Group Rationality Diary, January 1-15

therufs

Happy new year to those who are celebrating! This is the public group rationality diary for January 1-15.

It's a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like:

Established a useful new habit

Obtained new evidence that made you change your mind about some belief

Decided to behave in a different way in some set of situations

Optimized some part of a common routine or cached behavior

Consciously changed your emotions or affect with respect to something

Consciously pursued new valuable information about something that could make a big difference in your life

Learned something new about your beliefs, behavior, or life that surprised you

Tried doing any of the above and failed

Or anything else interesting which you want to share, so that other people can think about it, and perhaps be inspired to take action themselves. Try to include enough details so that everyone can use each other's experiences to learn about what tends to work out, and what doesn't tend to work out.

Thanks to cata for starting the Group Rationality Diary posts, and to commenters for participating.

Next diary: January 16-31

Previous diary: December 16-31

Rationality diaries archive

Happy new year to those who are celebrating! This is the public group rationality diary for January 1-15.

It's a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like:

Established a useful new habit

Obtained new evidence that made you change your mind about some belief

Decided to behave in a different way in some set of situations

Optimized some part of a common routine or cached behavior

Consciously changed your emotions or affect with respect to something

Consciously pursued new valuable information about something that could make a big difference in your life

Learned something new about your beliefs, behavior, or life that surprised you

Tried doing any of the above and failed

Or anything else interesting which you want to share, so that other people can think about it, and perhaps be inspired to take action themselves. Try to include enough details so that everyone can use each other's experiences to learn about what tends to work out, and what doesn't tend to work out.

Thanks to cata for starting the Group Rationality Diary posts, and to commenters for participating.

Next diary: January 16-31

Previous diary: December 16-31

Rationality diaries archive

Overall goal: Attempt to survive until medical science reaches actuarial escape velocity for my income bracket.

Last year's main New Year's Resolution: Remove sugary/caffeinated drinks as a staple of my diet.

Method: Started buying grapefruit-flavoured Perrier instead of pop. Discovered rooibos is a decent replacement for regular tea.

Result: High level of success. I still tend to unthinkingly default to pop or iced tea at restaurants, but don't really touch the stuff at home.

This year's main New Year's Resolution: Gain better control of my sleep cycle.

Side-note: Circadian cycle was much improved for a while a month ago, while house-sitting. Possible cause: Rarely bothered using artificial light. Possible cause: Dog demanding food every morning.

Methods so far: Replaced bed-side light with a remote-controlled colour-changing bulb, which I leave on 'red'. Installed f.lux to redden laptop screen after sunset. Am attempting to revive a custom from my childhood, the "half-hour", a period before the intended bedtime for relaxation. Added wake and sleep alarms to phone. Bookmarked a page on microdose melatonin to read in the next few days. Network TV hasn't been great for last few seasons, am expecting to stop bothering with any show broadcast in late prime-time.

Success so far: Started 'half-hour' at 9:30pm, with sleep-time supposed to start at 10pm. Currently 1:30am, still awake. Am expecting to feel urges to have mid-day siestas; planning on resisting urges to increase sleepiness at planned bedtime.