Self-Hacking: The One Habit Separates The Successful From The Rest
My flatmates say I live like a robot.
After waking up at my usual time, I take a cold shower and put on my one set of clothes (of which I own multiple copies, of course). What I eat and when I socialize, exercise, do my laundry and my groceries is similarly predetermined. And everything that’s left — studying and writing — happens according to standardized structures of place, time and method as well.
My life consists in executing predictable sequences of rituals, which are themselves predictable sequences of individual actions.
Sounds dreadful?
On the contrary. Routines not only make you more effective but also increase your quality of life.
Willpower
It’s a bummer, but our mental capacities are not unlimited. What’s more, there is only one source of it. That means that every decision we make detracts from the same finite storage of precious thinking power.
Consequently, when we spend more of it on humdrum puzzles, less of it will be available for the important stuff. As willpower research shows: stripping your life of inessential choices increases your performance on matters of significance.
