Group Rationality Diary, February 2017

I learned something new.

As a social worker, clinician, psychiatric counselor for detox/behavioral disturbances/mental illness to I've been with refugees, immigrants, and the forgotten ones, to attempted murder to young teenaged mothers...all the way from infants to stellar 90 year olds... the more I understand people...the more I become numb. Perhaps I am desensitized as I encounter crisis, having to section someone in, someone dying right there and then, etc. I no longer feel the same way. It's like watching a horror movie over and over but no longer fearing them. I think I need to figure this out.

Trying to fix physical posture currently. With time, I hope to learn how to do proper form on a majority of lifts. I've found that as I've been working on this, my ability to focus has improved, and consequently I came upon the mental postures article as a sort of mental analogue to the endeavor to have good biomechanics.

I wish I had a better way of studying...whatever, without sitting. I hate sitting (even properly, with back engaged and shoulders down), I know it doesn't do me any good and, on certain days, I find I reverse all the hard work and effort I put into trying to put my body back into alignment because I sat for too long learning to code or doing work. If I could squat, I'd probably already be able to solve this problem. But I can't sit squatted without doing it wrong, I can't change my work desk, nor can I move the computer somewhere more accessible to, let's say, a kneeling position or a position where I sit on my calves instead of a seat. Perhaps I should invest in a seat big enough to let me sit cross-legged? I hope I can afford it, because I can't think of anything else.

EDIT: I think the real issue is that the task of focusing on not sitting robs me of focus to do the studying. Is there a way around this, or is multitasking my only real savior here?

I recently wrote up my workflow which goes over a combination of tools that I use to keep myself in check. The post has pictures / longer explanations, but in short:

• Unread-first function on Gmail + FutureMe + self-emails + Google Calendar for reminders

• Actual paper slips that I put under my watch, pocket, etc. for more urgent reminders

• Write ideas / musings down in a sketchbook (it's all white, which I find more liberating).

• Google Keep for "everything else that might be mildly interesting"

• Workflowy for breaking down large tasks / paper schedule for day-to-day things

• Kill New Feed for better Facebook browsing

• Toggl for general data about where my time goes

• White noise generator app for productivity

(I think it is going to be useful, but I don't know yet.) I have a problem: lack of body mass, no set lunch break at work and things to do besides dinner that is yet to be made when I get home, which is about 7 pm. It's especially bad during "The Season" (middle August - middle October), the time when many people come to us to buy textbooks and we have time to maybe drink a cup of tea, if we remember to do it during a lull. Sometimes, I even took something with me and just forgot to take it out. Then we get home, eat whatever and go to sleep.

Recently, The Season ended & I tried eating just before I leave for home, so that when I do get home I have time to cook something that doesn't take much time, and/or uses ingredients from yesterday. Unfortunately, if I cook larger portions, we lose the food in the fridge. Now crossing fingers to keep this up.