Sorry, I started typing all this mid-thought. But I’m pretty sure you’ll pick up.
The plan is to address my portioning. Sure, I may not eat as often but I feel that when I do eat, I eat enough for three people. Three meals in one meal time. Not good.
I’m trying to fit in the 4-4-12 eating schedule, and I’m trying to figure out the best time to start eating, to give allowance for the moments that I would actually eat. And I’m thinking it’s mostly in the afternoons and evenings that I do eat.
I’m also trying to remember how I did it the very first time. I think I didn’t have a designated time, just made sure I ate within schedule… So if I ate as early as 8 in the morning, I made sure my lunch was no earlier than 12, and my dinner was no earlier than 4 hours after that. Definitely no snacks in between, more water and other sugar-free drinks to tide me over if necessary.
With that mentioned, I don’t think there’s a need for me to necessarily schedule what I do and when I do it. Rather, I just need to make sure I follow my guidelines when I do start eating.
I would also like to mention that I’d like to exercise or move as much as I could before or in between meals.
What tasks do I have? I’m aware that I did something similar last year, but I suppose it’s worth starting again: The idea of ensuring that in a given day, I stay fit, I make some money, and I learn. This is patterned from what Naval Ravikant had to say – that we ought to have at the very least, 3 hobbies, or 3 sets of hobbies: One that would keep us fit, one that would make us rich, and one that would make us smarter.
With regards to staying fit, there’s always the exercise. And keeping in mind that I am bringing myself back to a stricter eating and intake schedule with its own guidelines, I’d like to make sure that I stretch and work out for 15-30 minutes minimum before I have my first meal, and I’d also like to try working out again at least two hours after this first meal. Now that I think about it, I want this first workout to be my main, satisfying workout, and anything after that to be supplementary.
Speaking of working out, I see that my mainstay for motivation, the Iron Wolf Channel on YouTube, hasn’t released a challenge sheet for this month. This means that I’ll probably have to go back to doing my own challenge, or at least something to achieve on the daily. Off the top of my head this looks like mandatory shadow/heavy bag boxing and burpee sets, topped off with alternating cardio (most likely running), calisthenics conditioning and weight training for 6 days a week.
Or, hell, I could go back to the older challenges and finally shoot for intermediate level. That’ll take an hour a day, easy.
Besides working out the body, I’d really like to commit to a fixed time of meditation every day. I’ll be following Naval’s advice again, and just not do anything, and not think of anything for, oh, 10-20 minutes at first, and then hopefully go for longer stretches after that.
I was also thinking about prayer. Really, just verbally laying down my thoughts and ideas, just flowing what I have in my mind to God, for a similar amount of time. I should probably have a list of prayer items.
Now that we’re laying all these ideas down, there’s something I do want to try. See, I was thinking about when to throw in prayer: Should I pray before or after meditation, or both? In the process of deciding I thought, perhaps I ought to combine both activities so they complement each other – by way of doing them alternately in smaller intervals, for as long as it takes.
It’ll look like this: a minimum of 3-5 minutes to pray, followed by 3-5 minutes of nothing, and I suppose I could keep doing this until the nothing really feels like nothing.
Because that’s what my endeavors to stay fit look like: Emptying myself. Emptying my body of tension and pent-up energy, and emptying my mind of fear, stress and anxiety.
So far, so good.
With regards to what hobbies make me money, it’s my photography that comes to mind. It’s really a passion project, one that allows me to empty myself even more. That’s what it is primarily.
The attempts I have in trying to make money off of this thing that I love doing have been pretty lackluster in terms of results. In the tail end of last year I started shooting more, and what shots I have compiled in, say, an outing, I make available to people who buy a certain NFT token that I mint on Opensea and on Rarible. Total sales? Zero.
Besides this? I don’t know, I’ve always wanted to make a photobook – but one more personal than it is monetizable, if that’s even a word (and apparently Evernote does think it’s a word). The first concept of a photobook that comes to mind is what I’ve always wanted to make – one compiling my shots from my very first time I saw snow, back in August 2008 in Colorado. I know they lack quality in terms of composition, but I suppose I’ve learned enough since then to make them at least presentable. Again, not really to sell, but to just see it printed, I guess. I’ll have a copy made for myself, and if anyone wants to buy it, I’ll just have it out there. On an appropriate platform.
And speaking of platforms, I should probably look for one that could sell one-off photos of my best stuff from the previous decade. Again, one copy for me, and then I’ll just have them out there in case anyone is interested.
Besides photography, I’ve always wanted to try for a slot as a DJ. Or, maybe just talk. I’ve seen a friend do good with his gift of gab… and it’s something for me to look at.
There’s also that upcoming business endeavor which I think is close enough to my heart to be called a hobby. My Dad more or less planted in my mind that I should always have my room cleaned, and I’d like to think that’s had an impact on how I like things clean, and how I like waste just addressed correctly. I’ve been interested in investing time and money in waste management. So that’s in store for me this coming year.
I’m not sure I should include that in this article, where I’m trying to just plot out my thoughts for my daily routine, but it may impact my schedule in the future.
How does all this translate, or rather, how does this impact me on a daily level? Well, perhaps I should continue to have daily time to work on content creation – primarily on Instagram and Facebook but I really should work on a more formal portfolio-sort of presentation, printed or online. Daily time should also include my work on those NFTs (and subsequent ‘marketing’), and book/single prints.
Finally, I should have a monthly audit of how much I’ve made and how much I’ve spent.
Now I know I mentioned allotting time for content creation in my daily goals… and one thing that I’ve held off on for the longest time was to also include content creation for the ministry I was put in charge of. There’s a lot on that plate: From simple things like scheduled holiday posts to birthday posts, down to more elaborate things like online/print newsletters, the website, and podcasts.
But of course, I just have to mention that all of this content creation is in the name of the theme I’ve decided on for this year, which would emphasize our moving with Christ. I suppose this is also something for me to keep in mind for the rest of my daily routine.
As I was preparing for the next category of activities (stuff that makes me smarter, hobbies to make me learn), I think an underlying theme for this year is in what I find in common for my daily routine – Emptying. The process of elimination, but not in the name of elimination, but to make space. And I suppose it’s in line with moving and movement, in the sense that when you empty an area you’re making space to move.
And what I have for stuff that makes me smarter is really just a list of courses and certifications I say I’ve always wanted to take, to empty out of my to-do list; or, rather, to move from my to-do list to my subconscious, so I do what I learn, from unconscious incompetence, to conscious incompetence, to conscious competence, and finally, to unconscious competence.
There’s books I want to read. I’m wanting to repeat the Dune trilogy. And then there’s the pile of books I bought last year that I have to dust off and crack open. And THEN there’s the list of Kindle books I still left on unread.
There’s courses I want to take – The pending courses I have on Udemy. The free coding courses on YouTube and on freeCodeCamp. Maybe go back to LinkedIn and Coursera when I have the time.
There’s that recent desire to take on Tagalog and Ilocano proficiency courses. And then there’s the long-dormant desire to learn Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Hebrew, and Arabic (in that order).
And finally, there’s this. I’m doing it again this year. Writing a thousand words a day. It used to be for 30 days, as a challenge given out by Jeff Goins. But, see, I think it’s one of the best things that happened to me last year, and I see no need to hold off on it for this year.
In fact, if I’m honest, I think I could go through a day with just working out and writing. Everything else is an add-on, and I really should think of them that way instead of pressuring myself.
But in summary, this is all I want to do every day, at the first part of the day, as much as possible:
- Work out at for at least 30 minutes, maximum 1 hour; followed by a bath.
- Praying to meditate / Meditate to pray for at least 10 minutes, for as long as it takes
- The minor claiming tasks that need to be done before 8am every day
- Writing at least 1000 words a day
This should take me, oh, 2 hours at the start of the day… Meaning ideally, I should be up by 6 at the latest. It would be nice to get all of this done even earlier, and before the rest of my world is awake, but I know now that this would not be sustainable.
I know I mentioned supplementary workouts, but now that I consider my preference of taking a bath after the major workout, I’m not about to sweat again. It’d be nice, but I don’t want to be changing clothes after I dress up for the day. So with that said, throughout the day, I should get the following done:
- Content creation for at least an hour (but I have a feeling this will take as much time as it can take in a day)
- For Visual Arts
- For The Good News Aces
- Reading
- Finishing Courses
- 10000 steps/day minimum
Then there’s the eating/portioning guidelines, and the monthly personal finance audit. And speaking of finances, it looks like what I want done on the daily covers my staying fit, and staying smart… the rest of the time is on what creates wealth. Yeah, I just remember now, those were Naval’s exact words. Not make money, but create wealth.
The goal is apparently to end the day, not necessarily feeling drained, not necessarily feeling exhausted, but to feel empty. We move from what we’re filled with, and we just continue to flow.
Or… actually, sure, that’s a possibility, but I suppose is it’s not like we’re going to be without life – the life with have IS the Life, and He not only fills us but is present in all of our being… much so that we are animated by the overwhelming, external flow.
What a beautiful year this is looking to be.
Until my next post, God bless you.
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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