Doing the simple things

Laying a solid foundation

My first big project, my apps, failed a month ago. For almost three years, my entire life was aligned to this goal. After a few pleasant days, my life went steeply downhill. I’m currently feeling increasingly weaker, and now I don’t know what to do. This text is an attempt to counteract this weakness using seemingly trivial measures to lay a solid foundation.

1. Incentivizing small tasks. I will write down things I learned or did in my progress tracker immediately instead of waiting until the evening or the next day, which is even worse. This is supposed to make me more conscious of my time. It also incentivizes short, simple, and boring tasks, such as meditation, speaking exercises, and brainstorming.
2. New routines. A new routine is necessary because the days are getting dark. Now, I will go to the gym an hour earlier, and then I will go for a walk. If your day is structured, no time is lost in between.
3. Mid-term deadlines. Recording a video is mentally and emotionally costly compared to programming. When you need a break in programming, you can look away for a second. With recording videos, that’s not possible, and considering I don’t currently speak particularly well, it becomes even more challenging. Recording videos brings me zero joy because I haven’t mastered it yet. However, I believe that establishing broader deadlines creates pressure and keeps me accountable. Deadlines accelerate.
4. Coping with no priority. Driving school will take five hours per week, totaling around seventy hours. These hours include the time it takes to get there, to be there, and everything else. Seventy hours is plenty of time, and I have zero desire to put in that effort. I will have to get over it. Not all of life can be good.
5. Learning Russian. My native language has deteriorated since I was five years old. I want to add a new five-minute task: reading in Russian.
6. Making videos easier. I will not collapse my tripod and put my camera on the shelf on the day I'm supposed to record something. Neither will I turn off my computer; I should have no excuse to start my day at five with productivity.
7. Sports and reading will be my default tasks when I don’t know what else to do. Fitness and knowledge are never the wrong choices.

I don’t know how well these measures will work, but they should establish a solid foundation and bridge the time to a new purpose. These little tasks will lay a solid foundation.