I tested the app Super Productivity. I really liked the integration with the calendar, since I'd like to integrate timeblocking and taskmanagement in one app.
However, compared to Things, it is not as smooth. Either I am stuck in my way or Things is just the better fit right now.
Still, I lack the visual appeal of time blocking. I could do it in the calender as Things also shows my calendars at the top of my today's task list. But I want to make the time blocks the central interface how I interact with my day.
I can trick Things by using tags. But the solution doesn't feel clean.
I think this problem is a distraction. I work in time blocks anyway. Perhaps, I crave external structure and validation because it is often annoying to plan each day without a clear framework if the day was planned optimally.
In training, I can provide myself with such an external framework. I plan my training week for 2-4 months at a time and then I just focus on execution. Each training day is informed by the last week's training. Easy, straightforward and because of the simplicity of training, I know without one iota of a doubt if I executed the training correctly. No [Deus deceptor] could trick me.
At least, I trained myself to consistently write 100 words per minute. Still, it is too slow for my need to not feel this constant foot on the break when I write. My suspicion is that a lot of the strange skips of content that happen when I write happen, because I already thought the content and my mind moved on.
So, another task on my skill ToDo: Relearn proper 10-finger typing. (I am not using my pinkies properly)
Perhaps, it will be viable to learn another keyboard layout like neo 2.
2025-11-19 Reading First Thing in The Morning Doesn't Feel Nice
I don't like to start with reading. I think I'll switch to something more active.
Perhaps, reading doesn't reach the intensity threshold in the morning? I have no problem with jumping out of bed and writing. But reading is another story. So, either I can make my reading more active, increasing the intensity or I have to switch to another activity for the morning practice.
Or it might be the material? Perhaps, I experiment and process something that is for fun (some fantasy source book?) to see if the material is the issue.
I decided to start my morning with writing. Writing is sufficiently intense and stimulating. So, that works.
Interestingly, My biological clock is resisting to work earlier than 3am. It might be just a mental block, looking at the clock and thinking "Nope".
But when I slept well, trained lightly and everything else lined up 3am would be 7 hours of sleep. So, it should be enough.
I wonder if I truly miss the days at which I could write in the evening. I get the night owls and their romantic feelings towards the late evening and nights, alone with the muse.
@Sascha said: 2025-11-25 Morning Writing Works Better
I decided to start my morning with writing. Writing is sufficiently intense and stimulating. So, that works.
Interestingly, My biological clock is resisting to work earlier than 3am. It might be just a mental block, looking at the clock and thinking "Nope".
But when I slept well, trained lightly and everything else lined up 3am would be 7 hours of sleep. So, it should be enough.
I wonder if I truly miss the days at which I could write in the evening. I get the night owls and their romantic feelings towards the late evening and nights, alone with the muse.
Can we say you are low on lateral stimulation and trying to balance that by starting with writing? Just curious. Playing with different workflows since my brain chemistry is fucked up.
Selen. Psychology freak.
“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”
@Sascha said: 2025-11-19 Reading First Thing in The Morning Doesn't Feel Nice
I don't like to start with reading. I think I'll switch to something more active.
In my case, when I wake up in the morning, various thoughts come to mind, and this seems to last for two to three hours. However, when I read first thing in the morning, I felt like I was (1) suppressing the thoughts and (2) forcing myself to focus on the information in front of me.
On the other hand, when I write in the morning, the thoughts that come to me are simply expressed, so the process feels smooth and unimpeded.
I wrote a 1500 word long article from scratch. It is an extended answer to a question asked on Reddit about rewriting. So, while the writing started with a spark, it still was not prepared by outlining or anything like that.
I am not so sure if such writing will be part of the morning routine. I woke up early today (3am) and wrote for 2h. The article is almost completely edited and finished. I just need to write a paragraph to provide the context of it.
So, theoretically, I could write a medium-length article per day.
At least, this experiment gave me a positive result: Writing can be done early morning. So, reading will not be part of my morning routine.
I couldn't bring myself to process a fantasy source book to see if stimulation is the missing key to a productive morning session for me. Perhaps, it is a "bitter" pill that I have to swallow.
My goal is to create a very stable and predictable morning practice with the same type of action every morning. I am after those sweet performance gains of creating a good and strong habit.
@iylock I feel the same, too. In my case, I feel that reading fell victim to overstimulation. Even when I was in my teens, I'd read for 8 hours with no problem. Sure, it was for fun and I picked the books just for that reason. But even in university, I still would read a book a day (not everyday), even if it was technical. So, I will still make an effort to make reading papers work, since it would improve my workflow quite a bit.
Then at 8am: Running with a tank top seems to be enough to reactivate my cold adaptation (I use to do 30min to-neck immersion in 0°C/24°F water with not shivering). Doing my morning run later also gives me the chance to get natural light in my face and eyes.
I tweaked my carb intake a little bit (alternating low carb and high carb)
My energy seem to have recovered to the level of my early/mid 30s. (I am training much less and less intensive which helps a lot).
So, this old man got some years to run before he needs to start walking.
This means that I will retest reading and processing papers in the morning to test if my problems were an energy issue.
This morning, my work was scattered. I couldn't identify a good focus, so I cleaned up the tabs in the browser, processed article ideas and such. So, low-value busy work I could've done when low on energy.
The main reason was that I couldn't figure out anything that wasn't editing the manuscript. In hindsight, I should've fallen back to editing as a safety measure. However, I am still committed to use my morning hours to develop a stable and structured practice, doing one type of practice 6 times per week.
At least, I have to pick a core activity for the next weeks.
Either I am focussing on one project or I am focussing on a type of task (processing books, writing articles, editing articles).
But what I am currently doing is to slowly solve the problem. Long thinking is not a term that I like. It seems an inappropriate reification of just being persistent when you work on a problem. But perhaps, I am past the zeitgeist which happens often.
Within this week, I'll have to make a decision.
Either I will focus on one project (the finishing of the English translation will be the next one but just for 2 weeks or something like that) or I will focus on zeroing into a topic.
I settled to focus on editing the manuscript. This will give me a couple of days to delay my decision.
It is likely that I will come up with a project that I will pursue each morning and then the rest of the available time in my schedule. I'll have to take care about alignment. The project needs to move a lot of goals forward.
Comments
2025-11-18 ADHD tools for non-ADHD
I tested the app Super Productivity. I really liked the integration with the calendar, since I'd like to integrate timeblocking and taskmanagement in one app.
However, compared to Things, it is not as smooth. Either I am stuck in my way or Things is just the better fit right now.
Still, I lack the visual appeal of time blocking. I could do it in the calender as Things also shows my calendars at the top of my today's task list. But I want to make the time blocks the central interface how I interact with my day.
I can trick Things by using tags. But the solution doesn't feel clean.
I think this problem is a distraction. I work in time blocks anyway. Perhaps, I crave external structure and validation because it is often annoying to plan each day without a clear framework if the day was planned optimally.
In training, I can provide myself with such an external framework. I plan my training week for 2-4 months at a time and then I just focus on execution. Each training day is informed by the last week's training. Easy, straightforward and because of the simplicity of training, I know without one iota of a doubt if I executed the training correctly. No [Deus deceptor] could trick me.
At least, I trained myself to consistently write 100 words per minute. Still, it is too slow for my need to not feel this constant foot on the break when I write. My suspicion is that a lot of the strange skips of content that happen when I write happen, because I already thought the content and my mind moved on.
So, another task on my skill ToDo: Relearn proper 10-finger typing. (I am not using my pinkies properly)
Perhaps, it will be viable to learn another keyboard layout like neo 2.
I am a Zettler
That's 3.5h later, does the old lady not mind the extra sleep?
Author at Zettelkasten.de • https://christiantietze.de/
2025-11-19 Reading First Thing in The Morning Doesn't Feel Nice
I don't like to start with reading. I think I'll switch to something more active.
Perhaps, reading doesn't reach the intensity threshold in the morning? I have no problem with jumping out of bed and writing. But reading is another story. So, either I can make my reading more active, increasing the intensity or I have to switch to another activity for the morning practice.
Or it might be the material? Perhaps, I experiment and process something that is for fun (some fantasy source book?) to see if the material is the issue.
I am a Zettler
2025-11-25 Morning Writing Works Better
I decided to start my morning with writing. Writing is sufficiently intense and stimulating. So, that works.
Interestingly, My biological clock is resisting to work earlier than 3am. It might be just a mental block, looking at the clock and thinking "Nope".
But when I slept well, trained lightly and everything else lined up 3am would be 7 hours of sleep. So, it should be enough.
I wonder if I truly miss the days at which I could write in the evening. I get the night owls and their romantic feelings towards the late evening and nights, alone with the muse.
I am a Zettler
Can we say you are low on lateral stimulation and trying to balance that by starting with writing? Just curious. Playing with different workflows since my brain chemistry is fucked up.
Selen. Psychology freak.
“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin
What do you mean by "lateral stimulation"? Never heard that term.
I am a Zettler
In my case, when I wake up in the morning, various thoughts come to mind, and this seems to last for two to three hours. However, when I read first thing in the morning, I felt like I was (1) suppressing the thoughts and (2) forcing myself to focus on the information in front of me.
On the other hand, when I write in the morning, the thoughts that come to me are simply expressed, so the process feels smooth and unimpeded.
2025-12-01 Writing works somewhat
I wrote a 1500 word long article from scratch. It is an extended answer to a question asked on Reddit about rewriting. So, while the writing started with a spark, it still was not prepared by outlining or anything like that.
I am not so sure if such writing will be part of the morning routine. I woke up early today (3am) and wrote for 2h. The article is almost completely edited and finished. I just need to write a paragraph to provide the context of it.
So, theoretically, I could write a medium-length article per day.
At least, this experiment gave me a positive result: Writing can be done early morning. So, reading will not be part of my morning routine.
I couldn't bring myself to process a fantasy source book to see if stimulation is the missing key to a productive morning session for me. Perhaps, it is a "bitter" pill that I have to swallow.
My goal is to create a very stable and predictable morning practice with the same type of action every morning. I am after those sweet performance gains of creating a good and strong habit.
@iylock I feel the same, too. In my case, I feel that reading fell victim to overstimulation. Even when I was in my teens, I'd read for 8 hours with no problem. Sure, it was for fun and I picked the books just for that reason. But even in university, I still would read a book a day (not everyday), even if it was technical. So, I will still make an effort to make reading papers work, since it would improve my workflow quite a bit.
I am a Zettler
2025-12-02 Biohacking For President
Morning energy increases. My evening drink is.
MCT-oil
valerian + zinc + vitamin C + magnesium
Then at 8am: Running with a tank top seems to be enough to reactivate my cold adaptation (I use to do 30min to-neck immersion in 0°C/24°F water with not shivering). Doing my morning run later also gives me the chance to get natural light in my face and eyes.
I tweaked my carb intake a little bit (alternating low carb and high carb)
My energy seem to have recovered to the level of my early/mid 30s. (I am training much less and less intensive which helps a lot).
So, this old man got some years to run before he needs to start walking.
This means that I will retest reading and processing papers in the morning to test if my problems were an energy issue.
I am a Zettler
2025-12-03 It is time to tie everything together
This morning, my work was scattered. I couldn't identify a good focus, so I cleaned up the tabs in the browser, processed article ideas and such. So, low-value busy work I could've done when low on energy.
The main reason was that I couldn't figure out anything that wasn't editing the manuscript. In hindsight, I should've fallen back to editing as a safety measure. However, I am still committed to use my morning hours to develop a stable and structured practice, doing one type of practice 6 times per week.
At least, I have to pick a core activity for the next weeks.
I am a Zettler
2025-12-04 Long Thinking
Either I am focussing on one project or I am focussing on a type of task (processing books, writing articles, editing articles).
But what I am currently doing is to slowly solve the problem. Long thinking is not a term that I like. It seems an inappropriate reification of just being persistent when you work on a problem. But perhaps, I am past the zeitgeist which happens often.
Within this week, I'll have to make a decision.
Either I will focus on one project (the finishing of the English translation will be the next one but just for 2 weeks or something like that) or I will focus on zeroing into a topic.
I am a Zettler
2025-12-05 Settling
I settled to focus on editing the manuscript. This will give me a couple of days to delay my decision.
It is likely that I will come up with a project that I will pursue each morning and then the rest of the available time in my schedule. I'll have to take care about alignment. The project needs to move a lot of goals forward.
I am a Zettler
2025-12-08 Morning Practice?
So, as announced: The manuscript doesn't yield any meaningful work for my morning shift. That means, I have to pick something else.
I might process three books (two by Scott Young and one by McPherson).
I am a Zettler