Group Rationality Diary, September 1-15

therufs

This is the public group instrumental rationality diary for September 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: September 16-30

Immediate past diary: August 16-31

Rationality Diaries archive

This is the public group instrumental rationality diary for September 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: September 16-30

Immediate past diary: August 16-31

Rationality Diaries archive

I discovered that deciding exactly when I am going to worry about things I need to worry about at some other time, and putting them on my calendar, is effective in getting me to quit worrying about them now. Example: "This carpet is gross; I am going to keep focusing on my project for one more hour, then vacuum."

I have also discovered that there are a lot of things I don't actually need to worry about at any particular time -- i.e., they can be worried about when they become relevant. These don't go on the calendar, because the event they are related to coming up will trigger solving them. Example: "Where do we want to go for dinner?"

Sometimes the trigger event never happens. Thus, worry-procrastination basically eliminates worrying about things that don't happen, and the concomitant time wasted, attention diverted from tasks at hand, etc. Example: "What if friend is upset because I missed their call?", and friend isn't upset.

I still need practice at (a) identifying worry; (b) not doing it until scheduled.