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Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?

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Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?

#121

Post by read »

hansy wrote: post #114
read wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seemingly small things like flossing and using your non-dominant hand to open doors improve self control. Deceptively small things like that lead into bigger things.

Whoa can you explain what you mean by using your non-dominant hand to improve self-control?

Using your non-dominant hand challenges the brain to coordinate a new movement. The brain is not an expert in this new movement. It has to work hard to get it right and does a bad job initially. Since it's bad at it, you have to stick with it to complete the movement. It takes longer, and during the process you have an urge to drop it and continue with the dominant hand.

Fighting off this urge and continuing to use the non-dominand hand at something you are bad at improves self-control. You put yourself in a position where you don't quit when something works poorly for you. You make a habit of sticking with things to get better. It's worth cultivating habits that get you exploring things you're bad at.

I admit shaving with the non-dominand hand gets dangerous. But you can witness this effect by trying something simpler like stirring a glass of milk or brushing your teeth.

Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?

#122

Post by eshvk »

codenut wrote: post #113
aegiso wrote: post #13

10K run every day and 10 hours of sleep. The productivity gains are in the 2-3x range.

I would love to do this but 10k/day is a lot. I tried it for one week and I was extremely exhausted. My productivity also dropped as I am very tired. What time of the day do you run?

Not the OP but that is not really how you start running 10K/day. You gradually build up endurance starting from a mile a day or so, till your lungs can deal with that. I run 5 miles on the days I don't weight lift. It is not exhausting or something. I do this in the morning and then go do my work stuff.

Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?

#123

Post by eshvk »

iends wrote: post #74
oskarth wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prior to doing this, did you walk 10K every day? Curious about the diff between 10K run vs 10K walk. Personally, weightlifting 3x a week and roughly 10K walking every day does the same thing as running did.

Not the OP, but it probably has the same benefits, but it takes MUCH longer.

Also, there is some (not much) calorie burning in running 10K vs walking.

Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?

#124

Post by codenut »

eshvk wrote: post #122
codenut wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to do this but 10k/day is a lot. I tried it for one week and I was extremely exhausted. My productivity also dropped as I am very tired. What time of the day do you run?

Not the OP but that is not really how you start running 10K/day. You gradually build up endurance starting from a mile a day or so, till your lungs can deal with that. I run 5 miles on the days I don't weight lift. It is not exhausting or something. I do this in the morning and then go do my work stuff.

I'm not a beginner in running. Been running for more than two years but I find it hard to run 10k/day unless I don't have a job and don't go to work. I do the same I run on MWF and lift TThSat and that routine is ok for me. But running everyday is different.

Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?

#125

Post by kennethtilton »

It was a long time ago, but I used a golf scoring gadget to keep count of my daily driving excesses. Counting a behavior changes it. The awareness broke the habit. Improvements of course were to the number of points on my license and the safety of all.

Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?

#126

Post by od2m »

aegiso wrote: post #13

10K run every day and 10 hours of sleep. The productivity gains are in the 2-3x range.

You probably already have overtraining syndrome if you've been doing this for any length of time.

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/overtraining/a/aa062499a....

Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?

#127

Post by ishwarn »

mikeg8 wrote: post #101
ishwarn wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care to share some book recs? I'm always looking for new ones.

Outliers, definitely the freakenomics books, I enjoyed Rich Dad Poor Dad, The Lean Startup, Power of Habit, Defining Decade (if your in your 20's, fantastic book), The Happiness Advantage, Great by Choice from Jim collins...

Thanks! From that list, I've read Outlier, The Lean Startup, and Power of Habit. Currently reading A Short History Of Nearly Everything, and I plan on following that with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. After that, I will probably jump on Defining Decade.

Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?

#128

Post by jf22 »

od2m wrote: post #126
aegiso wrote: post #13

10K run every day and 10 hours of sleep. The productivity gains are in the 2-3x range.

You probably already have overtraining syndrome if you've been doing this for any length of time. http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/overtraining/a/aa062499a....

From 6 miles a day? Probably not. That's not that much physical activity at all.

Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?

#129

Post by hansy »

read wrote: post #121
hansy wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoa can you explain what you mean by using your non-dominant hand to improve self-control?

Using your non-dominant hand challenges the brain to coordinate a new movement. The brain is not an expert in this new movement. It has to work hard to get it right and does a bad job initially. Since it's bad at it, you have to stick with it to complete the movement. It takes longer, and during the process you have an urge to drop it and continue with the dominant hand. Fighting off this urge and continuing to use t…

I guess I never thought about it this way. The only time I ever did anything significant with my non-dominant hand was when I used to play lacrosse, and I had to shoot and throw the ball using both my left and right hands. Of course the purpose of this was trite; become harder to defend.

Anyway, using my non-dominant hand for trivial activities sounds fun. At the very least, should I lose my dominant hand in a light saber duel in the future with a man who claims to be my father, I'll know I've got an adequate backup.

Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?

#130

Post by od2m »

jf22 wrote: post #128
od2m wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You probably already have overtraining syndrome if you've been doing this for any length of time. http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/overtraining/a/aa062499a....

From 6 miles a day? Probably not. That's not that much physical activity at all.

Every human is different, but yes I believe that's too much. If he had said, "I exercise 5 days a week, take 1 week off every 3 months and 2 consecutive weeks off per year." Then that is different. But he said he runs a 5k EVERY SINGLE DAY, and that is far too much abuse for a human body. The most insidious symptom of overtraining syndrome is a compulsive need to exercise.

If this individual is overtrained, his body will find a way to stop him. He will become ill from immune suppression or injured from the constant stress that never fully heals, or too depressed to exercise at all.

Body builders have a saying something like, "Muscles are made in the bedroom and the kitchen."

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