Limitless Executive gave a good nudge… been productive today, as a bonus.
But I’ve known for a while that I have 3 major technology rabbit-hole triggers that lead me to distraction and avoidance and feeling miserable.
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The moment I wake up, especially if especially tired, it’s easy for me to fall into starting my day on my phone. I don’t do this often, but this one is the highest impact, can ruin my whole day, and usually even 2 days, if I just do this once, because it sends me spiraling all day.
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Right after my last sales call, and I have nothing left scheduled for the day, but I still have work to do. This one isn’t as negatively impactful as tech in the mornings, but it’s the most consistent, the one I do every day, and is the one that stops me from exercising as much as I’d like, stops me from doing the “above and beyond” work I have in my career, stops me from doing the personal tasks I need to get done, and is the thing I often do in replacement of health & recovery
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1 hour before bed when I don’t want to have a grounding routine I often go and watch Shorts instead. Interesting this is the only time of day I’m interested in shorts, too. But I have the least troubles with this one these days… at one point in time, this was the big issue.
Now the issue is #2 and I haven’t been able to quite figure out how to work on it, but I figure since I love nature, I love running, I love walking, I love being in the forests, and I love having two separate work-blocks on either side of the day opposed to one massive 8-hour work block (ew!), that the action I’ll take right after my last sales call is to immediately wrap up and go for a forest walk/run. And by wrap up I mean maybe send 1-2 emails, 1-2 slack messages, and that’s it. Go straight for a run. The tasks will be there when I get back.
This is coming from a few things.
7pm yesterday, I had a conversation with my men’s group where I was exploring my thoughts and realized the happiest I ever am is when I’m consistently taking forest walks. My #1 dream on my vision board, more important than anything else, is to live right beside a forest so that I can walk there every day. … And I live in a house beside a forest NOW so I should take advantage of that.
Then at 1030pm, immediately after my men’s group, I checked my phone and someone sent me a text with an article on environmental neuroscience - the neuroscience of nature - and how it’s the most rapidly growing field of study, with some of the most impressive findings, in psychology right now.
Then this morning when I went to my concussion treatment, it was very nature-informed.
To improve my depth perception, they want me going under trees and looking at the space between the branches… they say I can do this indoors, but it’s more effective outdoors because of the curvature etc.
To improve my peripheral awareness, they want me to go to the beach and stare as deep into the horizon and as far to the left and right that I can, simultaneously.
To improve the health of my eyes, they want me following andrew huberman morning/evening sunlight routines, aka getting some sun in my eyes.
And the doctor’s assistant went so far as to say that the main doctor usually says, not in practice to patients but just casually to the staff, that most people with what I have would get totally cleared of all symptoms if they just spent 6 months in a cabin in nature - they’d get sunlight, calmer from the exposure, they’d get depth of vision that they were meant to see, it’d be less stimulating, etc.
So to have ALL THAT info about nature coming to me after less than 5 hours of awake time feels like a sign to have daily nature walks, and an LE/QL manifestation.