Share Your Checklists!

I feel mentally exhausted but can't afford to sleep right now.

1. Consume modafinil.
2. Replenish choline (throw in some 'racetam for good measure.)
3. Sprint.
4. Eat food.
5. Repeat step 1 as long as necessary.

I'm procrastinating on task X.

1. Consume modafinil. (To boost executive function and lower perceived effort of tasks in general.)

I don't want to get out of bed, but I should.

1. Consume modafinil.

I am feeling run down from pushing myself too hard and consuming too much modafinil.

1. Consume less modafinil.
2. Sleep.
3. Self modify to respond to all instances of "But I can't afford sleep right now" with "Yes I can!"

I have too many checklists

• shit
• I can't stop

All joking aside I have run into over optimizing in cases where I am choosing between a set of similar items or actions. I have to remind myself that the harder a choice seems the less likely it is to matter since the only reason it is hard is that the choices are very close together anyway. It certainly doesn't feel this way from the inside.

OTOH, I think 'checklisting' a heuristic is something I need to do more of in cases where I haven't yet figured out how to turn it into an evocative catchphrase.

My morning checklist:

1. Breakfast!
2. Start the day not as a consumer (news, games etc.) but as a producer.
3. Don't start the day responding to demands of others (email, family errands etc.)

Update: added a source link. Who would have thought that Reddit can be a source of good productivity tips?

My current checklist for finishing an essay:

• spellcheck (ispell)
• balanced brackets & quotes check

• linkchecker for

  1. dead links
  2. inserting into archive queue
• for academic hyperlinks, include a tooltip with the title & author metadata
• for any papers cited: either link full text, provide a local full text, or submit a request
• check readability level (eg. Flesch-Kincaid)
• probability word checklist
• do a Pandoc/Firefox preview for visible major formatting problems
• Markdown lint-checker (shell script checking for common syntax fragments indicating error)

• arrange for notifications of future results (when relevant, eg. for following dual n-back research):

  1. Google Alerts
  2. Google Scholar Alerts
  3. PubMed alerts

Agreed that there's a lot of mostly-untapped potential in checklists and generally in the area of "deliberately, consciously applying advice from system 2". I often feel like there's a big gap between reading some bit of wisdom on LW and actually applying it in real life. And not just because of akrasia. For instance, I read Gwern's page on melatonin probably at least a year ago, but only a few months ago did I actually get around to buying some. This wasn't because of akrasia - I just read the page, went "good points, this is definitely worth doing" and then completely ignored my own carefully-gathered advice. I think this is partly due to general forgetfulness (for which: Anki), and partly due to the fact that I don't actually really take ideas seriously enough, perhaps because I'm not used to my decisions actually leading to big real-life consequences (I've never had to make big grownup decisions about employment, where to live, etc.), which I'm still trying to fix.

I've lately been trying out running my life more on what my conscious thought processes output. Specifically, by using checklists that I refine by making them SRS cards and then think about and optimize and memorize every time they come up for review (and fail if I forgot them or made significant changes). I now have quite a lot of checklists, including a checklist for making checklists. Most of them are pretty trite or me-specific, so I'll just put a few good ones here.

For conversations:

• Look at their eyes.
• Ensure you're fully present, ie not thinking about what to say next. (So you don't interrupt, so you pause before speaking, and so your facial expressions update quicker.)
• Unobtrusively mirror body language.
• Match tone and speed of voice.

This is from this book, which I skimmed a few months ago. It's pretty useful. The book has more tips, intended mainly for male executives who want to convey an impression of power and charisma.

When my motivation's flagging (on a timescale of days, not minutes):

• Do a few hours on a stationary bike while listening to angry rap or dance music.
• If I'm unable to do that, try disconnecting whatever distraction's sapping my energy. (The internet, for instance. My short-term subagent is too dumb to realize that it should object to my going into /sbin and doing sudo rm if* iw*.)
• If all else fails, take some caffeine. This'll only work if you haven't built up a tolerance. I haven't had to resort to this since discovering the wonder of cardio exercise.

Now of course these all require motivation to start, but I find them to be pretty self-sustaining, in that once started they generate enough willpower for me to keep going. About disconnecting distraction: I strongly advocate a program of active warfare against your akrasia-inducing subagent. I don't have internet on my main computer, for example. I've sabotaged the power plugs in my bedroom so I can't lie down while working on my laptop (for longer than the 30min it takes for my pathetic battery to run out). I have to sit on the stationary bike, even if I don't cycle, and that makes it a lot easier to start actually cycling. That's enough to get me cycling, but if it wasn't I could get someone to hide my laptop battery and only give it back when I really need it (so I have to run the laptop directly from the power plug). When I tell people this, they think I'm silly and eccentric until they realize I'm burning 2000 kcal a day and they're not :)

Other things that seem to boost willpower:

• Shaking off sleep debt with a bottle of melatonin and a week of ten-hour nights.
• If male, not masturbating may help.
• Fasting seems to help, though this may be more because I'm feeling powerful because I'm disciplined enough to not eat.

At the start of every hour, when my watch beeps:

• Do a quick reality check to see whether I'm dreaming. (If so, use the chance at a lucid dream.)
• Visualize that every person on earth is a p-zombie, except me. Doing this well is an instant boost to motivation and confidence for me, and it creates the right munchkinly mindset. It's easy to do things if the only things watching you are heaps of atoms.
• Apply mental contrasting (which I learned about from here) for increased motivation and more focus on higher-order bits. This nicely complements the p-zombie visualization.

I think there's a lot more in this. For instance, I think I can usefully model myself as having only four or five emotional states, each useful for different things. There are some things I can do deliberately to shift myself into some of these states. I think it would be productive to experiment with different mental procedures to see which are most effective for what. So I've been writing lists of mental procedures I can try out, and I intend to start systematically working through the list and noting successes and failures. (This is how I came up with the idea of considering everyone else p-zombies.) I'm planning to make a topic about this here, and we can share our ideas and experimental results (but it'll take me a month, so if someone wants to beat me to it, go ahead).

On each day that the clocks go forward or backward:

• change my master passwords
• pour a carton of bleach down the external drains

My unrefined checklist for sleep optimization.

1. Run, (helps with being able to fall asleep. Don’t run after 5:00)
2. Don’t drink water after 7 (if you’re urine is clear, you’re too hydrated). (you’ll wake up to pee. Though sometimes you want to do this if you’re trying to lucid dream).

3. Naps (11:30 = 9) (12:30 = 10).

4. Do you have a topic for reflection picked out? (Planning. Math. Personal).

5. Practice N-Backing + Anki because it will enhance your memory.Better recall. (ANKI REVIEWS MUST BE AT ZERO). a. “(Other mental exercises show improvement when trained before bedtime; for example, dual n-back.)
6. Make a to-do list for the next day.
7. Keep a list of problems to solve by your bed (also, relaxation procedures. Try them out).

8. Put EWLD by your bed. (convenience is the determining factor) (small inconveniences).

9. Supplements (Melatonin, 5HTP, Mg) (Water) (Add to nootropics journal). (Camomil).

10. Retainer, Put phone by your bed, Stretch, Earplugs in your pocket.
11. Pillows by bed so that you can switch to fetal position. (I normally lay on my back)
12. Tuck shirt in.

13. Experimenting with covers (no covers).

14. Yawning. (definitely helps you fall asleep.)

15. Go through mental procedure to relax (61-point relaxation. CBT affirmation (like anxiety is dumb. Quit worrying, go to sleep).
16. Options- pick a problem to solve. Pick an affirmation to repeat. Pick an image or dream to incubate.
17. Make sure you don’t fidget. (why do I fidget?) (how do I stop that?)

18. (As soon as I realize I’m awake, I want to lay perfectly still). (this applies even when you’re waking up to pee). I want to recall my dreams, then put htem in a memory palace, then go through the rest of the wake-up procedure.

19. Wake up procedure (after dreams) a. Go through memory palace. b. Kickstart the mindset I want to be in for the rest of the day. (how?) i. (Collect, collect, collect). ii. Don’t be anxious (about anything). c. Harness creative ideas (on whatever topic comes to mind.). (naps may work better for forced topics)…

It would be interesting to see checklists on less important topics too. The particular example I have in mind is travel (i.e. what to pack, what to research, what backup plans are needed, etc). In what other mundane scenarios do people find checklists useful?

It seems to me that asking someone in your social network would be less trouble than going out and getting a book on the subject, especially if it's something that's commonly known.

On data:

• Determine similarity with existing data, increment counter.
• Calculate and cache reality coherence probability.
• Generate naive list of hypothesis for consideration.
• Return to idle mode, processing all information.

My author has advised me that item #3 is the only process requiring conscious thought in tur brain.

I notice I am wasting time, or tempted to waste time.

1. Very deliberately stop, or refrain from starting, the time-wasting thing.
2. Go back to the productive thing I was doing.
3. If I haven't been doing anything productive just now, or just finished a task, check my to-do list.
4. If nothing on my to-do list sticks out as sufficiently important, either read something I've been meaning to read or write a blog post I've been meaning to write.

[retracted]

I feel mentally exhausted but can't afford to sleep right now.

A half hour's caffeine nap. If I can't afford that either, I pour lots of cold water onto my face, and open all the windows and the blinds to make the room as bright as possible (during the day) or disable Redshift on my laptop (during the night).

I feel validated that the only other major job I've had besides SI (WiseGEEK) is still indirectly contributing to SI... full circle, y'know.

Traveling: I sometimes have multiple trips lined up, so I put all relevant items for each trip in a seperate plastic folder. Items that are not free yet get replaced by a small piece of paper like "train discount card". That makes sure I do not forget travel specific items.

In general I use a packing list that I regularly update before and after each trip. I also unpack after the trip and check back on the checklist to see if I packed something needed that is not on the list yet. Afterwards I evaluate the items and write that in a seperate column to see over multiple trips if an item is never used (which might indicate I do not need it) or regularly needed but not brought or understocked.

Then I have a box with all the items I mostly use only while travelling. That makes packing these much easier. If my travelrate goes up someday I probably get doubles of most items.

My list also includes actions to before the trip (charge batteries, cut nails) and process goals like having packed a day early and stress free.

The results so far are a much more relaxed time while packing. I am faster and rarely forget anything. I still want to look through the data collected on my last 20+ trips and reorder everything, maybe put in a formular for quantities, or group items that only belong to specific types of trips (long, short, camping, summer, winter).

I found that for me travelling even a crudely done checklist is better than none.

I feel mentally exhausted but can't afford to sleep right now.

Watch 10 minutes of wimp.com, cats on YouTube, IGN video reviews, or movie trailers.

The problem is that when I decide to do that, the 10 minutes turn out to be more like an hour, whereas a power nap would only take me about half an hour.