Physiological Debugging

A quick checklist¹ of things I need to check more often, because when everything feels like garbage it's often my fault.

These are not baselines for healthy, these are baselines to not feel like garbage.

These are for the days when everything is too busy and the only thing the mind will consider is getting more done right now. So a reminder, even if there is entirely too much to do, not hitting these is just inefficient.

I like finding productive sounding excuses to take care of myself.

Water

Drank water in the last 8 hours?

I hope this one is obvious.

By the way, if the water cup is empty, refill it regardless of thirst. I have a terrible habit of picking up an empty cup, attempting to drink in the middle of something, it being empty, not wanting to get up to refill it, putting it down, and doing the dance again 20 minutes later.

Just refill the cup.

Food

Ate real food in the last 16 hours?

The definition of "real food" varies, but for me it usually means it has to be more substantial than instant ramen (instant ramen properly cooked with fresh veggies just barely counts) and at least as much food in volume.

16 hours since eating schedules are weird when accounting for sleep. Again, this checklist is for not feeling like garbage, not for health.

Rest

7 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours?

This is probably the most personal number on the list so if you aren't doing any form of sleep tracking I wouldn't trust it much. Anything more substantial than "I slept too little today and feel bad" will do.

I thought my trigger was 6 hours, it's actually less than 7 hours for three days straight. Which is very good to know when desperately time blocking until I have to leave in the morning. I've simplified to 7 in the last 24 because rolling totals are too much for a quick checklist.

Movement

Been somewhere else since sleeping?

This one isn't fixed to a relative time because I feel like the benefits of movement fade after sleeping. It's mentally refreshing to know I've been somewhere today. That could be down the street or a half hour walk, doesn't matter.

Hygiene

Bathroom in the last 8 hours? Brushed teeth in the last 24 hours? Showered in the last 72 hours?

Again, absolute bare minimums. 72 hours is when I consistently start to physically feel like I need a shower, regardless of when I should actually shower.

Head

Have you been writing things down?

When there's too much work it's easy to panic and try to hold it all mentally.

I need to stop doing that.

This checklist is one attempt, but I'm primarily referring to temporary running task lists. It's so difficult to focus on all the things I need to do right now when I can't stop remembering all the things I should be doing right now.

Space

Cleanup for a few minutes.

This isn't a check at all, just do it. Everything is always a bit messy and that's fine, but the process of cleaning it up is always beneficial. There's always a few minutes of dead time anyway.

It all gets done in the end

So take a moment to breathe...

- Rew

Nightly Notes

At this point I should stop expecting myself to write in a consistent format. I should have written this down a while ago.

But hey, the weekend is here! We made it.

Speaking of milestones, this is the 10th post. Long enough I've started treating this like a habit instead of a novelty. I've never written this consistently before, about 7k words total across the 10.

I haven't decided if I want to do things for milestones yet, I think it could be nice to do something at the start of the month or something. Break up the cycle of daily posts.

Actually, let me make a commitment right now.

If I make it to the end of the year, I'll finish by explaining the homepage. I mostly wrote it on a whim, but there's actual reasoning somewhere in there, I think that would be a fun way to wrap the year.

Other things I've noticed?

I would benefit from more editing passes. Word count and editing has been dropping since the first few, which makes sense. The way I phrase sentences is more distinct that I was aware of. Topics are abundant, now that I have a reason to look for them I'm noticing them all over the place in everyday life.

Oh, analytics.

I was posting this publicly after all.

I have no idea if this makes any sense to share and people seem to be a bit taboo about sharing analytics in any media space, but I don't see why not. It's part of process too.

The first two posts got about 800 views from Hacker News on the first day, then tailed off into ~200 a day for a week. Besides that, posts have been pulling a couple views a day. Homepage is variable in the low tens, rss feed is half a dozen views a day.

I think someone's actually reading every single one of these? Maybe it's a scraper, or maybe people reading through rss don't show in the analytics, I'm not sure.

If you are real, hi there.

There's nothing actionable to take from that information, or rather, there's nothing I want to change based on other people. Not now, at least. Maybe I'll open up to feedback later, I think that would be a big decision which merits proper consideration.

You can't take that kind of thing back.

The main change I want to make right now is writing longer because I think the fun topics all need more space, but that also entails more editing and I'm still not sure how to make that work with my schedule. Maybe I should be breaking things up into smaller posts instead. I really don't want to do series, I want to keep these standalone. But I don't have time.

Yesterday can attest to that.

Forever forwards,

- Rew