Stop being a bot and become a human again — Introduction
I will share with you the most important tips to avoid wasting your time and your energy every day.
This story will be split into six specific posts, including useful books, apps, and methodologies. So let me introduce my story and announce the agenda for your self-improvement.
I was like a bot, and I destroyed my brain
To understand why I’m writing this, let’s go back to 3 years ago.
I came to Paris in 2015 for work and my love. New job, new colleagues, new friends, new city: new challenges.
And like most 20–30 years old people, I dangerously wasted my time with no value things, more than before, got tired, and burned my energy with useless habits.
The cocktail of new challenges and bad habits destroyed me.
The list below describes my old and bad daily routine (perhaps yours?):
- Go to sleep at midnight / 1 am.
- Wake up at 7 am. Hum, sorry, snooze my ⏰ from 7 am to 8:30 am. Use my smartphone just after opening my eyes. Will be late for work, so no time to eat breakfast.
- Late at work, around 9:30 am from 10 am. Working fine but not efficiently, multitasking a lot, and reading a lot of news or engineering news during my “breaks”. I was wasting my energy like a workaholic, by my fault.
- Finish my day around 8 pm.
- Get out of work (be the last one in the open space…), synchronize my RSS feed to read it offline when I take the underground 🚇 , reading during walking and commuting.
- At 9 pm at home, quick cooking and not diet dinner. See a TV show episode or continue my “newsaholic” behavior. #FOMO
- Read the news or use social apps in my bed until I turn off the light, close my eyes and have a terrible night.
- Loop.
Do you feel like you’re suffocating by reading this? Yes, me too. When do I stop doing something? When do I take a break? When do I rest? When do I sleep? The cocktail of new challenges and bad habits destroyed me.
That day description represented a terrible period that started from April 2015 to March 2017. Non-stop, close to burnout (really). My personal life was good, but we had less time with my love to enjoy our time and evenings. I was significantly tired and refused to take some vacations sometimes. Silly guy 😒.
So, have you seen from my past your bad habits of your current life today? Workaholic, short nights, tired, “I have to do it” but you never do, etcétéra. Did you fill burning? Not being efficient at work? Missing some part of your life?
It’s time to change. It’s never too late.
It was time for me to change. During this period, I was conscious of all this sh**. So I decided to grow myself, be more efficient, focused, be happy with my time, and use my energy efficiently. Right now, when I think about my past three years, I’m happy, because I have changed these bad habits, not perfectly (it can’t be), but mostly.
I became a human again: less “bot-behavior”, more connected to myself
This took time, around three years: reading books, seeing videos of self-improvement, focusing, and meditating. Study, try & practice life tips every day. And those life habits will be improved again and again.
So, now, what does my daily routine look like today globally? (update: 2023)
- Go to bed between 11 pm and 11:30 pm max. Still not perfect, but better. Turn off my smartphone, read a book, or write. Magically, closing my eyes, and I start sleeping before midnight. No blue screen = better sleep. Obvious, but our brain forgets it quickly with our dear dopamine.
- Wake up at 7:30 am. Shower, then breakfast between 7:30–8 am, sometimes starting small tasks for work until 8:30 am. Next, take transportation to the office or work remotely.
- At work around 9 am and before 9:30 am if in the office. Working, taking breaks (still needing improvement), focusing, and mono-tasking.
- Stop work around 6 pm and leave the building/remote desk around 6:30 pm.
- At home around 7 pm, deciding to do a sport session. Sport is each 3 days, and it can be at noon before lunch, it’s better. Go back and get ready for dinner around 8 pm.
- Finally, enjoy the evening from 9 pm to 11 pm.
- Loop.
And now? I am happier, I lose weight, I do some sports, and I become more efficient at work. But I’m still improving this daily routine. The list before is a “perfect day” example. Of course, it’s never the same, and we all have or up and down energy or specific agenda. Saying that it’s that routine every day is lying. It’s never over, and it has to be adapted, like when you have a family.
What will you learn?
This is who I was and who I am now. So if you’re seeing yourself inside my story, stay here. If not, stay here too because you will probably learn some life tips anyway, tips that helped me to achieve new goals.
“Remember when your started walking? No. But your parents will tell you that you failed a lot before walking.”
How have I transformed my habits? Which task methodology I applied to always (99%, be honest) do what I’m saying? Doing things all in time, without wasting it, and with the least energy? We will see a lot of tips and focus on specific domains:
- I: Stop your RSS feed and social addictions - We will start learning how to stop and limit smartphone and social addictions. Educate your smartphone before it does!
- II: The mental charge and getting things done – We will learn how to decrease your mental charge and be efficient. Use the Getting Things Done methodology (GTD) and be helped with an app like Things. We will also talk about procrastination.
- III: Stop multitasking your brain, and be focused – We will learn how to mono-task, how to be off on vacation (stop thinking about work, yes) and be efficient.
- IV: Prepare an ideal daily routine – Progress step by step for a new challenge, like doing some sport, stopping smoking, or starting writing.
- V: Be a good communicant – Tips to learn how to stop wasting your energy because of poor communication (at work, with your family or friends).
- Conclusion (and bonus!) - Perfect post to share your final opinion, your story, and your tips. I will share with you some novel tips for self and life improvement.
Remember that: you will not be able to learn all those things in a month. Be patient, practicing, do it step by step is the key to being better. Remember when you started walking? No. But your parents will tell you you failed a lot before walking. And it’s a routine for you today to walk. This is the same for every new thing: starting, failing, observing, sharing, practicing, and succeeding.
Be my guest!
Thank you.
