I open my eyes to the sound of my alarm clock ringing, hitting 6:30 AM.
I wash some rice and put it in the rice cooker, put my headphones on and start jogging. I feel the fresh breeze of the crisp, cold morning air against my face. I come back from my jog and eat my delicious rice and curry that my mom made for me (Thanks, mom!) and start getting on with my day…
For the longest time, my sleeping schedule was off by miles. When I end up going to bed at 4:00 AM, every night feels like a mistake and every morning feels like a torture.
But I couldn't live like this! GDC is coming up in about 2 weeks, and I needed to make sure that I can be awake and refreshed every morning so that I'm not tired or groggy at the biggest event of my life ever.
I want something different for my life. I want it to change. I can see that getting up early saves so much time. I know that at least there's nothing better I can do to make sure that the rest of my day is ensured in a filter of positive energy and productivity.
There will be temptations telling me that I can stay up a little bit longer each night, working on that new music... or looking at more dog gifs on Twitter. But I will deflect those temptations away and establish a better life habit for myself from now on!
Another really important thing happened yesterday. I was reading Akash Thakkar (The amazingly sexy, fried chicken eating champion)'s blog and learned a really cool new way to focus on and get things done - he calls it the... wait, what? *takes off my glasses*
AKASH'S ADVANCED APPROACH FOR AUGMENTED ACUITY:
"To start, you're going to schedule an hour of work in your calendar for the task at hand. For example, you'd have an hour-long block that says "compose" or "email developers." Then, at the start of this block, you're going to set a timer for a small amount of time - anywhere from 10-25 minutes. The more you hate or dread the task you're going to be working on, the shorter the time that you'll set. And, just as you expect, you'll work on your task for the amount of time you've set.
But then… Once the timer runs out…
*whispers*
~~~~~You take a break for the remaining hour~~~~~
Yes, that's right.
If you just worked for 25 minutes, you get to spend 35 minutes goofing off without guilt. Check Twitter! Look at dog gifs! Roll around in your own filth! The idea is that you're giving yourself a disproportionate award for the work you just did. This will release some of those intoxicating brain chemicals, which will help the reward centers of your soft, delicious brain light up. And once that break is over, you can start the cycle again if you want.
If you work like this just once a day, you'll gradually improve your ability to focus and get shit done. And as time goes on, you'll feel comfortable increasing the amount of time you work, even on dreaded tasks. And even though it may seem like such a small step in the beginning, this is the superpower that will make all the difference in your life and career."
I just want to say that Akash, this is amazing and a brilliant idea! It really entices my brain to think that I can spend more than half of an hour doing whatever I like doing. So I'll apply this and see how much work I can get done today as well.
Anyways, that's all for today! Hope you guys have a lovely Tuesday. :)
Can't wait for GDC!
-Daniel