My productivity plan for April to June of 2024

Three months ago, I published My productivity plan for the next three months. It was a big success.
These were easily my most productive, healthy and happy months in a while. I mainly credit the Sleeping enough section with this, I really woke up on most days full of energy and rarely felt tired. There were a couple of controlled failures, mainly related to being visited by friends and having to prepare a presentation for the next day which caused me to break some of the rules I had set for myself. Nevertheless, I always got back on track. I am also feeling remarkably well and sharp. I attribute this mainly to fact that I have almost completely quit alcohol. In January, I went out drinking with an old friend and really noticed that my cognition seemed to have been impacted for 3-4 days.

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.
I had a couple of failures where I had to finish something for work and broke the 22:00 rule. The rule violations were quite expensive and I had originally planned to reduce the fines a bit (at least until midnight). However, now that I think about this, these are purely planning failures and the fines are that high for a reason.

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.
I would have worked more if I had set myself a fixed schedule, but the last time I tried this it failed spectacularly, no changes 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. Every weekend, 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.
This worked quite well. The only thing that bothered me is that on most Saturdays I just went to the gym and then spent the rest of the day on the internet. This is not totally a bad thing, I noticed that this really helped me take my mind of work and was weirdly therapeutic. Still, a whole day is a lot and so, from now on, I have to make a plan beforehand at what times the rules don't apply (It can be the whole day). On many weekends, I spent Sunday travelling and wasn't productive anyway, so I lost two days in a row then. In order to mitigate this, I can now choose which day I want to waste, so I can try to maintain productivity on the other one.
The fine for phone usage before 12 was very annoying and not particularly useful (I think), so it is cancelled.

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).
It is really spectacular, how much coffee can increase my productivity. I will try to drink it more regularly.

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€.
This went really well, no changes.

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.
This was probably the most annoying rule. I have the misfortune of being a large office that can get quite loud at times, making it hard to focus. I think I will have an easier time being productive with more intense music playing in the background. So, all the rules here are cancelled.

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.
As expected, I didn't get a lot of writing done. Still, 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.)
The January experiment was a full success, I really learned a lot about what and how much I put into my body. The next two months didn't work so well, I think the experiments I chose were just kind of boring. The fixed fines were too rigid. Instead I am assigning fines based on the experiments. I still have to preplan an experiment for every month.

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€.
I switched to YouTube, which is probably worse than Netflix. This section is cancelled.

Beginning and end
This plan goes into effect on the first of April 2024 and ends on the 30st of June. Before the second week of July, 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 down here.
I didn't add any temporary rules. This time, I will be forced to (as detailed in the Avoiding Distractions section, so I'll see how this goes.

Broken Rules

26.04: Went out partying with friends -> 100€ fine
17.05: Had to urgently reply to some people after 10pm -> 50€
24.05: Had more than 0.5l of beer -> 10€
24.05: Wanted to look something up on the internet -> 20€
26.05: Needed to urgently reply to a message -> 50€

(Paid on 21.07.2024)

Schaffe, schaffe, Häusle baue