Active Recall!

Podcasts, videos, and iPad art

The Notepod #5 – “Tiny Habits”

Corrections: Messed up Ethan Suplee’s name (I said ‘Sharplee’). Sorry about that. Check out his episode with Kevin Smith. 

This week I’m talking about BJ Fogg’s “Tiny Habits“.

If you’ve ever heard the advice of “if you want to build a habit of flossing your teeth, make the habit flossing one tooth”, then you’ve been influenced by some of BJ Fogg’s work.

I go over some of the concepts covered in the book and take a look at my habit of checking my phone first thing in the morning (instead of my aspirational goal of working out first thing in the morning).

Some topics

  • Aim to do what you already want to do: Read things you enjoy if you’re trying to build a reading habit. If you want to read more difficult, dense things, it’ll be hard if you aren’t already reading regularly in the first place.
  • Practice doing the habit: I mentioned a post by Steve Pavlina about practicing waking up. “Tiny Habits” encourages practicing the habit itself a few times in a row. This way, if it’s a daily habit, you aren’t limited to one rep every day. Practice the entire habit (including the celebration) then do it again.
  • Speaking of celebrating, most people aren’t good at it: Sometimes we’re driven by incentives to stick to a diet. One common example is the cheat meal. You stick to your diet day in and day out and then have the cheat meal (or day) on the weekend. This can be effective but it’s more of an incentive rather than a celebration. You can add tiny celebrations immediately after your tiny habit. Fist pump after flossing one tooth. It sounds silly but it’ll pour a little bit of concrete on the habit.

 

The Notepod #4 – Rabbit holes and other book notes

[ 0:49 ] An internet recommendation rabbit hole ending with Michael Jackson and Prince and starting from JJ Redick and Bill Simmons (Learn about the Staples Center replica court that a very rich person has in Bel Air)

[ 6:47 ] How do you deal with overplanning?

[ 9:04 ] How many episodes will it take to hit your stride? (“Traffic Secrets” by Russel Brunson)

[ 11:34 ] How do you figure out what your ideal environment is? (“Making of a Manager” by Julie Zhuo)

[ 15:04 ] What’s the magic of 120 hours and hard days? (“How to be a Straight A Student” by Cal Newport)

3 ways I use Shortcuts for writing with my iPad (and iPhone)

Here’s a new video where I show how I use Apple Shortcuts for day to day writing.

Shortcut #1: Short bullets throughout the day

The first time this runs for that day, it asks for one text input (where I can write a quick thought down). Then it will:

  • Create a new note with the date in the title
  • Add a timestamp
  • Add the text from the text input

Every time after that, it will

  • Append to that day’s note
  • Add a timestamp
  • Add the text from the text input

Instead of cluttering Evernote by creating a bunch of notes with a sentence or two to capture thoughts, this shortcut compiles those thoughts into a single note. Less clutter and easier to review at the end of the day or the week.

Shortcut #2: Outlines, quick

First prompt

  • What’s the topic?

Prompts 2, 3, 4

  • Whats a sub-topic?

Prompts 5, 6, 7

  • What’s a thought related to each of the sub-topics above?

It takes all of that and then creates a note. So I get the following outline.

  • Topic
    • Sub-topic
      • Some thought
    • Sub-topic
      • Some thought
    • Sub-topic
      • Some thought

It adds that note to my ‘Topics’ notebook. Which now has a few hundred of these outlines.

My Topics notebook in Evernote
#Here’s a look at some topics from 2018#

I use this a few times a day. I’ll try to fill them in with more text. Sometimes they’ll become full posts or videos or outlines for podcasts. (Or I’ll use the shortcut specifically to start writing something I intend to publish.)

It’s a practice that helps prevent writer’s block, because you’ll always have an outline about something that you can start typing away on.

Shortcut #3: Journaling

I try to use this every day but have a bunch of versions of this shortcut that I’ve been using a ton lately. I’ll need to write a post in the future about how I modify this one shortcut for other topics I’m writing about.

In any case, here’s how the version in the video works. You tap the button and then it cycles through prompts

  • What are you looking forward to today?
  • What movement will you do today? (reminder to at least take a walk)
  • What’s your work highlight for the day?
  • What made you laugh recently?
  • What did you learn recently?

Very straightforward to just open the shortcut and start answering questions. By the end of it, I have a little bit of the day planned (workout and work), a little bit of active recall (what’d you learn), and a little bit of positivity (looking forward and laughing).

That’s it (and some thoughts for future posts)

I do want to share these Shortcuts but need to clean them up a bit for sharing — I also want to switch the last step output from Evernote to Apple Notes so that pretty much anyone with an iPad or iPhone can use them. Along with sharing those in a post, I’ll try to put a walkthrough together of that last shortcut. It can be a great starter for learning how the Shortcuts app works and so you can start customizing your own shortcuts.

But for now, check the video out above! (Or on YouTube here)

Why does Ronnie Coleman still Lift? (Joe Rogan Experience)

Ronnie Coleman was recently on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Here’s an exchange about working out today, after all the surgeries, with all the pain, and after all the glory of Mr. Olympia is in the past.

Joe Rogan: Well, I follow you on Instagram and I watch a workouts and it’s inspiring that after all this you still love working out. You can really tell. I mean, you enjoy it.

Ronnie Coleman: Still a hobby. Look forward to it every day.

Rogan: And … does it give you any pause at all, knowing that you’ve been through all these surgeries?

Coleman: Nah. You know, when you’re doing something that you truly love — enjoying doing — that’s what you look forward to doing all the time. Regardless of, you know, how you feel.

Of course, I’m still in pain and all that kind of stuff.

Rogan: Are you in pain all the time?

Coleman: Yeah, but as long as I’m doing what I love doing, I’m okay. You take that away. Then I probably won’t be okay.

Coleman is a great example of someone who made a career out of doing something he loved. Not everyone has the opportunity to do that. There are endless numbers of people who also loved lifting that didn’t succeed in bodybuilding, so loving what you do isn’t the only factor to his success.

People will say “I’d do this for free. I love it.” But then they’re talking about, like, putting TPS reports together.

It’s good to see an example of someone who started doing it for free as a hobby, continued to do it and got paid as literally the single best in the world at bodybuilding, and then continues to do it afterward.

Here are some other thoughts I’ve come across about how you can get to the point where you’re enjoying at least parts of your career…

  • Think of what comes easy to you that other people find difficult. Then consider if it’s a valuable skill. There are career multipliers that you might happen to be good at already. Look at different kinds of communication. Are you good at public speaking. (Or at least not terrified?) Do you enjoy writing? Do you enjoy meeting people? You’re in luck! Those things can usually layer on top of your current career to (A) help you excel in that career, opening up more opportunities and (B) add an element to your day to day that you enjoy.
  • Look back to what you enjoyed doing as a kid. Coleman already loved lifting when he was in high school. Even if this is more for finding re-energizing leisure options, you can take a look at how you used to spend time as a kid. Are you still doing those things now? If not, why not?
  • Or learn to love it by being good at it. There are plenty of reasons to feel stuck in your career. Creating challenges can make work more fun. From Eric Barker’s “Barking Up the Wrong Tree”:

The workplace wants you to be good at your job, and that makes sense, but that’s like a game you’re too good at. It’s dull. Good games have that 80 percent failure rate to inspire you to keep working, but the office doesn’t like failure. Zero failure means zero fun. And there’s so much busy work that offers no challenge at all. How is that engaging?

The good news is that this is partly in our hands. Research shows we often don’t do what makes us happiest; we do what’s easy. Like if we don’t feel like going out with friends, we may make ourselves, and then we have fun. We think we want to rest, but what we really want is a different type of challenge.

We crave ease, but stimulation is what really makes us happy. We try to subtract at work, do less, check out. These are signs of burnout. We don’t need to subtract; we need to add novel challenges to create engagement.

You can try to  increase motivation by actively trying to improve in that career. You might start enjoying it more if you can get beyond just being proficient at your work. You may be able to get to a place where, because you’re good at it, there’s less frustration. Then you can get good enough at it that you have some career capital to shape your day-to-day to where you’re enjoying what you’re doing.

We can’t all be Mr. Olympia, but we can still enjoy the work.

Why is acting so easy? (Jimmy O. Yang)

Well, usually It’s not. Unless you’re Jimmy O. Yang’s dad.

On his interview with Joe Rogan, Jimmy O. Yang tells a story that reminded me of a bizzaro 4-minute mile.

There are a few stories you’ll run into if you read self-development books. One of them will be the 4-minute mile and how it was this long-standing barrier Roger Bannister broke it and then other people broke it soon after.

It can be motivating to see the impossible become possible.

(That story also might be a bit off. From Alex Hutchinson’s Endure: “But to draw any meaningful conclusions, it’s important to get the facts right. For one thing, Landy was the only other person to join the sub-four club within a year of Bannister’s run, and just four others followed the next year. It wasn’t until 1979, more than twenty years later, that Spanish star José Luis González became the three hundredth man to break the barrier.”)

Anyway, Jimmy O. Yang’s dad watched his son start acting. He didn’t think it was impossible to begin with. But now he thought it was easy.

If my son can do it, I can do it.

Then he did it. And got gig after gig and has continued acting.

Jimmy also tells Joe what it’s like to grow up in an Asian household. He talks about extended family being comfortable just coming up to a girl in the family and telling her she’s fat.

I was nodding along because of how familiar it sounded. Happens at every family party. They’re just being honest, right?

Joe cracked up because of how ridiculous it sounded. Then they discussed why this might be the case.

Yeah, it’s hard to grow up with a high self-esteem in an Asian household.

But there is a weird honesty to it.

I don’t know. I don’t buy it. They say it’s honest. I think it’s passed down trauma.

Their parents did that to them and now they’re doing it. I don’t know. Re-reading this post, it seems like this podcast episode wasn’t all that fun at all. But it was! I’ll just point to it being another reason podcasts are great: so much is captured hearing someone’s voice.

Check out that episode: Joe Rogan Experience – “#1490 – Jimmy O. Yang”

How do you lose a whole bunch of weight? (Kevin Smith)

Check out the full notes for “Tiny Habits” by BJ Fogg

Eating a lot of potatoes.

On Ethan Suplee’s “American Glutton”, Kevin Smith tells the story of the heart attack that almost killed him. He says he got to that point because eating is entertainment for him. He could do it hours at a time. There’s nothing he likes to do more than to put good movies on and watch with his wife while grazing on snacks.

The heart attack served as a very scary, very effective epiphany moment.

From BJ Fogg’s “Tiny Habits”:

In my research on habit formation, dating back to 2009, I’ve found that there are only three things we can do that will create lasting change: Have an epiphany, change our environment, or change our habits in tiny ways.

Creating a true epiphany for ourselves (or others) is difficult and probably impossible. We should rule out that option unless we have magical powers (I don’t).

But here’s the good news: The other two options can lead to lasting change if we follow the right program, and Tiny Habits gives us a new way to tap the power of environment and baby steps.

You, of course, want to avoid having a heart attack. But it’s always an effective step for ongoing motivation.

After the heart attack, he got in touch with Penn Jillette about losing weight and learns about the program. One word: Potatoes. But here’s Kevin Smith expanding on that:

First part of the program is two weeks: nothing but potatoes. You just eat potatoes only. You can’t fry them. No oil, no butter, no milk. No salt. None of the shit that makes potatoes wonderful.

Nothing. Just the potato baked or boiled. That’s it.

[ … ]

If somebody gave you 20 pounds potatoes… if you could put them away, it ain’t against the diet. So when I heard this, I’m like, all right, so I can get as much mass as I want. I’ll never feel hungry. And I’m eating potatoes. I love potatoes and shit.

What you find out is… after day three, potatoes without salt, without fucking butter, without milk, without frying them. Without all the things that make potatoes tolerable is just… fucking plain-ass potato.

He acknowledges that it’s not exactly the potato that’s magic. It’s that you stop eating so much junk.

While it’s best not to give yourself a heart-attack-induced epiphany, you can still take a principle away from this: simplicity.

It’ll be easier to stick to a diet if you can remember it in the first place. Same thing with sticking to a writing routine. Or whatever other habit you’re trying to build.

This also reminded me of Stone Cold Steve Austin’s relationship with potatoes. He used to eat them raw like an apple (or like Creed). From Men’s Journal:

Stone Cold Steve Austin: A: I came from a football background, and then I trained to be a pro wrestler. Did I try to have an athletic presentation? Damn right! But I was certainly not dependent on tying off my guns so my veins would pop out. That wasn’t my cup of tea. When I went from Dallas to Tennessee early in my wrestling career, I had a pretty good physique.

But when the money ran low, my conditioning was hit the hardest by my diet started living on raw potatoes, three meals each day. One potato for each meal.

I got flat. I was so goddamned tired, I couldn’t even do a pushup! It was obvious that my appearance wasn’t as important as entertaining the crowd and being in the kind of shape where I could work and make it look good on every single move. My advice: good diet, hard workouts, and less time looking in the mirror.

So put down the Steveweiser, grab a few potatoes, and listen to Kevin Smith on “American Glutton”.

(For more on BJ Fogg and his habit framework, check out this post.)