About Schalk

I am a research scientist dedicated to the great 21st century sustainability challenge: how to quadruple the size of the global economy while bringing CO2 emissions below zero. My main occupation deals with technological solutions to this challenge in the form of novel clean energy conversion concepts. On the side, I also work on human solutions, i.e. sustainable living and deriving happiness from creation instead of consumption. I also have a mild obsession with healthy living to ensure that my research career lasts as long as possible and that I get to see how the story of the 21st century unfolds.

Posts by Schalk Cloete:

Schalk
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Morning Routine: Putting It All Together

The time has finally come: after 11 grueling weeks of morning routine theory, the finishing line is in sight!

This week, our job is simply to put everything together into a system that will stand the test of time. 

But first a little bit of a pep talk… It’s natural to experience some resistance towards the idea of routine because it sounds restrictive and boring. But if you do it right, just the opposite happens. 

The whole idea behind a good morning routine is to gain increased freedom and excitement during the rest of the day. Master the first hour of your day and you’re ahead and in control from the start. Screw it up and you’ll probably be rushed, reactive, constrained and inefficient all day long. 

It’s critical to keep this in mind while you’re building your routine. 

So, from this mindset, let’s get to today’s… 

Monday 5-minute action Clearly list the items in your morning and evening routines

 

In my experience, the best way to implement this is as recurring to-do’s in Google Tasks. But if you want to put it as your desktop background or frame it on your wall, go right ahead 🙂

The important thing is to create a real, tangible list that will automatically be in front of you every morning. 

Tomorrow, we’ll take a closer look at the practicalities. See you then!

Schalk
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Week 11 of Getting 1% Better

Another week, another 1% improvement 🙂 It wasn’t all plain sailing, but after after a little dip last weekend, my week once again finished strong (see the little red bit at the end of my Graph of Life below). 

All you need to know about this graph is that it heads upwards if I have a great day and downwards if the day is just good. I've not had a bad or even just an average day for the past 11 months :-)
All you need to know about this graph is that it heads upwards if I have a great day and downwards if the day is just good. I’ve not had a bad or even just an average day for the past 11 months 🙂

 

So, how was your week? Answer the three simple questions below for a quick check. 

If you ticked any of the top two boxes in all three questions, I’m pretty sure you made your 1% gain this week 🙂

If not, have a little think about possible areas of improvement? Resolve to take at least one action to help you make your 1% gain next week. Every 1% counts!

How well did you look after yourself this week?
Vote

Do you feel that you made progress this week?
Vote

How do you feel about your relationships and general human interactions?
Vote
Schalk
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Math Art

Mathematics runs the world. It’s all around us, but one place you don’t see it very often is in artwork. 

Well, today I decided to make some math art because … well … why not?

Here are three pretty pictures created using mathematical equations in MS Excel.

This one looks like a flower:

Here’s an eye:

And, finally, a fountain with a nice reflection. 

Yep, even math can be pretty 🙂

Have a great day!

Schalk
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Recap: Morning Routines in the Real World

Win the morning, win the day. 

Actually, it should be: build a bulletproof morning routine, win the morning, win the day. 

The bulletproofing part is very important. The bullets can come flying from any direction. Maybe your child cries the whole night, maybe your best friend had a bachelor’s party, maybe your company booked you into a crappy hotel. 

All of these obstacles can easily derail a budding morning routine. Your job is to nurse it through this trying time until it truly takes root. If you reach that point, you’re home and dry 🙂 

The checklist

So, let’s summarize how to make this happen:

  1. Make sure you have a short version for the elements of your routine that take more than a minute or two.
    • Short versions should be so easy that it would be downright embarrassing to skip them. 
    • Make sure to do at least the short version every morning to form a strong habit. 
  2. Anticipate when your budding morning routine could come under attack.
  3. Ensure that you have a clear reason for maintaining a world-class morning routine. 

These simple tips will give you a strong and loyal morning routine that will serve you faithfully until the day you die. Get yourself one of those! They are a man’s (or woman’s) best friend 🙂

See you tomorrow!

Schalk
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Value the Morning

Early morning is a sacred time. For most of us, it really is the only time of day when we are completely free with nothing else baying for our attention. 

Recognizing this tremendous value is key to forming a routine that will stand strong through the ups and downs of life. Without this understanding, you’re likely to stumble over the first serious obstacle. 

And there will be obstacles aplenty. Your sleeping window and morning routine will face regular attacks from professional and personal responsibilities, friends and loved ones, and natural changes in your emotional state. 

Handling these attacks with a cool and positive head requires a deep understanding of the value of the morning:

  1. Everything is connected. Getting ahead early in the day makes it much easier to stay ahead. Fall behind in the morning and the rest of the day is likely to be a mess (probably spilling over to tomorrow).  
  2. Strategic importance. These days, working smart is more important than working hard. Since the morning is so conveniently positioned before the day happens, it offers an ideal opportunity to map out some smart actions. 
  3. Start your engines. Things like morning movement, excellent nutrition, inspirational reading and an early morning chat help you gain speed quickly and maintain momentum throughout the day. 

See you tomorrow for the wrap-up!

Schalk
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Those Difficult Mornings

Yesterday, we talked about making short versions of your key morning habits. These short versions will really help you out on those mornings when things are not exactly going to plan. 

The example of a morning disrupted by small kids was mentioned yesterday. But there are other challenges for all of us without kids as well. Let’s take a look at those. 

The late night out

It’s good and healthy to have the occasional late night out with friends. Much like the drinks you enjoy on those late nights, these are all good in moderation. 

The key here is to avoid long-term disruption of your sleep pattern. Doing this requires that your late night does not become a ridiculously late night so that you can still get up early the next morning.

An early rise after a late night can be a drag, but your morning routine will make it easier. It also makes going to bed early that following evening so much more satisfying. Try it 🙂

Late night Netflix or gaming binges should be avoided. Such super-convenient addictive entertainment can turn into a self-destructive long-term habit before you know it. 

Travelling

If you’re travelling for business, sticking to your morning routine in the hotel shouldn’t be too difficult. It will also strongly benefit your business meetings, making your boss happy. 

If you’re travelling for holiday, I think it’s best to just do what comes naturally. If your morning routine is so deeply ingrained that it happens automatically, let it help you to beat all the lazy tourists to all the best spots and watch a few lovely sunrises. If you feel like being a lazy tourist, that’s cool too 🙂 

Sleepless night

Sometimes we simply don’t sleep well. Such nights can easily send you into a vicious spiral where you sleep in, fall behind on your day, become more stressed, and have another bad night. And then another, and another…

Here, the critical thing is be break the cycle ASAP. There are two key steps: 1) getting up early even if you’ve slept badly and 2) going to bed early that evening to give yourself enough hours to win back the lost sleep.

Step 1 is the most challenging and the most critical. Those few seconds of discipline can make or break the next couple of days (or even weeks). 

When you just don’t feel like it

Sometimes we’re just lazy or demotivated for no apparent reason. The first thing to do in these cases is to honestly assess whether you’ve been pushing yourself too hard.

If so, give yourself some well deserved downtime even if you feel like you can’t really afford it. Just be very careful that this relaxation does not turn into a self-destructive late night. 

If there really is no excuse, doing your morning routine with increased gusto can often change your mindset. Give it a go. Just get started and see what happens 🙂 

All this becomes much easier if you understand the value of the morning on a very deep level. That will be tomorrow’s topic.

See you then!

Schalk
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The Short Version

Over the past two months, we’ve covered several awesome morning habits. Some of them take just a minute or two. Others, like morning movement, inspirational reading or chatting with your accountability buddy, take a bit longer. 

These habits can be challenging on those mornings when life just gets in the way (shout-out to parents with young kids).

For those mornings, we need today’s…

Monday 1-minute action Create short versions of these three morning habits

 

Aim to make it embarrassingly easy so that there really is no excuse not to do it. A quick “have a great day” SMS to your accountability buddy, one sun salutation as morning movement and one page of reading will do just fine. 

The short version is a powerful tool because habits are formed by the number of reps, not by the amount of time spent on each rep. This truth is particularly valuable in that difficult habit formation phase. 

Deciding on some clear short versions will strongly increase your chances of getting through this phase and establishing a world-class morning routine. It just takes a minute!

Tomorrow, we’ll dissect some other scenarios that can disrupt your morning routine. See you then!

 

Schalk
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Week 10 of Getting 1% Better

Another week, another 1% improvement, another tiny little exponential gain through the awesome force of compounding 🙂 

This was one of my more productive weeks. I invested a good 90 hours into productive activities, but still managed to sleep well, ensuring that I feel as fresh now as I did at the start of the week. The little red bit at the end of my Graph of Life below shows the healthy upwards trajectory over the past week. 

All you need to know about this graph is that it heads upwards if I have a great day and downwards if the day is just good. I've not had a bad or even just an average day for the past 11 months :-)
All you need to know about this graph is that it heads upwards if I have a great day and downwards if the day is just good. I’ve not had a bad or even just an average day for the past 11 months 🙂

 

Did you have a good week too? Answer the three simple questions below to find out. If you answered any of the top two boxes for all three questions, chances are that you made your 1% gain this week 🙂

If it was not such a great week, think about what you can learn from the experience and then resolve to put it behind you. Any proactive actions you can take to ensure that you make your 1% gain next week? 

How well did you look after yourself this week?
Vote

Do you feel that you made progress this week?
Vote

How do you feel about your relationships and general human interactions?
Vote
Schalk
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Practice What You Preach – August Edition

One of the founding principles of this blog is that I can only share ideas and strategies that have proven to yield great results in my own life. Hence, the results of implementing these ideas will be shared on the first Saturday of each month. 

Streaks

We start with the most direct measure of the superpower of consistency I can think of: streaks. As outlined earlier, I track four streaks. And I’m happy to report that all four are still alive:

  • Good days. According to the methodology outlined here, I’ve now had 341 consecutive good days! Less than one month to go before I reach a whole year without a single bad or average day 🙂 
  • Morning routine. My morning routine has stood strong for the past 128 days.
  • Music practice. Yesterday, I reached the milestone of practicing a bit of music for 100 days straight.  
  • Supermorning. This blog has now seen 62 consistent posts.

From the health and productivity data below, there are three more streaks to track:

  • Healthy days. It’s now been 3876 days since the last time I was sick. More about this 10-year journey can be found here.  
  • Days at ideal weight. Although there have been a few close calls, this streak is now 147 days old. 
  • Highly productive months. This little streak of spending more than 200 hours per month on creative work on my PC is just three months old.

Health

My mission to stay at my ideal weight, defined as a smart BMI of 34/70, is tracked below. The thick line is the 3-month average of my weight. This line needs to stay within the dotted orange lines. I should get it a little closer to the center of the range, but so far, so good…

Next, my metabolic and biological ages (defined earlier) have not changed. 

Wealth

As discussed earlier, I’m conducting an interesting financial experiment: living only off my investments and saving all my income into a dedicated research fund. 

My investment portfolio for covering my living expenses is tracked below. August was an interesting month with a substantial drop in stocks, compensated by a sharp rise in precious metals.

As a whole, my investments went up just enough to cover my living expenses. The result is that my financial resilience (number of years my wealth can sustain my lifestyle) did not change much. 

Savings towards my research fund have thus far only reached 5% of my €100000 target. Long way to go…

Productivity

August was a good month in terms of productive hours. Overall, I reached 235 highly productive hours (creative work on my PC) and 122 productive hours (meetings, exercise, reading and music). With 8 hours of sleep per night, that’s a full 72% of my waking time spent on productive endeavors 🙂

The trends are still going in the right direction:

So, overall, August was a good month. The principles covered on this blog held strong even as Norway returned from holiday and the regular ups and downs of office life resumed. 

Let’s see what September brings…

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