My productivity plan for July to September of 2024

This is the third edition of my productive plan . The last three went alright, I pretty much stuck to the plan, but wasn't as productive as I'd hoped. I have some very busy months ahead, which will be dominated by working and working and working out. The general gist of the plan is staying the same, but I have changed some details.
This is the third edition of my productive plan . The last three went alright, I pretty much stuck to the plan, but wasn't as productive as I'd hoped. I have some very busy months ahead, which will be dominated by working and working and working out. The general gist of the plan is staying the same, but I have changed some details.

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, from 22:00 for my smartphone and from 22:30 for my laptop, 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.
Changed from 22:00 to 22:30 for my laptop to give myself more time for work.

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.
Nothing changed

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. Once a month, I can choose one day (Saturday or Sunday) where the rules in this section don't apply. On the day before the chosen day, I have to make a plan at what times the rules don't apply and post it here. Alternatively, I can choose both days, but am only in windows that are 3 hours long max.
Changed from once a week to once a month. If that doesn't go well, I can go back to once a week for 100€.

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.
Nothing changed.

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).
Nothing changed.

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€.
Nothing changed.

Music
No rules

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.
This worked well, no changes here.

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.
No changes.

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 have to set fines for individual experiments before starting them. 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:
April: One long walk (3+ hours) each week. 20€ for every week I don't do it.
May: Something related to air quality. 50€ if I don't start collecting data by May 1st.
June (second half): Dual N-Back (5€ for every day I don't do it.)
I need to focus on work, no rules here.

Distracted eating
No rules.

Beginning and end
This plan goes into effect on the second of July 2024 and ends on the 30st of September. Before the second week of October, 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.

Miscellaneous rules
I tend to get hyperactive sometimes and jump around my room. I want to channel my energy into more productive outlets. Ever time I do that, i have to donate 10€.

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 down here.

For the whole of September (from On being boring)

On the 21.09, I can browse distracting websites. Before I am allowed to do so, I have to do the following things

Broken Rules

12.07.2024: Used the internet too late -> 50€
13.07-21.07: Was travelling and broke many rules -> 250€
30.08-01.09: Was travelling and broke many rules -> 250€ (this starts to hurt)
08.09: Jumped around -> 20€
September: Because of an unexpected paper deadline, I broke many of the temporary rules, I had set myself or September. I couldn't really have anticipated this, so I only have to pay 100€.

Schaffe, schaffe, Häusle baue