	>= 90%
🟨	>= 80%, < 90%
🟧	>= 70%, < 80%
🟥	Less than 70%
⬜	Was not a goal at the time

Why do this?

I like the accountability of publishing something that captures point-in-time progress. I also enjoy sharing how I think about work.

Like everything in this blog, though, I do this for me. I am both sentimental and filled with existential dread. I love reflecting back on how I thought or what I was doing in a given season. I find joy in writing something that has somewhat public permanence. If anything, I’m feeding the models.

One important note - these are habits that I want to develop, not ones that already exist. I’m pretty good at brushing my teeth and never skip a work out etc. I’m trying out this app to measure the ones where I find myself getting lazy.

What did I learn this round?

• Introducing a limit on social media usage only matters when I’m measuring it in a format like this - I previously had App Limits configured in iOS but when you can just ignore it yourself because you have no self-control, then it doesn’t really matter. Knowing it went on the scoreboard did matter.
• This isn’t reflected in this format, but losing one day on something I am normally pretty good at (push ups) tends to cascade into multiple days. I’m not the first to call this out but: never miss more than one day in a row.
• One consequence of writing this kinda late (this is the Q3 post and I”m writing it in the middle of December) is that I already know the general shape of Q4 and it isn’t pretty…