Indistractable chapter 7

Chapter 7 is about Reimagining the Task. Instead of considering the trigger of a habit, we instead think about the task itself. Eyal read one of Ian Bogost's books, in which he discusses using fun and play to get through tasks in a more pleasant way. By finding something fun about a task, you change your perception of the task. It's no longer drudgery. You can now focus on the task at hand. Bogost uses mowing his lawn as an example. He doesn't like mowing his lawn, but instead of covering up the drudgery of mowing the lawn with a reward, like a beer after its completion, he finds how to turn the task of mowing into 'what is the most efficient way to mow the lawn?' 'What is the best weed killer to use?' and making his task now a playground.

I suppose I do that with weightlifting. I always carry my workout log to the gym to record what I'll be lifting and a few notes about how I did. It can get boring to exercise with the same machines day in and day out, but I've made a game out of it. I love having data to refer to, and I love doing better than I did before. I have something like 50 or 60 workout sheets with what exercise, number of reps, number of weights, number of sets. Soon, I will make a graph of it. I've decided to start looking into the Strong Curves workout plan after looking at the results over at r/strongcurves for a few months. Knowing how well I've been doing, I wonder if a slight change in workout with an actual program would do any better. It will at least scratch the novel and research itch that I like to scratch.

Chapter 7 Summary:


  • We can master internal triggers by reimagining an otherwise dreary task. Fun and play can be used as tools to keep us focus.
  • Play doesn't have to be pleasurable. It just has to hold our attention.
  • Deliberateness and novelty can be added to any task to make it fun.

Invisalign day 3 has been not too bad, but I've only had coffee, Ramen with 4 eggs, and a lot of water. I'll be having Swedish meatballs with noodles, a rum cake that I was given as a gift late last year, and some ice cream. That ought to get me to 700 or so calories since I managed to eat 700 calories at lunch.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Halloween Party and my costume

Image
This weekend, I attended an awesome Halloween party, and even dressed up as Hermoine Granger. I admit, it was a bit fun to dress up as Hermoine Granger. I took a lot of thought for my costume. I started searching for costumes on August 26th, and found a costume site on September 13th:  https://www.moviescostume.com/harry-potter-gryffindor-uniform-hermione-granger-cosplay-costume-adults-ver.html However, I didn't want to just drop over $100 on a costume I'll likely only wear once. What else can I do? Can I just build the costume from regular clothes? After all, Hermoine mostly wore a school uniform for the first few movies. Certainly I could do that. I set off to build my uniform. I got the skirt from Lands End. The socks , blazer , patch ,  tie  and wand from Amazon. The shirt came from J Jill, but I bought that about ten years ago or so, and the shoes I purchased last year from Belk. I referenced this guide to learn how to tie a Full Windsor Knot, a tie style wit
Read more

Board games and near the end of the gym challenge

Today was another success! Went to the gym after my two cups of coffee, warmed up the rest of the Picadillo for lunch, and finished a few chores. This evening, I was invited to a board game night with a few friends. We played Spinjas and Stuffed Fables. The gym was my last arm/chest routine day until the 31st, where I'll do the full body routine and see where I gained. I'm certain I didn't lose weight - way too many cookies and candies around to snack on, but hopefully I'm stronger. I certainly feel stronger and better, and that is enough to keep going. I'm looking forward to getting a better diet in January by not having sugar for the month, and continuing to go the the gym - just not daily. Stuffed Fables is a really cute game! We played Story 1 where a girl's blanket is stolen from a little girl's bed, and the Stuffed animals characters, Theadora, Stitch, Flops and Lumpy have to travel through the underworld to rescue the blanket and get back to bed b
Read more

Jose and Sons review

 I went with one of my friends to Jose and Sons Mexican restaurant on Glenwood Avenue and Pleasant Valley Road. I picked this place as I'd hear a lot of good things about it, and we were there early before the place got busy.  We were not impressed. The server was slow to get us our drinks, and did not get us chips and salsa, bur I could see his other tables got chips and salsa - turns out it was from a runner. We got ours eventually, (not from the server) but the first five minutes of our meal, we just stared at a bowl of guac and our two waters. No matter, maybe he was new. Maybe the kitchen was frying a new batch of chips. Maybe the bartender was new. While waiting, we noticed that the place looked like it needed new paint. In our booth, the pink paint was chipping off the wall. I was confused, because I thought they just moved here from downtown. They didn't even give the place a new coat of paint before moving in? The chips were warm, not hot, and the salsa was very sweet.
Read more