Path of the Lark 2: At the End of the Rainbow
In May of this year, I described an experiment on the transition from the state of "owl" to the "lark" mode - getting up at 5 am every day. At the time of publication of the article, the experiment lasted half a month and had the following results and bonuses:
Minuses:
Since then, much time has passed. Received several times questions on different channels about the results. Perhaps someone else will be interested. And it will be useful for me to arrange them in my head.
The experiment lasted until the end of September. Not bad, considering that the initial planned duration was a month, and it began in April. And it cannot be said that it ended, because the changes in life and routine were significant. They can be divided into two subthemes. They are under the cut. The article contains only a description of personal experience and is a logical conclusion to the previous one.
The main reason for lifting the lift at 5 am was the realization that learning to play guitar on a computer game is not quite the right way. The game “Rocksmith 2014” is beautiful, but you need to know the base. This thought came to me when I realized that I actually had to relearn myself after each addition of a chord or even one note to a melody. Yes, and my study painfully looks like a training - to pull and press the right places of the guitar on the corresponding signal from the screen with reinforcements in the form of sensations "I did."
The value of basic knowledge in the study of any subject area is finally strengthened in my mind (the first revelation came after six months of aikido training). I even began to view the instructions for the devices before the practical acquaintance.
As a result, in order not to acquire skills, from which I would have to retrain, I put the guitar aside until I had gone through some basic course at least. The released morning hour was occupied for some time by the working draft, then, when it was over, by watching lectures with coursera.org, but the last option of spending time with the body was not perceived as essential and gradually disappeared, under the pressure of growing fatigue and need a dream.
The second reason, or rather the reason for the aforementioned need for sleep, was that the start of the experiment coincided with the dismissal of my partner at work and, as a result, the significantly increased workload. In general, over the past year I had the opportunity to learn, learn and develop skills more than a total of three years before. It was very interesting, but exhaustingly, a kind of “pumping at limits” in terms of the MMORPG. By October, I felt the devastation and the need for rest, significantly reduced activity and switched to energy-saving mode. Certainly I can be attributed to the sprinter, not the stayer .
Average bedtime: 23:30, rise 6-6: 30. Early ups no longer scare, do not cause negativity. Starting a day earlier, nevertheless, is more productive than blunting a monitor in half a night, the semi-annual experience allows us to say this with confidence. Sleep has become more stable (in terms of regime and duration), caffeine has become less needed. Work schedule remained from 8 to 17, which gives more freedom in the after-work time. In particular, allowed me to complete an English course. Part of the practice fell off due to energy savings and rethinking - aikido in September, the guitar in the summer - but a new direction of self-realization has emerged. Not everything planned for the year was fulfilled, but in general, the year can be rated as successful. But more about that in the next subtopic.
In the comments to the first part there were a number of critical remarks on the theme that sweeping at too many, so to say, “hobbies” (aikido, guitar, new field of activity at work, English, psychology), I have every chance not to achieve Any significant results in anything.
That's right.
As practice has shown, at a certain point the less significant falls off, saving energy for the more important. Looking back, I can characterize my pattern of behavior as a way out of the impasse of self-realization and self-development. I will give a simple example. Four and a half years ago, when I was the head of the system administrators team, I read a number of “managerial” books to develop my managerial and organizational skills — David Allen, Gleb Arkhangelsky, Lister with DeMarco, and so on. I also came across some inspirational articles on personal growth from Steve Pavlin and someone else (where are the ideas about 30-day habits, for example). Since then, the ideas of personal growth, self-development and self-organization have taken hold of my mind. As one of the tools, I defined reading for myself. I committed myself to occupying them with all the “leaking” free time — in transport, in waiting, in long queues, etc. With a stream of even 4 books a month, the question “what to read next?” Quickly arises - familiar authors end and become boring, as is the case with music. I started asking friends and casual acquaintances to recommend something, collecting titles and authors of books in social networks and blogs. My list of ToRead was fantastically motley - from my favorite at that time Stephen King and Roger Zelazny to the “History of Culture”, various esoteric and Kara-Murza. Even if I didn’t understand something in the narration (this applied to non-fiction literature), but the book did not seem meaningless or useless to me, I forced myself to read it, simply forming neural connections and filling my subconscious with baggage. Gradually, non-fiction displaced fiction. Now more than half of the reading book is psychology, there is a specific goal to go to a psychology faculty next year to get a second higher education, there is no longer any need to search and receive recommendations - even if I’ll quit everything now and only read, I’ll have enough literature for every second book read increases this list.
However, if I five years ago, instead of concentrating on the process of “necessarily reading something”, tried to focus on a specific subject area, it’s far from a fact that I would even know that I am very interested in psychology as a whole and in transactional analysis in particular. It's funny, considering that for a long time I was sure that the focus on the process, and not on the goal and the result, is either a myth or an imitation of work.
Therefore, when my professional or personal development comes to a standstill, I release a batch of reconnaissance probes - new directions for activity, research and experience.
And besides, knowledge is not superfluous. Over time, you can make sure that even with seemingly unrelated fields of activity have much in common. For example, the basics of aikido help in mastering the guitar - the importance of correct body posture is realized, economy of movements, muscles should be tense only in those parts of the body that are currently involved, again concentration. Rich IT experience helps in the study of foreign languages ​​- we learn not by memorization, but by clarifying the system, common principles and rules. Game theory, specifically the “prisoner's dilemma” helped to better understand the principle of Storage IO Control . And so on.
On this subject, I pulls a long and thoughtful grovel. There were even thoughts about the career of a personal growth coach, but this profession is so vulgarized, and the whole essence of the teaching, if you think about it, can be reduced to one sentence - continue to evolve continuously and success will follow. And everything else - coaching fog and the personal path of each.
')
As already said, the goals associated with the guitar and aikido, temporarily frozen. In English, a significant breakthrough, not fluent, of course, but I can communicate and read books (at the beginning of the year I could only read the technical text). And at the end of the year, as already mentioned, discovered a new direction of implementation. The fact is that over the past 2 years I have visited 6 IT courses (virtualization, storage) and was horrified by the level of teaching in Russia (the only adequate level of knowledge transfer was EMC, in English, with a teacher invited from Europe ; in all other cases, the most valuable thing that was rendered is a training manual). And I visited the following ideas: a) I know how to study, systematize and share new information, b) I have extensive practical experience, c) I like to learn new things and I know that the best way to learn the material is to try to bring it to someone. In short, I decided to become an instructor of courses and make every effort to dilute the level of mediocrity in the teaching environment. This idea ignited me, even though I was an introvert all my life and speaking to people is death for me. However, the last course on VMware vCloud in Softline finished me off and tipped the scales in the right direction. It was hard to force myself to conduct trial lessons, I was delaying for a long time, but in the end, on January 19, my first course on Windows Server starts. While in the format of the evening, because I do not plan to leave the main work. In the future, it will be necessary to take the VMware-direction, but the procedure for becoming an MCT was clearer and cheaper than VCI, and there is more experience with Microsoft Core Infrastructure.
Again, I am not sure that I would decide on such a psychological breakthrough for myself if, first, I had not already received one significant achievement (change in the owl schedule), and second, I did not free up more free time.
- There was a time to practice a guitar (Rocksmith 2014, morning).
- Due to the shift of the work schedule an hour ago, the opportunity to attend previously unavailable workouts (from 18:00).
- There was a time to learn English (access to groups from 18:00, morning).
- More comfortable way to work and from work (metro until rush hour).
- Normal breakfasts.
- Subjectively increased the duration of the day
Minuses:
- Computer games are gone.
- They began to watch movies less. In general, joint activities on weekdays became less (although more on weekends)
- 6 hours of sleep, however, is not enough with an active lifestyle, even (or especially) if the main activity occurs in the brain.
Since then, much time has passed. Received several times questions on different channels about the results. Perhaps someone else will be interested. And it will be useful for me to arrange them in my head.
The experiment lasted until the end of September. Not bad, considering that the initial planned duration was a month, and it began in April. And it cannot be said that it ended, because the changes in life and routine were significant. They can be divided into two subthemes. They are under the cut. The article contains only a description of personal experience and is a logical conclusion to the previous one.
Mode and early rise
The main reason for lifting the lift at 5 am was the realization that learning to play guitar on a computer game is not quite the right way. The game “Rocksmith 2014” is beautiful, but you need to know the base. This thought came to me when I realized that I actually had to relearn myself after each addition of a chord or even one note to a melody. Yes, and my study painfully looks like a training - to pull and press the right places of the guitar on the corresponding signal from the screen with reinforcements in the form of sensations "I did."
The value of basic knowledge in the study of any subject area is finally strengthened in my mind (the first revelation came after six months of aikido training). I even began to view the instructions for the devices before the practical acquaintance.
As a result, in order not to acquire skills, from which I would have to retrain, I put the guitar aside until I had gone through some basic course at least. The released morning hour was occupied for some time by the working draft, then, when it was over, by watching lectures with coursera.org, but the last option of spending time with the body was not perceived as essential and gradually disappeared, under the pressure of growing fatigue and need a dream.
The second reason, or rather the reason for the aforementioned need for sleep, was that the start of the experiment coincided with the dismissal of my partner at work and, as a result, the significantly increased workload. In general, over the past year I had the opportunity to learn, learn and develop skills more than a total of three years before. It was very interesting, but exhaustingly, a kind of “pumping at limits” in terms of the MMORPG. By October, I felt the devastation and the need for rest, significantly reduced activity and switched to energy-saving mode. Certainly I can be attributed to the sprinter, not the stayer .
Results
Average bedtime: 23:30, rise 6-6: 30. Early ups no longer scare, do not cause negativity. Starting a day earlier, nevertheless, is more productive than blunting a monitor in half a night, the semi-annual experience allows us to say this with confidence. Sleep has become more stable (in terms of regime and duration), caffeine has become less needed. Work schedule remained from 8 to 17, which gives more freedom in the after-work time. In particular, allowed me to complete an English course. Part of the practice fell off due to energy savings and rethinking - aikido in September, the guitar in the summer - but a new direction of self-realization has emerged. Not everything planned for the year was fulfilled, but in general, the year can be rated as successful. But more about that in the next subtopic.
Concentration on the important
In the comments to the first part there were a number of critical remarks on the theme that sweeping at too many, so to say, “hobbies” (aikido, guitar, new field of activity at work, English, psychology), I have every chance not to achieve Any significant results in anything.
That's right.
As practice has shown, at a certain point the less significant falls off, saving energy for the more important. Looking back, I can characterize my pattern of behavior as a way out of the impasse of self-realization and self-development. I will give a simple example. Four and a half years ago, when I was the head of the system administrators team, I read a number of “managerial” books to develop my managerial and organizational skills — David Allen, Gleb Arkhangelsky, Lister with DeMarco, and so on. I also came across some inspirational articles on personal growth from Steve Pavlin and someone else (where are the ideas about 30-day habits, for example). Since then, the ideas of personal growth, self-development and self-organization have taken hold of my mind. As one of the tools, I defined reading for myself. I committed myself to occupying them with all the “leaking” free time — in transport, in waiting, in long queues, etc. With a stream of even 4 books a month, the question “what to read next?” Quickly arises - familiar authors end and become boring, as is the case with music. I started asking friends and casual acquaintances to recommend something, collecting titles and authors of books in social networks and blogs. My list of ToRead was fantastically motley - from my favorite at that time Stephen King and Roger Zelazny to the “History of Culture”, various esoteric and Kara-Murza. Even if I didn’t understand something in the narration (this applied to non-fiction literature), but the book did not seem meaningless or useless to me, I forced myself to read it, simply forming neural connections and filling my subconscious with baggage. Gradually, non-fiction displaced fiction. Now more than half of the reading book is psychology, there is a specific goal to go to a psychology faculty next year to get a second higher education, there is no longer any need to search and receive recommendations - even if I’ll quit everything now and only read, I’ll have enough literature for every second book read increases this list.
However, if I five years ago, instead of concentrating on the process of “necessarily reading something”, tried to focus on a specific subject area, it’s far from a fact that I would even know that I am very interested in psychology as a whole and in transactional analysis in particular. It's funny, considering that for a long time I was sure that the focus on the process, and not on the goal and the result, is either a myth or an imitation of work.
Therefore, when my professional or personal development comes to a standstill, I release a batch of reconnaissance probes - new directions for activity, research and experience.
And besides, knowledge is not superfluous. Over time, you can make sure that even with seemingly unrelated fields of activity have much in common. For example, the basics of aikido help in mastering the guitar - the importance of correct body posture is realized, economy of movements, muscles should be tense only in those parts of the body that are currently involved, again concentration. Rich IT experience helps in the study of foreign languages ​​- we learn not by memorization, but by clarifying the system, common principles and rules. Game theory, specifically the “prisoner's dilemma” helped to better understand the principle of Storage IO Control . And so on.
On this subject, I pulls a long and thoughtful grovel. There were even thoughts about the career of a personal growth coach, but this profession is so vulgarized, and the whole essence of the teaching, if you think about it, can be reduced to one sentence - continue to evolve continuously and success will follow. And everything else - coaching fog and the personal path of each.
')
Results
As already said, the goals associated with the guitar and aikido, temporarily frozen. In English, a significant breakthrough, not fluent, of course, but I can communicate and read books (at the beginning of the year I could only read the technical text). And at the end of the year, as already mentioned, discovered a new direction of implementation. The fact is that over the past 2 years I have visited 6 IT courses (virtualization, storage) and was horrified by the level of teaching in Russia (the only adequate level of knowledge transfer was EMC, in English, with a teacher invited from Europe ; in all other cases, the most valuable thing that was rendered is a training manual). And I visited the following ideas: a) I know how to study, systematize and share new information, b) I have extensive practical experience, c) I like to learn new things and I know that the best way to learn the material is to try to bring it to someone. In short, I decided to become an instructor of courses and make every effort to dilute the level of mediocrity in the teaching environment. This idea ignited me, even though I was an introvert all my life and speaking to people is death for me. However, the last course on VMware vCloud in Softline finished me off and tipped the scales in the right direction. It was hard to force myself to conduct trial lessons, I was delaying for a long time, but in the end, on January 19, my first course on Windows Server starts. While in the format of the evening, because I do not plan to leave the main work. In the future, it will be necessary to take the VMware-direction, but the procedure for becoming an MCT was clearer and cheaper than VCI, and there is more experience with Microsoft Core Infrastructure.
Again, I am not sure that I would decide on such a psychological breakthrough for myself if, first, I had not already received one significant achievement (change in the owl schedule), and second, I did not free up more free time.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/247027/
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