hugh comments on Open Thread: March 2010 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: AdeleneDawner 01 March 2010 09:25AM

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Comment author: hugh 02 March 2010 07:57:05PM *  3 points [-]

You indicated that you had trouble maintaining the behavior of getting daily morning light. Ask someone who 1) likes talking to you, 2) is generally up at that hour, and 3) is free to talk on the phone, to call you most mornings. They can set an alarm on their phone and have a 2 minute chat with you each day.

In my experience if I can pick up the phone (which admittedly can be difficult), the conversation is enough of a distraction and a motivation to get outside, and then inertia is enough to keep me out there.

The reason I chose my father is that he is an early riser, self-employed, and he would like to talk to me more than he gets to. You might not have someone like that in your life, but if you do, it is minimally intrusive to them, and may be a big help to you.

Comment author: MixedNuts 02 March 2010 08:22:23PM 2 points [-]

This sounds like a great idea. I have a strong impulse to answer phones, so if I put the phone far enough from my bed I had to get up to answer it, I'd get past the biggest obstacle.

There are two minor problems: None of the people I know have free time early in the morning, but two minutes is manageable. When outside, I'm not sure what to do so there's a risk I'd get anxious and default to going home.

I'll try it, thanks.

Comment author: jimmy 02 March 2010 08:12:47PM 1 point [-]

If you're going to go to the trouble of talking to someone every morning, you might as well see their face:

http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2009/10/15/more-about-faces-and-mood-2/

Seth found that his mood the next day was significantly improved if he saw enough faces the previous morning. There was a LessWronger that posted somewhere that this trick helped him a lot, but I can't remember who or where right now.

Comment author: MixedNuts 02 March 2010 09:01:03PM 2 points [-]

I see quite a lot of faces in the morning already. Maybe not early enough? Though I'm pretty skeptical; it looks like it'd work best for extroverted neurotypicals, and I'm neither. I added it to the list of tricks, but I'll try others first.