📱🪥 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…