Five Essential Daily Habits for an Ideal Life
Part 1 of Essential Ideal Habits
I have started working on a database of 50+ daily habits that are essential to build an ideal life. They are not woo-woo Internet advice or cliche self-help advice. All of them are backed by rigorous scientific research (which I reference) and evolutionary psychology and biology.
When I finish, these will be available as a database in Notion (maybe with a habit tracker included). Until then, I will release them in small batches so you, my subscribers, have first access and can use them to your advantage.
As always any and all feedback is appreciated.
P.S.: Order is random, it is not a ranking of importance. This post is also very very long, apologies.
Summary:
1. Close open loops, 2. Eat the Frog, 3. First meal of the day should include protein, fat and vegetables, 4. Walk after eating, 5. Spend time just thinking
1. Close open loops
An open loop is an unresolved problem or task. A work task that you are thinking about. An upcoming meeting. A chore you want to remember to do. Something you want to buy. A plan you need to make. An argument with someone that you did not resolve.
You brain focuses on such incomplete tasks to a disproportionate degree. This is the Zeigarnik Effect.
Anything that you have not solved and you want to solve, is an open loop. They are problems. They are things you want to remember. They are unresolved emotions.
We tend to walk around full of open loops. It’s a consequence of the modern world. There is too much information and too much to do. More than our brains evolved to handle. This creates many open loops. These occupy our minds, leaving little room for other thoughts and actions.
Think of it through the tired analogy of the brain as a computer. Open loops are software running in the background. When you have too many of them, it leaves insufficient processor capacity.
How do you close open loops?
It would be great if you could close all open loops before bedtime. But that’s not possible. There will always be things to do, to remember, and so on.
However, you do not have to solve open loops, to get rid of them. The problem is not the problems themselves but that you keep thinking of them. So the solution is to not think of them any more. How? By using technology. Really advanced technology.
Write down the open loops. That’s it. By writing them down, your brain can let them go. This works better with things without emotional charge. If your open loop is severe trauma, writing it down will not be enough. But such big things are more than open loops. Now I am talking about things which are not trauma.
How should you write them down? It doesn't matter. It can be physical or digital. What matters is that your method of storage is secure and easily accessible. So you should write them down in one place, not a thousand. One to which you have easy access. So not hidden in an obscure folder on your computer. And that you consider secure. So not a story on Instagram.
When should you write them down? There are two moments . One is a moment of intentionally taking stock of these open loops. This should be some time in the evening, but more than an hour before bed. One good moment is when you finish work. This prevents open loops from the work day. And it creates a tangible separation of work from personal life.
Then there is the second moment, which is whenever such an open loop appears. For this it’s good to have a portable note-taking method. I use Google Keep on my phone for example. It’s quick and easy.
It’s good to have the habit to centralize all these open loops in one place. But it’s ok even if you keep them in two places.
This approach will generate a lot of to do tasks as most open loops become one. But it’s important to note you don’t have to actually solve all of them. For some, after some time you realize you don’t need to solve them.
You need to write them down so they don’t occupy your mind. Then you should decide for each if it is worth the effort to solve it.
This does not have to be a conscious effort. You can just observe what you don’t do. And then the next day only pass on the tasks that you think worth doing, not all of them just because they are there.
Minimum effective dose
Closing open loops in the evening before sleep
Potential trigger for the behavior
There are multiple possible triggers for closing open loops. One is the bedtime routine. Another is whenever you feel overwhelmed. Another is the morning routine, if you wake up with a mind full of things to do.
Advanced versions
Practice letting go
Writing open loops down is a great way for most of them. However not all. Open loops with a high emotional charge tend to persist even if written down. Things like a fight with someone, or an upcoming presentation, or work task that is important and you are struggling to complete.
Such open loops are persistent. The strong emotions associated with them are a signal to your unconscious that they are important matters that you need to address. You need training to escape them.
This training is meditation. Meditation is letting go of thoughts. The more you practice it, the easier you can let go in other moments as well. Having a mediation practice is useful, even if it is only 10 minutes per day. To optimize for sleep most, this should be at some point in the evening.
Second brain method
There are systems out there for Knowledge management and task management. Basically they try to help you externalize your knowledge and list of things to do. In a way writing down open loops is a basic version. If you want, you can go much further into systems that promise higher organization, productivity and creativity. They promise to help you have an organized storage of your knowledge, ideas, tasks.
I do not have sufficient experience with any of them to make definite recommendations. I only mention them because they can be an even more effective way to solve open loops, if they work.
The most known are GTD or getting things done, which focused on tasks management, without the knowledge part, and it’s kind of complicated. Then there is zettelkasten which is more for knowledge managements. And the new kid of the block is ‘Building your second brain’. Accompanying these systems, there are various apps, like Roam, Obsidian, Notion, Evernote and so on.
If you consider this, know there is a significant upfront cost. You need to learn the new system and ingrain the habits to use it. This is most often the failure point. Also you should be careful in your choice of software. You want for it to last a long time and to have the option to export in a usable format in case it goes obsolete.
Scientific research supporting it
Zeigarnik effect
Goal attainment and memory suppression: Zeigernik reloaded
Undermining the Zeigarnik effect: Another hidden cost of reward
The Hemingway effect: How failing to finish a task can have a positive effect on
motivation
Remembering and Regretting: The Zeigarnik Effect and the Cognitive Availability of Regrettable Actions and Inactions
Zeigarnik’s Sleepless Nights
Getting Things Done - David Allen
Deep Work - Cal Newport
2. Eat the frog
Mark Twain once said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
It means you should start by doing the task you want to avoid, the most difficult one, aka ‘the frog’. The idea is that by doing the most unpleasant thing first, you gain multiple benefits.
Why it’s good
First benefit is that you achieve said task instead of procrastinating it indefinitely. This is easier overall as the procrastination is an open loop sucking you of cognitive and emotional power.
Second is you get a sense of achievement by doing the hard thing which is a momentum to keep on doing things.
Third is that other tasks feel much easier by comparison.
Fourth is that in time this leads to much higher feeling of agency over your own actions. Thus you feel more empower and capable to control your own behavior and destiny. And thus gain more success.
Minimum effective dose
Once per day is more than enough
Potential trigger for the behavior
When you start working on the day’s tasks
Advanced version
A natural evolution of this idea changes the to-do list itself. Often we get bogged down in endless to-do lists. There is so much on your daily list, that it is impossible to do everything. This is demoralizing and can lead to not doing any of the tasks.
One solution is to have one big task to accomplish for the day. The other tasks don’t disappear, but they become less important. If you do the big thing, then you can say the day was good. Thus you make sure to do the most important thing first.
Scientific research supporting it (some of it)
Behave by Robert Sapolsky
An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function
A neuro-metabolic account of why daylong cognitive work alters the control of economic decisions
On the role of the prefrontal cortex in fatigue effects on cognitive flexibility - a system neurophysiological approach
Self-regulation and depletion of limited resources: does self-control resemble a muscle?
Motivation and cognitive control: from behavior to neural mechanism
The architecture of cognitive control in the human prefrontal cortex
3. First meal of the day should include protein, fat and vegetables
First meal of the day is breakfast. This does not mean it has to be in the morning. Breakfast is literally the meal that breaks the overnight fast.
Current popular breakfast choices are carb-heavy: pancakes, cereal, doughnuts, fries, croissant, pastry, toast. Others are almost the opposite: eggs, sausage, bacon, omelet with various vegetables.
What is the right breakfast? Depends on your taste. But it needs to include protein, fat and vegetables. If you add carbs also, it’s up to you. If you add sugar or honey something like that, again optional, but I would advise against it.
The wrong breakfast is when you have just carbs. Or predominantly carbs with some fat, without meaningful protein or vegetables.
Why it’s good
There are multiple benefits of this breakfast:
Insulin control
Insulin spikes are sudden increases in the levels of insulin in the bloodstream. Insulin is necessary for regulating blood sugar levels. But it has to remain within a certain range. Every spike is harmful.
The dangers of insulin spikes include:
Increased risk of developing insulin resistance, which can lead to type 2 diabetes
Increased risk of cardiovascular disease
Increased risk of obesity and weight gain
Increased risk of inflammation
Increased risk of certain types of cancer
Preventing insulin spikes is key to health.
Insulin response to food depends on your body but also on the food itself. A piece of candy is much more ‘spikey’ than a stalk of celery.
You can prevent insulin spikes by eating less so that it does not cause a spike. But also what you eat and the order in which you eat matter.
Protein, fat and vegetables are more difficult to digest. Thus they reduce the insulin spike to a gentler curve. Thus you should include them in your breakfast.
Protein intake
On top of that, protein is important. Many people are protein deficient without realizing it. For some poorer regions, like Africa and India, this is due to poverty and (for India) cultural food specifics (Indian vegetarian diet is 84% protein-deficient). For others, it is the prevalence of processed foods which contain little protein. Look at the packaged food in your supermarket and see how much protein you get. It’s puny. You would have to overeat and get fat to ensure enough protein from packaged food alone.
How much protein should you consume? Between 1-2 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight depending on how active you are. An athlete should eat more, a sedentary person less.
That’s quite a lot. Since I have been measuring it, I have to admit it has been a struggle to eat enough protein. And I am someone who is very much a fan of meat and dairy. You need to make it a conscious choice.
Eating significant amounts of protein with your first meal is crucial to get to that overall daily quantity. And it’s efficient. Digestion is better in the first part of the day so your body will extract more protein (and other nutrients) from the food. By contrast, eating late at night yields less protein and more indigestion as digestion slows down.
Minimum effective dose
At least 40% of the calories of your breakfast should be protein+vegetables. Then some fat. And carbs.
Potential trigger for the behavior
First meal of the day (duh). In seriousness, this can necessitate a rethinking of your first meal. Meat and eggs usually need cooking, unlike say doughnuts from a store. You can either develop the habit of cooking the first meal. Or you can adopt the habit of having leftovers from the previous day’s meals.
Advanced version
Nutrition is an area of countless variations and arguments about everything. I don’t want to go into discussions on diets.
What I can recommend as an advanced version is to ensue your breakfast does not have risky ingredients. For example eating cooked liver is not the same as eating a ham sandwich or bacon even though you might technically get the same amount of protein. Deli meats usually have other ingredients besides meat, such as nitrates and sugar. These are harmful.
A simple rule of thumb is that if something was not eaten in your part of the world in significant quantities three hundred years ago, then you should verify the research on whether it is safe or not.
Incidentally that rules out most packaged foods just by looking at the ingredients, never mind the production methods.
Scientific research supporting it
Outlive by Peter Attia
The Diabetes Code by Jason Fung
Protein for Life: Review of Optimal Protein Intake, Sustainable Dietary Sources and the Effect on Appetite in Ageing Adults
Optimal protein intake in the elderly
The role of dietary protein in optimizing muscle mass, function and health outcomes in older individuals
Amount, Source and Pattern of Dietary Protein Intake Across the Adult Lifespan: A Cross-Sectional Study
Dietary protein content for an optimal diet: a clinical view
Blood Glucose Monitoring
Walk after eating
Take a walk after your meal.
Why it’s good
The main benefit is improved glucose and insulin response. Walking helps our body respond in a more healthy way to a meal.
I wore a continuous glucose monitor for some time. It measures the glucose in your bloodstream. High spikes are unhealthy because they mean high insulin spikes. Also they have other direct negative effects. Walking reduced the glucose spikes significantly.
Don’t take my word for it. Scientists have tested this. Controlled experiments with people walking or not after the same meal. Walking reduced the glucose spike.
It’s an easy and pleasant way to improve your health.
Minimum effective dose
Any walk is good. At least 10 minutes would be advisable. It should also be brisk walking.
Potential trigger for the behavior
Eating. Especially if it is a large meal when you feel full and lethargic. That is a sign you are in a glucose spike and you should definitely go for a walk.
Advanced version
It’s not running after a meal. That’s a ticket to belly aches. Rather advanced version is to have a 30 minute brisk walk after a large meal. Do it in nature (if you can). The long duration maximizes the benefit.
Scientific research supporting it
Impact of post-meal and one-time daily exercise in patient with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a randomized crossover study
Control Blood Sugar Levels by Brisk Walking Method
Effects of Walking and Physical Activity on Glucose Regulation among Type 2 Diabetics
The Effect of Walking on Postprandial Glycemic Excursion in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes and Healthy People
Slow post-meal walking reduces postprandial glycemia in middle-aged women
5. Spend time just thinking
This sounds stupid, I know. We think all the time. However, not all thinking is the same. I am talking about conscious intentional thinking. So when you think not in response to external stimuli.
It means doing nothing. You don’t watch video, use a device, read, do something with your hands, do sports, do a hobby, talk, or anything else. You sit (or stand) and think. Or you walk and think.
Why it’s good
This feels unpleasant because it is initially boring. We dislike lack of external stimulation and this manifests as boredom. There is a long discussion why we evolved boredom. The short version is that is unproductive in the short term.
However in our complex Anthropocene world, we have the opposite problem. We have too much stimulation. On average we each exposed to 34 GB of information everyday. The default is to spend every second processing external stimuli and responding to them.
We need to intentionally carve out space for our own thinking. This thinking is important because it is how you process the big picture, how you adjust your identity with conscious input and how you plan your future. Without such thinking, you are an automaton responding to external input. In a (flawed) metaphor, without such thinking, humans are no different than ChatGPT in a biological body.
Minimum effective dose
Five minutes of thinking. That’s it. Put a timer and spend five minutes doing nothing but thinking without external stimuli.
Potential trigger for the behavior
It could be the walk after eating if it is something you do alone.
Another trigger could be the conclusion of a task. Before the next one, you can move and think as a pause.
Yet another trigger can be a specific moment of the day. For example early morning is good for some people. Mid-day for others. And evening for others.
Advanced version
Do this thinking multiple times per day every day.
Also doing it for long periods is a useful advanced version. For example going for a long walk without any devices. Or having a day (or half a day) of the week where you have no device usage. This of course means you can still get stimulated by non-digital stuff, but it is still a much lower level which leaves a lot of room for thinking.
Another variant is to ban distraction from liminal moments. These are those small moments where you wait for something. Things like moments of waiting in cooking, going to the toilet, waiting for water to boil, for coffee to be prepared, in line at a store or anywhere else, and so on.
Scientific research supporting it
In this case I cite mainly books which have together hundreds of studies cited.
Deep Work - Cal Newport
Stand Out of Our Light - James William
Stolen Focus - Johann Hari
Four Thousand Weeks - Oliver Burkeman
Dopamine Nation - Anna Lembke
Pleasure systems in the brain
Saliency, switching, attention and control: a network model of insula function
Formation of global self-beliefs in the human brain
Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
The Welfare Effects of Social Media
Brain anatomy alterations associated with Social Networking Site (SNS) addiction
Dating and Relationships in the Digital Age
Links
List Of Questions Gwern Is Curious About. Why cats love earwax? Why are furries influential compared to other fetishes? Why are there so few pairs of extremely successful identical twins? Why did it take so long to invent Brazilian jiu-jitsu? Why are short stories so much less popular than they used to be? Why do East Asians have so many famous numbered lists? And many more.
Study on what music nudges us awake best. Top of the list is Coldplay “Viva la Vida”. Of course, best is to wake up without any alarm, and thus any music.
We know how the Catholic Church was anti-science and persecuted Galileo. But a recent paper puts a new spin on the story, arguing that the Church only started being anti-science after the Counter-Reformation. "Across Europe, Catholic and Protestant cities had shared comparable numbers of scientists per capita prior to the Counter-Reformation, but Catholic cities experienced a cataclysmic relative decline precisely when the Counter-Reformation was implemented . . . the shock persisted in the long term . . . overall, the Counter-Reformation appears to be one of the largest shocks to science in human history."
Alexey Guzey changed his mind - he now agrees with everyone else that getting 6+ hours of sleep is better than getting less than that.
Weird either-genius-or-crackpot diet blog (failed but interesting experiments, successful experiment). Not endorsing this diet, I have no idea if it works. If you try this ex150 diet, email me the results.
Weird either-genius-or-crackpot anthropology blog (origin of pronouns, snake cult theory of everything). Again, not endorsing this.
AI Fashion Week is taking place. A perfect example on useless effort from a hype. Clothes imagined by algorithms without the vaguest consideration of how to actually produce said clothes.
Quote to ponder
“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”
― Samuel Johnson
If you found this useful, let me know.
The ideal life is easy when you know what you need,
Victor
Mulțumesc pentru motivare! De unele lucruri din acest articol știam, dar faptul că l-am citit mi-a adus aminte ca trebuie sa găsesc o modalitate de a reveni la rutină.
Fantastic