Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?

#361

Post by raztogt21 » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 5:08 PM UTC

yeswecatan wrote: post #345

abhiminator wrote: post #270

I started meditating recently after having been carpet-bombed by its potential benefits for years across various media and platforms, and now, after a few weeks of regular practice, I must say this -- I was pleasantly surprised by how much my outlook toward life changed since I started practicing 'mindfulness' -- a type of meditation involving focusing on the present moment with the understanding that buzzing thought…

How have you been practicing? Headspace?

I really like Andrew's voice, and gamify the experience of meditation. However what I found to be the most valuable were acquiring multiple techniques learn from the different packages, and the stoic insights you learn along the way.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?

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Post by reitanqild » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 5:09 PM UTC

nighthawk1 wrote: post #331

terryjsmith wrote: post #104

Just show up - I started this last year going to the gym - if I didn't feel like going to work out, I just went to the gym and messed around, did whatever I felt like, even for 15 or 20 minutes and then left. The discipline has translated into other projects - a camper reno, a game engine, etc. Just showing up is more than half the battle, even if you don't accomplish much on one given day.

And for projects, just take 15 minutes and do the first step.

And for me some days the first step is just fixing some linter warnings.

Once I'm sitting at my computer, looking at code and no one has interrupted me yet taking the next step and doing what I should do is simpler.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?

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Post by OldSchoolJohnny » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 5:10 PM UTC

Karupan wrote: post #11

Going to a psychologist for my anxiety. Learning to manage and control it before it becomes panic has been just awesome. It’s just been two months and I’m already hopeful.

Good for you! That shit can waste years of your life if you don't take charge of it early.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?

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Post by OldSchoolJohnny » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 5:11 PM UTC

Thank you OP, lot's of great things came up in here!

Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?

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Post by ghostbrainalpha » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 5:12 PM UTC

craftyguy wrote: post #257

jihadjihad wrote: post #89

Replacing alcohol with water, except for occasional social events. Too many times I’d come home dead tired mentally and reach for a cold one, which inevitably led to…another cold one haha. Replace with water (bonus if you add a little apple cider vinegar to it!), you’ll feel better and your body will thank you. No non-social drinking allowed!

+1 to adding a splash of apple cider vinegar! I was wondering if I was the only one the door that since my SO looks at me like I am crazy.

1 teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar 1 teaspoon Lime or Lemon Juice (cheap kind from a squirt bottle) 1-2 ounces of 100% Pure Cranberry Juice.

This drink helped me stop having kidney stones. I also think it has minor weight loss benefits with a low-carb diet.

I didn't love it at first but after about a month, your body starts to crave it. Similar to a extremely refreshing Lemonade on a hot day.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?

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Post by jonandersense » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 5:13 PM UTC

owenversteeg wrote: post #212

jonandersense wrote: post #170

I've been recording a video a day (1 second), it makes me be more conscious about finding something meaningful every day, and watching the result at the end of the year is really rewarding.

What do you put in the videos? Would you mind sharing some examples (in text form)?

The videos are mostly of my daily life, it can be friends & family, things that inspired me that day, or even something as simple as enjoying a coffee in the sun. Some days it can be just a screen of code, or a routine task. However the main idea for me is to find a moment a day that I'm more mindful about.

Initially I used 1 second every day app to do this, but have since a few years created my own app for it (https://www.leapsecond.co). Here's an example video from 2016 https://youtu.be/CBstXlmy35k

Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?

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Post by dawnerd » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 5:15 PM UTC

yorwba wrote: post #178

superasn wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 -…

Duolingo is horrible on mobile because you miss the lesson details with explanations. It’s really only good for basic vocabulary and heavily depends on the people putting the language tree together. In any case repetition is key.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?

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Post by justjash » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 5:17 PM UTC

chasely wrote: post #186

justjash wrote: post #146

Got back into fly fishing. I started when I was in college but kind of just ran out of time to practice and never really had many friends who did outdoorsy things. My new job has me on-call a few months out of the year and it allows me to sneak away and get outside at a local park while being able to easily make it back home if needed (something that I can't easily do on long bike rides). I also recently started tyin…

I hope to move someday close to a river or stream so I can pick the hobby back up. Used to tie my own as well, I highly recommend Trout Flies: The Tier's Reference [1]. Full color, step-by-step instructions, so enjoyable to flip through I still pick it up sometimes even though I don't fish anymore. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Trout-Flies-Reference-Dave-Hughes/dp/...

I'll have to check that one out. So far its been mostly using random videos off Youtube, would be nice to have something physical to look at quickly.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?

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Post by dolessdrugs » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 5:23 PM UTC

dormento wrote: post #182

tom_ wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't pay for somebody else to make your tea! A cup of ordinary tea should cost, like, 15p. That includes teabag, electricity, water, milk, and amortized cost of kettle and mug. Even if you buy something unnecessarily expensive, like fancy matcha tea powder, you're looking at less than 50p.

What kind of monster puts milk on their tea? :) You're right though.

tea is not one thing

Re: Ask HN: Is there a new habit you cultivated recently that is really paying off?

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Post by bantic » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 5:25 PM UTC

I took a month-long sabbatical last Fall to learn a new skill (machine learning). I had a project goal to keep me focused on making progress and staying practical: making an ios app that will use ML to "recognize" the letters on a Boggle game grid and "solve" it, printing out all the words on that grid. I made large strides during the month but the project wasn't quite working at the end. After the sabbatical it was back to work at my dayjob and I had a lot of motivation but little time, so I kept telling myself, "No time to work on it today, but I'll try tomorrow."

After a few weeks thinking this and not doing any work, I despaired that my project would end up as vaporware, blowing away in the smoke of my good intentions. So I started a new habit: Committing to work on it, every day, for just 15 minutes.

I use a pomodoro timer (Vitamin-R) and note-taking app (EverNote) to do my daily 15 minutes. Each time I start, I write down my goal for that session, and keep a running list of things I think of to do but don't get to in that particular session. Every day I successfully put in 15 minutes I mark off that day on a 365-day hanging wall calendar that is on the back of my apartment door.

Results:

* I have worked on the app for 90% of the days this year.

* I absolutely got it to a "working" state (I am now facing a diminishing returns problem where I'm putting in too much time fiddling with UX and UI polish, but that's a problem I'm happy to have).

* On over 50% of the days I end up working more than 15 minutes.

* On days when I feel like going longer, and have the time, I'll still occasionally hard-stop at 15 minutes. This gives me something I'm eager to come back to tomorrow, and also (I think) helps to engrain the habit. I want my subconscious to always think: yes, the cost of starting my session today really is only 15 minutes, I will do this even if I don't feel like I have a lot of willpower today.