consistency

Schalk
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Practice What You Preach – November Edition

All the tips and strategies shared on this blog are fully implemented in my own life. This is a fascinating experiment, the results of which are shared in the monthly Practice What You Preach series.   

Streaks

Streaks are probably the most direct measure of the superpower of consistency. Sadly, I lost one of my streaks this month, but the other six are still going strong. 

  • Good days. According to the methodology outlined here, I’ve now had 432 consecutive good days.  
  • Morning routine. My morning routine has stood strong for the past 219 days.
  • Music practice. Sadly, my daily music practice habit did not happen on a recent travel to Istanbul. Back to square one. After my return home, this streak has grown to 22 days again.  
  • Supermorning. This blog has now seen 132 consistent posts.
  • Healthy days. It’s now been 3967 days since the last time I was sick. More about this 10-year journey can be found here.  
  • Days at ideal weight. Still going strong at 238 days. 
  • Highly productive months. It’s now been six consecutive months with 200+ hours of creative work on my PC.

Health

I’m determined to stay at my ideal weight, defined as a smart BMI of 34/70, for the rest of my life. To do this, I must simply keep the thick blue line between the dotted orange lines. 

This month, I strayed a little close to the upper threshold. Hopefully, some good skiing in December will rectify matters. 

Next, my metabolic and biological ages (defined earlier) are still nice and low. 

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. A good gain in stock markets cancelled out a fall in metals to keep my financial resilience (number of years my savings can sustain my lifestyle) constant. 

Savings towards my research fund have thus far only reached 12% of my €100000 target. Long way to go…

Productivity

November started off a little slow due to travels, but luckily my productivity streak remained unscathed. Overall I racked up 212 very productive hours (creative work on my PC) and an additional 114 productive hours (meetings, exercise, reading and music).

In the RescueTime graph below, the dark blue areas represent very productive time, the lightly blue areas productive time, and the red areas distracting time (e.g. YouTube). 

The long-term productivity trends are still looking good, although the last five months show a bit of a worrying downwards trend in my very productive time. This needs to be corrected in December. 

Overall, November wasn’t bad, considering that it’s generally a rather miserable month in Norway and I had some travel obligations.

December will bring plenty of festivities that are good fun, but perhaps not so good for health and productivity. Let’s try to strike a good balance and enter the new decade on a positive trend 🙂

Schalk
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Week 16 of Getting 1% Better

The superpower of consistency is all about doing the small things right day after day to invite the awesome force of compounding into our lives. No miracles required – just some tiny victories week after week. 

Over the last two weeks, I was tested by some pretty serious neck pain. Seems like, after all these years, I still haven’t learnt to sleep in the correct position 🙂

This persistent pain caused my Graph of Life to lose some momentum (the red bit below). But the important thing is that it didn’t start falling.

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 12 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 12 months 🙂

 

So, how was your week? Answer the three simple question below to find out. Good health, a sense of progress and positive relationships really are all we need for a good life. 

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, what can you do to make sure next week is better? Resolve to take at least one action to help 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 – September Edition

All the tips and strategies shared on this blog are fully implemented in my own life. The results of this implementation are reported on a monthly basis in the Practice What You Preach series.   

Streaks

Streaks are probably the most direct measure of the superpower of consistency. All my seven streaks are still alive and well:

  • Good days. According to the methodology outlined here, I’ve now had 369 consecutive good days. That’s an entire year without a single bad or average day 🙂 
  • Morning routine. My morning routine has stood strong for the past 156 days.
  • Music practice. I’ve managed to work in a little bit of music for the past 129 days straight.  
  • Supermorning. This blog has now seen 87 consistent posts.
  • Healthy days. It’s now been 3904 days since the last time I was sick. More about this 10-year journey can be found here.  
  • Days at ideal weight. Still going strong at 175 days. 
  • Highly productive months. It’s now been four consecutive months with 200+ hours of creative work on my PC.

Health

I’m determined to stay at my ideal weight, defined as a smart BMI of 34/70, for the rest of my life. To do this, I must simply keep the thick blue line between the dotted orange lines. Easy 🙂

Next, my metabolic and biological ages (defined earlier) are still nice and low. 

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. Financial markets calmed down a bit in September, resulting in a gain in stocks and a fall in metals. 

Once again, the net effect was just enough gain to cover my living expenses. Thus, 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 7% of my €100000 target. Long way to go…

Productivity

September started very strong in terms of productivity. But all the sport on TV this past weekend caused a bit of a weak end to the month. Even so, I reached 227 very productive hours (creative work on my PC) and an additional 106 productive hours (meetings, exercise, reading and music).

In the RescueTime graph below, the dark blue areas represent very productive time, the lightly blue areas productive time, and the red areas distracting time (e.g. YouTube). 

I’m happy to report that the 12-month moving average of my very productive hours (blue dotted line) is now over 200 hours per month. May it fearlessly continue its upwards journey!

Overall, September was another good month. It had a bit of a weak last couple of days, but I’m confident that October will start strong once again.  

Let’s see what happens…

Schalk
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Week 12 of Getting 1% Better

This week’s weather was terrible, even by Norwegian standards. But luckily, that did not stop me from having a great week 🙂 You can see the healthy upwards trend in the little red bit at the end of my Graph of Life below. 

Thanks to my data obsession, I’ve been logging a subjective score of the weather on my Graph of Life for about nine months now. From these 270 data points, I can now confidently say that the quality of my day is completely immune to changes in the weather.

Weather is probably the most complained about thing in Norway, so I was very happy to see this. It’s certainly useful to be unaffected by things we have no control over, such as bad weather, stupid politicians, or the bad performance of your favorite sports team. 

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? Did you manage to look after your health, make some good personal and professional progress, and nurture your relationships? If so, you probably made your 1% gain this week 🙂

If not, what can you improve? Could it help to spend less mental energy on things like the weather that are totally outside your control?  

Finally, this month’s experiment of bringing back weekend posts did not make much difference. So, hopefully for the last time, weekend posts will now be removed again. 

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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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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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…

Schalk
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Week 9 of Getting 1% Better

The superpower of consistency is all about doing the small things right day after day to invite the awesome force of compounding into our lives. We simply need to take it one week and 1% at a time. 

For me, it was a pretty good week. I had a little stumble over a couple of half-price chocolates at the start of the week, but recovered nicely afterwards. You can see the dip and recovery in 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? The three simple poll questions below can help you decide. They’re formulated from the understanding that we really only need three things to be happy: good health, a feeling of progress, and positive relationships.

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, what can you do to make sure next week is better? Resolve to take at least one action to help 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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Reflections 2

A few weeks ago, I was treated to another quiet morning with some beautiful reflections on the lake close to my home.

The picture below reminded me of the power of compounding and, just like the Force in Star Wars, how it has a light side and a dark side. Life is rarely stagnant. Most of the time, this powerful force has us either spiraling up or spiraling down.

Some people spend more time spiraling up, others spend more time spiraling down. This is one of the key reasons for the vast inequalities in our society. 

The superpower of consistency is simply a method to keep all spirals pointing upwards.

It really is as simple as that 🙂 

See you tomorrow!

Schalk
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Recap: Graph of Life

There is an old saying that you can’t improve something you don’t measure. 

If you measure something, you automatically become more focused on it. You also get immediate feedback to help you quickly correct course when you go off track. 

Consistency is a tricky customer to measure, but the Graph of Life does just that. Since consistency is the underlying enabler of most of the good things life has to offer, measuring it sure is worth your while.

The checklist

So, here is the 1-2-3 of getting you Graph of Life up and running:

  1. Download the Excel template and spend a couple of minutes learning how to use it.
    • The file and a short video tutorial can be found here. 
    • My offer to help you customize it to your particular needs still stands.  
  2. Fill out your Graph of Life first thing each day. It takes less than a minute.
    • Make it a fixed part of your morning routine. 
  3. Use your graph to avoid downwards spirals and accelerate upwards spirals.
    • When you graph starts pointing downwards, do whatever it takes to correct course.
    • When you have an upwards streak going, ride the wave as long as possible. 

There you have it. Simple, but very powerful. Please give it a try!

See you tomorrow for this week’s edition of Amateur Creativity!

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