3.1 Wake up

Wake-up routine

Wake-up routine using red light therapy lamps
Red light therapy lamps

My wake-up routine started instinctively but evolved as I started to track my sleep in the early 10s. As with most of my routines, it has taken a good part of a decade to establish and refine into a steady and sustainable wake-up routine. I have not used any alarm clocks for over a decade as I go to bed early, and I have gotten straight up in the morning my whole life.

As I am a lark, I go up early. Yes, I am a member of the 5 am club; it just is how I am wired. I have more energy in the morning, but in the evening, I am more of a zombie and cannot get any quality work done at all.

As I gradually established a good sleep routine, I adapted the routine to my circadian rhythm. The rest of the family consists of another lark and two owls, so we have quite different patterns for our days. It is my job in the morning to make breakfast and get the kids to school, but in the evening, after cleaning the dinner table, I honestly totally chill out.

As part of the wake-up routine, I have started to do red light therapy. It eases back pain and feels good. Usually, I down a cup or two of coffee, sometimes mixed with BCAA or Collagen, or bullet-proof style. While in light therapy, I usually pick up the phone and check my daily schedule. I am conflicted about whether to check social media and read the news, which I do most mornings or if I should abstain from screen time totally. After the red light therapy, it is time to meditate, more about that in the next post in the daily routines blog post series.

3. Daily Routines

My daily routines

My daily routines
My daily routine; wake up, meditate, exercise, work, walk, eat, sleep

I like routines. I need routines. I find that routines enable more thinking time, creativity, and they reduce cognitive load. Having good routines helps to set and reset the state of mind. The problem, though, is that establishing new and lasting routines require quite an effort for me. The routines in this post have taken years to establish, in some cases, even decades. The most important thing I have learned is to utilize my energy in the best possible way by adapting the daily routines to my circadian rhythm. The lark is my chronotype. This is my routine at the moment:

  • Wake up
  • Meditate
  • Exercise
  • Work/write
  • Walk
  • Eat
  • Sleep

Short posts on each routine upcoming.

2. Action

Establishing a new writing routine

Action. Routines. What you do every day is what leads to lasting results.

Put your principles into practice – now. Stop the excuses and the procrastination. […] Decide to be extraordinary and do what you need to do – now”

Epictetus

I am a practicing stoic, and for me, the action is where the magic happens; walk the talk as the saying goes. By doing, with action, I improve. Nowadays, I am constantly striving to be the best version of myself. And it is hard, really hard. But it can be done, slowly, bit by bit. For me, it requires a lot of discipline, grit, and persistence. Let me elaborate a little bit.

Action is practice

I read many books, but theoretical knowledge in books is nothing without action, without practice. In theory, practice and theory are the same, in practice seldom. For example, reading about the ancient Stoics and their lives, about stoic philosophy, is nothing without putting it into practice.

I used to do many detailed and ambitious plans for a healthy diet, exercise, career, etc. And they all failed. Because they were too theoretical and, most of the time, too ambitious. That needed to change. So I did. I focused on sustainable and attainable change by setting routines, bit by bit. For quite a few years, I have done this, first unconsciously, and lately steady, focused and disciplined, but paced.

At the moment, I work really hard to establish a writing routine. I will soon need to write every day as I move into a research position at work. Writing regular posts every weekend on this blog is an important part of establishing a new routine.

Routines

The action is what matters and where the magic happens. Routines are what works for me and the basis for action – more about routines in the next post.

Now is the time to get serious about living your ideals. How long can you afford to put off who you really want to be? Your nobler self cannot wait any longer. Put your principles into practice – now. Stop the excuses and the procrastination. This is your life! You aren’t a child anymore. The sooner you set yourself to your spiritual program, the happier you will be. The longer you wait, the more you’ll be vulnerable to mediocrity and feel filled with shame and regret, because you know you are capable of better. From this instant on, vow to stop disappointing yourself. Separate yourself from the mob. Decide to be extraordinary and do what you need to do – now.

Epictetus

1. SYS 64738

SYS 64738 basic command entered on the Commodore 64 computer start screen .
Commodore 64 start screen

If you were active on the C64 scene, you are probably familiar with the BASIC-command SYS 64738. For a trip down memory lane, check out the Internet Archives great C64 software library.

SYS 64738, it was time for a reset. I have spent the last few years working a lot, perhaps too much, but work is an essential part of my life, of my identity, of me. Maybe this is a midlife crisis. Maybe this is just me bored with the status quo. Maybe it is just me still being curious. Maybe it is all of this or something else.

As it happens, I have found out while contemplating that I actually do have work as my hobby, or maybe it is the other way around that my hobby has also become my work. Total work/life integration, with the small caveat of not having enough time for other more important things like family, health, and community.

So this spring, I decided to scale back from my 50+ hour work weeks to a more relaxed 40-hour schedule. This did, of course, not happen from one day to another. It actually took quite some time.

Now I am anchored on a new, better, more healthy level of hours spent on work. This has freed up time for other activities that I have been neglecting, like spending time with family, writing this blog, planning research, exercise, handicraft, and much more. I will write more about everything in the upcoming posts.

0.1 Why a blog?

Why a blog? I am blogging because I want to own my online identity and presence. This is my home online, my thoughts, my writing, that I own and control. I am sick and tired of all BS services and their crap EULA:s.

If someone else reads this and finds it even remotely useful, great! But the primary purpose is to use the blog as a way to structure my own thoughts and ideas.

Inspiration from long time blogs like Euan Sempel’s The Obvious, Patrik Bergman’s A Corn of Wheat, Martina Johansson’s Next Level Biohacking and many, many more.