Reminders
I get up quite early and morning hours are my best hours. This is a habit I developed during the days I tried to get my Ph.D. finished while working full time -- it's out of necessity actually. Unlike doing coursework, the research phase of a Ph.D. program needs a lot focus to dig into the papers, and I always have trouble getting my mind laser focused on one thing and one thing only -- distraction has always been my number one enemy. Luckily somewhere I bought into the argument "Do the most important thing first thing in the morning" and it really worked for me, at least during my dissertation stage. So I keep it, it keeps working wonder for me. Whenever I start something new I do it first thing in the morning. That works for me to get deep into various Time Series model, get a firm understanding of machine learning world, study Pearl's causal framework, plunge into Category Theory and Haskell, and of course resurrect my writing habit as I am doing now.
The downside of this habit is that I can not get much done for the rest of day. Usually my morning hours end around 11am when I stop to go to gym. After gym and lunch, the early afternoon hours are quite lethargic for me -- very little energy. And that's exactly the moment I start to wonder off the track: I start mindless browsing, eating, or looking for some form of entertainment. And an hour or so passed by before I realize that I am totally off the track, then I feel bad about myself, and it's all downhill from there. And this has become a repeated pattern for a while.
Out of despair I am resorting some reminders to break away from this pattern. Over the time I found the three questions I can ask myself at any moment I feel like I am lost:
- Are you suffering?
- Are you bored?
- Are you tired?
Suffering usually means you are grasping something tight. The grasping is not necessarily some material thing, quite often it's your expectation -- when what you expect to happened did not happen, you suffer. Or more generally suffering happens when the world does not agree with your views, or your wishes. The good thing is that this is exactly the moment to practice -- suffering is your best teacher. Stop for a moment to reflect on why you feel this way. And use this quote to reminder yourself: When you let it go a little, you will have a little peace; When you let it go a lot, you will have a lot peace; when you let it go all, you will have all the peace.
Boredom is a sign of lack of attention. You are not interested in what's happening at the present moment, your mind is wondering, looking for some stimulus, entertainment. This is when you go to the kitchen to grab something to eat even though you are not hungry. Stop for a moment and use this reminder: what are you refusing to paying attention to?
And sometimes you are genuinely tired. That's okay, rest and take a break. Be kind to yourself.