[toberoni]

I have a similar routine and it makes me really productive - stacking different habits is powerful.

However, in my experience this approach has one big problem: certain events (changing continents, moving, sickness, finished milestones) completely unravel my productivity for weeks or months. Once I lose the streak it's very hard to get back on track.

I either have to rebuild a new routine step by step or just procrastinate long enough until I've found a new project I can build my work day around. These periods can last several months.

Has anyone come up with strategies to cope with such breaks?

[ChanningAllen]

Makes sense. This might sound counterintuitive, but my solution is to make sure that I'm always working on multiple projects, which I call a "project stack." It's a mix of professional, social, and personal projects, so the proverbial well never runs dry and I always have something to do with my hands.

For example, in my system, "travel to X continent" is itself a project, existing alongside multiple other projects. I find this pretty helpful not just for staying in motion, but also for avoiding that sense of guilt that I haven't been productive on days when I'm dealing with these kinds of environmental change. It's a reframing: "It's not that I've been unproductive while moving. It's that I have been productive on my moving project."

[rubicon33]

Do you struggle at all with energy, or feeling burned out? Or do you have abundance of energy, but just need to harness it? Sounds like the latter...

[ChanningAllen]

By default I'm actually very low energy. Always have been. I recall my dad admonishing me many times in adolescence that he'd take me to the doctor and they'd prick me with needles if I didn't stop napping during the day.

Somewhat circularly, it's the system itself that gives me the energy to keep using the system. I know, because I've engineered it to work that way. (At first this wasn't intentional, but when I noticed the positive effects in an earlier version I systematically began to tease out those effects.)

[rubicon33]

That's really cool to hear that its actually given you energy.

How much of it do you think is that its your system that you designed, and how much of it is just the usefulness of the system?

Like does it generalize well to others?

[ChanningAllen]

> does it generalize well to others?

Numerous readers have already responded saying it's worked for them so far, but the devil's in the details I suppose. I really only shared the tip of the iceberg of how it works, and a lot of the magic [1] happens down at the level of the active work sessions.

[1] Things like website blocking, task timers, interstitial journaling, pattern interrupts, etc. (Of course, there's a certain logic to it all that I'll spell out in a future article.)

[czbond]

I operate similarly to thread OP, and manage multiple : work, personal, social, etc projects ongoing. I'm naturally high energy..... I can't sit down for long.

[neolefty]

Thank you, this is very encouraging. I've felt guilty about a new part-time project not going well, but it's my first one in my current pattern. So to consider "start a new part-time project" to be itself a project makes a lot of sense.

[csallen]

What about unexpected events, like getting sick, or getting stuck at an event for too long, or being distracted by relative, etc?

[ChanningAllen]

I can come at this from either direction, since both of the following statements are true: a) this system reduces the frequency with which unexpected events happen in the first place, and b) the unexpected events that do take place become a lot easier to handle with the system.

a) The fact that I work in conscious 90-minute chunks allows me to take steps to prevent myself from getting distracted. For example, at the planning phase of a 90-minute session, I'll usually activate a 90-minute website block using an app called Freedom [1] and turn on DND mode across all my devices. Then when the session is over, I can lower all these defenses guilt-free.

b) Say I have a friend or relative staying over, which is pretty distracting. I communicate with them upfront: "Hey, I have this routine where, first thing every morning, I do a couple hours of focused work and don't do any socializing. I even wear headphones to block distracting noise. It's not you, it's me. So would you mind just doing your thing for like an hour or two when you wake up tomorrow morning? Then we can chill and go for brunch." etc.

As far as being sick? I guess it depends on what kind of sickness we're talking about lol. I've gotten COVID, been a little hungover, and other aberrations, and usually had no problem carrying myself through just a single work session. (Notably, my first 90-minute session of the day is a routine I've deeply internalized through repetition, so it requires very little mental effort.)

[1] https://freedom.to

[friedman23]

When this happens to me it's always because of an all or nothing mentality. Even if it's not explicitly in your thought process you get that feeling that you screwed up and things aren't worth doing anymore. I think you need to become comfortable with the idea of not executing on your routine perfectly every day (for good reasons such as moving or illness).

[maneesh]

When I'm about to travel or no I'm about to go through some experience that is likely to break my habit loops, are usually set a monetary bed with a friend. I call this the bet switch mechanism: By setting up bet and being held accountable, I'm able to change the way my brain thinks about the habit and always stick through over the critical period of environment change.

I wrote about it a long time ago on my old blog when I first started using it, and dug up the link. Sorry for broken images, etc:

https://hackthesystem.com/blog/the-bet-switch-mechanism-the-...

[creakingstairs]

> certain events (changing continents, moving, sickness, finished milestones) completely unravel my productivity for weeks or months. Once I lose the streak it's very hard to get back on track.

I’ve noticed this my entire life and tried to fight it and have been mostly unsuccessful. Now I see it as an opportunity to build a new, more resilient structure in my life.

Some habits and routines seem to stick around even after big events. Some don’t. Thinking about why this is the case has been a bit illuminating for me . Also, I find those big events also help get rid of bad habits as well.

[themodelplumber]

It can help to think in terms of rest and duty cycles. If you can monitor and measure those periods, they'll more easily become part of your system in an integrative way. That is, they enhance the overall outcome.