the most effective way I stop myself from snoozing, a real problem given my subconscious’ impressive snooze auto-pilot, is to simply place the phone in a position that forces me to get out of bed. even better if it’s close to the curtains so that I can yank them open, ensuring my circadian rhythm finds its footing with daylight. the least effective way is to berate my lack of discipline/willpower.

the best way I’ve found to be able to remember to deal with the barrage of founder tasks is to let them go – safely into the embrace of a to-do list. off-loading from my fickle carbon RAM to trusty silicon not only grants reliability, it frees precious neural estate for things that matter more and i actually relish - creative riffing, strategic problem-solving and tactical riposte. post-its too, do not underestimate the power of a stack of post-its and a pen near the shower.

i turned off notifications for every app on my phone except mygate. no social apps feature on my homescreen, i must type them out to enter their supersensoriums.

i just bought a 2l water bottle to replace my 750ml one. i have multiple laptop chargers, one at every desk i work at, but none at the bedside table. my workout clothes always hang on a hook on my bedroom door. my running shoes have socks already in them. our kitchen is semi-optimized for protein smoothies. i keep a meditation cushion next to my bed that i can’t help but look at it everyday and scatter books around like grain, near the toilet, bedside, coffee table, shelves.

the jury is out on how much the latter two have really helped, sitting and reading have yet to turn the tide against scrolling, even despite the dearth of apps. the brain finds a way to hunt down its dopamine, even if it entails substack, slack, or email. but in the epic battle of the individual against the legion of highly skilled engineers tuning sophisticated algorithms that fire-hose you with the world’s happenings, you take what wins you can get.

fuck willpower. discipline is overated. you don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. your habits are your embodied systems and they are stronger than your insights. and your habits are attractor-states borne from your affordances, objects of perception that contain the possibilities of action in the environment

you are the sum of your affordances

Atractor and limit cycle From Walter Freeman’s How Brains Make Up Their Minds

see also A no-nonsense time-tested guide to having solid days