Waking up earlier, sleeping earlier.
Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?
171–180 of 478 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?
#172Counting calories. I finally lost 50 lbs and learned that when I’d go to the gym or go for a run, I’d compensate by eating more, which is why I never lost the weight I wanted in 20 years of regular exercise.
I still exercise, but now I do it to 1- get stronger, and 2- earn calorie budget so I can eat more.
Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same here! Keto + eating at evenings only + StrongLifts.com. Improved my mood, my energy levels. I feel so much better with it and every time I slip and do a cheat-day I do feel really awful after. Cannot imagine going back to eating any sugars now.
One of the common side effects of Keto is Reduced Physical Performance. You guys must be unicorns or something..That's not a surpise because you definitely need to be "special" to restrict yourself from eating all day long LOL.
That's only during the initial "burn-in", you feel fatigued when your body is adjusting. (not a keto guy, just interested in researching about it"
Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?
#174Capoeira. As someone who doesn't like the gym, the fun mix of capoeira's martial art and self-expression keeps me hooked enough to keep going and stay in shape.
Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?
#175Got a kettlebell and do a short workout for 15min once per week. On top of that, go to a free, body weight "boot camp" with a handful of friends once per week. Started doing that in February and already feel more energized and healthy.
Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?
#176A morning routine involving no phone, computer, etc. for the first hour of the day has been great for me. I usually wake up, make coffee, read for about 30 min, and then gratitude journal and plan my day. (I use Panda Planner purely for convenience, I'm sure a blank sheet of paper works as well.) This allows me to set my own schedule and prioritize my day, rather than reacting to the demands placed on me by others. I…
and then gratitude journal
This sounds terrible to me, which means I should probably look into it in order to curb my increasing cynicism.
Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?
#177A morning routine involving no phone, computer, etc. for the first hour of the day has been great for me. I usually wake up, make coffee, read for about 30 min, and then gratitude journal and plan my day. (I use Panda Planner purely for convenience, I'm sure a blank sheet of paper works as well.) This allows me to set my own schedule and prioritize my day, rather than reacting to the demands placed on me by others. I…
What isa gratitude journal?
Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?
#178Not sure how much its paying off but spending about half an hour every day doing Swedish lessons on Duolingo. No real aim, I don't expect to be able to speak it at all but its more about not being locked into just English. I have some Spanish so that will be next up. I've noticed it makes me feel more accomplished every day at least.
Oh yes I tried that too but it didn't really pay off for me. That daily streak really helped me stay at it for almost 340 days straight (French). Unfortunately even after daily practice for almost 1 year I can't say I learned anything much (French is a very difficult language and I'm old so that may have something to do with it and YMMV). But anyway seeing I was making no progress I had to quit.
I heard that Duolingo is not good at teaching you how to actually use a language, instead focusing on the parts that are easily measured. Because of that, I never tried it and don't know how accurate that evaluation is, but here's what helped be when learning Chinese:
- Regularly meet with a native speaker (1 hour per week for me): they can correct your mistakes and try to explain confusing aspects of the language
- Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Target_Language and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_Language#Phonology and the descriptions of individual sounds linked there. It will help you to consciously position your tongue to produce the sounds and practice until you can do it subconsciously. Doing it purely by ear is much harder. You probably won't sound like a native speaker anyway, but get much closer than someone who approximates everything using sounds from their native language.
- Watch movies in your target language (every day before going to sleep, in my case), with subtitles until you can do without. You'll almost certainly notice a few words every time which are repeated frequently. Pause the video and look them up. They might not be useful in everyday conversations (I know way too many titles of members of the Chinese imperial court), but if you stay within a genre, they'll still help improve your understanding as you keep watching.
- Use spaced repetition to review vocabulary. Turn it into a habit to add some fixed number of new words every day and then review. If you keep it up for a few years, even small increments add up to a sizable number. Fortunately, spaced repetition increases the intervals between reviews, so the time cost each day stays manageable. If you use Anki, I also recommend looking for addons to add pronunciations automatically (even robotic speech-to-text can be helpful).
- To practice reading, start with headlines from a newspaper website (even if it's just a single headline initially and you have to look up every word). Then work your way up to paragraphs, articles and eventually books.
- I never practiced writing much (except when memorizing individual Chinese characters), but if you can speak and read, you can probably write. If your target language has a different keyboard layout, figure out how to switch to it in your OS and practice typing. For Linux, I can't plug Fcitx enough, especially for its awesome Unicode input feature.
- Finally, nothing motivates more than putting yourself into a situation where you have no choice but use your language. After 2 years of studying Chinese, I somehow managed to rent an apartment in China using only my still pretty limited speaking ability and the pressure of that and similar situations has helped me improve tremendously.
Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?
#179Deliberately trying to cultivate friendships and openness, both by being a bit more open and honest with people, and by asking them very gentle questions to let them know that I'm somebody they can be open with, if they want. I also set up a 'close friends' filter on Facebook for people I can be a bit more honest with - not 'all drama, all the time' type of stuff, but more about starting interesting discussions about…
If you don't mind me asking, what are some examples of the gentle questions that indicates you are open?
A few examples:
Chatting to somebody about the side effects of the antidepressants we're both on, namely decreased 'filter' when talking. Amusingly, said decreased filter might be one of the contributing factors behind this increased openness :)
Asking a friend who was obviously going through a hard time - "You don't owe me any answers, of course, but I wondered if you'd mind me asking whether you're okay, and what's going on for you?". Plus a lot of follow-up questions, phrased as "here are some things I'm wondering about, with absolutely no obligation to answer them; and of course if you have any questions for me, I'd be happy to answer".
Even just simple stuff like following up on throwaway conversational prompts - "hey, you mentioned as an aside that you'd done horseriding for fifteen years - that sounds like a big part of your life; how did you get into that?"
A lot of it's been about relationships, for various reasons.
Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?
#180Completely changing my mindset toward success. Only having positive thoughts. All actions start with me to attain my most desired goals. No complaining, no blaming, no hesitating, and no coulda woulda shoulda. Instead, "Next time I'm in this situation, this is what I'll do to be successful." Staying focused on the goal. Failure is only a necessary stepping stone toward success and is only there to tell you how to do it better.
Rising above standards and expectations set upon me by others. Only you set your own goals. Be the best available in your career and you will be set for life.
"Win as though you're used to it, lose as though you like it."