Cut out the noise

Frequency-time spectrogram showing data recorded on NASA’s Juno spacecraft approach to Jupiter.

I need stillness to function.

At the office, I work from a tiny pod originally created to take calls in. My colleagues say it feels like a coffin. I love that coffin. Too bright colours, overdone patterns, loud sounds, and overstimulation are hell for me. 

I ruthlessly eliminate noise in my life. And yet I was blind to how noisy my habit tracker was until a new subscriber pointed it out this week. 

‘…This is a lot of habits to try to master all at ONCE.’ - Jaffa

I agreed. My tracker was tedious and inefficient. So I have taken out the things I do without prompting and that I find a hassle to document - showers, meals. And made some others clearer and more closely resembling the spirit of the goals. 

Instead of two halves of employer work, I seek to do 4 hours of focused work. Work for me is computationally intensive. Distraction-free 4-hour sprints yield higher quality results than 8-hour lunch broken stretches. I aim to get these hours in before lunch. Because I lose all will to be productive in the afternoon. 

I am opportunity hunting at the moment so the vague ‘personal work’ has been changed to a specific ‘send in an application.’ 

In all, daily habits tracked have gone from 16 every weekday to 7. 

The overarching goal remains the same. I have also afforded myself too much leeway with consistency. 

So I am turning the pressure up. Turning the noise down.

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Habit tracker for this week.