My productivity plan for the next three months

The last couple of weeks have been a bit slow work-wise, which is partly due to having to navigate some bureaucratic hurdles as well as me not giving 100%. This must change. In this essay, I will lay out my plan for how to be productive as well as establish what safeguards to create that keep me on track. These safeguards will mainly be making myself pay money if I break a rule, as this system has served me well in the past. All the donations will have to be made to an effective charity. I am allowed to make changes to the plan and make it stricter (or to correct rules that had unforeseen consequences), but have to record the revisions here.

Sleeping enough
My plan is to go to sleep every day at 22:45 and awake at 6:45, so I can make it to my workplace before 8:00. In the past, I have had trouble waking up on time, mainly because I went to bed too late. As a remedy, I have installed blockers on my laptop and smartphone (Cold Turkey and StayFocused) that prevent me from using my devices every day from 22:00 onwards. On my smartphone, some apps, such as phone (for emergencies) and Maps (for getting home) are exempt from this, but all of my regular communication and entertainment apps are blocked.
After my devices are shut off, I will read or do some cleaning and hopefully natural tiredness will set in.
While the two programs to block my devices work solidly and have served me well in the past, there are still ways to disable them. As a safeguard, if I circumvent these blocks (or use another device), I will have to donate 50€ to an effective charity. Because even a little of bit of light in the bedroom interferes with my sleep quality, I have purchased black-out curtains.

Keeping a schedule
The last time I tried setting a hard rules for how much I have to be at work, I felt overwhelmed and did not take time to rest when I clearly needed it. So, no rules here.

Avoiding distractions
The apps which I have installed to block my devices at night also work to block certain websites entirely. I have programmed in a long list of potentially time-wasting websites. Every time, I circumvent the block, I will have to donate 20€ (for each website individually).
At work, I use a Firefox plugin to block distracting websites (Hacker news, etc.), however, the block is very easy to circumvent. If I ever do so (except when a website was blocked inadvertently), I will also have to donate 20€ (for every day where I disable the block and separately for each individual website).
I will not use my phone (except for allowed things) from 8 in the morning (optimally, the evening before) to at least 12 on workdays. Every time, I do it anyway, I will have to donate 10€.
None of the rules in this section apply on Saturdays.

Notetaking
I will use Obsidian for writing down everything I do at work. Obsidian is a markdown editor that allows the user to link pages internally and create a personal knowledge database. I have learned to love it over the last weeks and plan to do a longer write-up on how to use it, as soon as I have got more experience with it.

Coffee
I have recently gotten used to drinking coffee and feel that it helps me focus a bit, especially on writing tasks. I plan to experiment with various dosages and maybe try out other compounds. I am especially interested in L-theanine (an amino acid extracted from green tea leaves).

Alcohol
Drinking more than 1 or 2 beers will make me wake up feeling groggy and slightly mentally incapacitated the next day. I want to reduce such occasions, but still be able to enjoy having a casual drink. For every session, where I either drink distilled liquors or have more than 1 liter of beer/0.4 liter of wine (beer and wine have to be “added up”), I will donate 50€. When I drink more than 0.5 liter of beer/0.2 liter of wine, I will donate 10€.

Music
I have tried going without any music in the past and found it very annoying. However, I have also noticed that fast-paced beats with vocals distracts me a lot more than calm, instrumental tunes. I will therefore stick to selected songs when I am in the office, upon violation, I have to donate 5€ per hour or part thereof.
The whitelisted songs are:
– The LOTR soundtrack and some related music, which I have already pulled from YouTube
– The lullaby from Pan’s Labyrinth
– Comptine d’un autre été : L’Après-midi
– Noise (of various colors)
I am allowed to add songs.

Working out
I plan to work out two to three times a week. I am not assigning any penalties here for now, because I enjoy it a lot and don’t think I will stop without a good reason.

Writing
I struggle with writing quickly. Instead of being able to create a first draft quickly, I spend to much time mulling over individual words or phrases, which then often leads to mindwandering and procrastination. I will try to write and publish more quickly and with less focus on detail (sorry). However, because I will be pretty busy in the next months, I don’t expect to get too much writing done anyway so no penalities here.

Experiments
At the beginning of every year, I set myself that goal that I will do some form of biohacking/quantified self experiments in the following year. And I never do it. So, this year, I will preplan which experiments I want to do. I am allowed to replace experiments at will if I come up with a better idea, but I am not allowed to skip them. For every day, where I don’t do the experiment, I have to pay 10€. For experiments, which I don’t have to do every day, the penalties get adjusted accordingly (e.g. if I only have to perform an experiment every second day, skipping one day will cost me 20€.). I am allowed to stop/not start an experiment if it turns out there are clear impediments (health concerns, too expensive, etc.)
The experiments planned for the first three months are:
January: Count calories
February: Dual N-back Having a copy of Marc Aurel's Meditations in my office
March: Barefoot shoes Meditating in the office

Distracted eating
Often, when I come home from work, I plan to have a quick dinner and then get some additional work done. This almost never works out, partly because I get distracted by the internet (which I hope to combat with the techniques introduced in the Avoiding distractions section), partly because I start watching something on Netflix, which then drags on. I hope I will be able to replace this habit with listening to podcasts. So, in the next three months, I am not allowed to watch Netflix alone. Every time I fail, I have to donate 25€.

Beginning and end
This plan goes into effect on the second of January 2024 and ends on the 31st of March. Before the second week of April, I need to post a new plan on this website (or an explanation why it would make sense not to). For every day, I delay posting the plan, I need to donate 10€. I also have to publish how often I broke rules.

Temporary rules
I want to play around with some short-term commitments as well (such as complete task X until day Y or not touch my phones for 3 days). These, I note done here.

Schaffe, schaffe, Häusle baue

Rules broken
6.& 7. January: Got a visit from a friend that is costing me 110€.
12.January: Stayed up too late -> 50€
22.January: Stayed up too late again -> 50€
11.& 12. February: Stayed up too late because of work -> 100€
10.March: Listened to music at work -> 5€
28.30: Unblocked to use Reddit to read up on which shoes to buy -> 20€

(Paid on 21.07.2024)