9: Tomato Alarms and Willpower Tricks
transformation good, improvement meh
Secrets of the Tomato Elevator
WARNING: I've never done the pomodoro method.
What is the pomodoro method?
You get a timer shaped like a tomato
Set it for 25 minutes
Work
When the timer goes off, take a 5 minute break.
People love it. It's a procrastination killer.
"All right, I'll do this horrible thing for 25 minutes. I can commit to this."
Then you get a break. Hooray! And the break is short enough that you don't get sidetracked.
It makes sense to use this method for stuff you don't feel like doing.
OK, but if I've never done the tomato timer thing, why do I bring it up?
Fair question. Maybe you're familiar with a trick people sometimes use to get themselves to go for a run.
"I'll just go for five minutes. That's all I need to do."
Then they put their running shoes on, head out the door, and end up running for a half hour.
Well, I'm the kind of guy who would be willing to follow through with that 5 minutes.
"I said five minutes. I put in my five. I'm out of here."
I found a way to make this tendency work in my favor.
I lived in an apartment on the 26th floor of a building in downtown Austin. There was a gym on the 3rd floor.
In the morning, I took the elevator downstairs, went to the gym for 10-15 minutes, came back up and went to work.
In the late evening, I took the elevator downstairs, went to the gym again for 10-15 minutes.
My pomodoro elevator technique.
It was great. It broke up my otherwise monolithic workday, gave me an energy boost, and helped me improve my fitness while allowing me to feel "lazy" about my workout.
At the time, I was concentrating on other hard things. I knew I wanted to look after my well-being, but I didn't want to put pressure on myself in that area. I was already dealing with enough.
I could have forced myself to do it, but I think that's how people have breakdowns. I didn't want one of those.
Plus, my sleep quality was terrible. Austin is the city of live music, and when you live downtown, you hear how true that is---well into the night---from Thursday to Sunday. Which brings me to my next point. . .
Meditate, Y'all
I've used a timer for meditation, and it's very helpful. The whole point of meditation is that you want to go into deep spaces, and it's hard to do this when you're:
Watching the clock
Concerned that you might lose track of time and miss a meeting
Set a timer and it's taken care of. Miraculous.
Everyone should meditate. Everyone.
Everyone.
Even if you aren't trying for enlightenment. It will make you less neurotic. It will make the stress of the world impact you less. At a minimum, it will do these things.
If you're getting started, you need to build the habit. It's as simple as setting an appointment with yourself and using a timer.
You can sit and try to meditate and struggle and conclude that you're poor at it. Or you can set yourself up to succeed.
Setting the timer is making an agreement---I'm doing this until the alarm goes off.
You can afford 20 minutes.
Resolve to Gain Will
How different would the world be if everyone followed through with their New Year's resolution?
Following through shows willpower.
Everyone wants more will. Will is the gift that keeps on giving.
Two ways to gain willpower:
Make consistent—successful—effort towards a goal.
Leverage wider systems that work in your favor.
There's no way around the consistent effort. But people mistake this for straining. Set yourself up to win.
Should attaining a goal feel easy or hard? It depends on who you are, where you are, and what you want. But if you just read David Goggins and you want to run high-altitude ultramarathons in the desert, you might be setting yourself up for failure.
Nothing wrong with taking on huge challenges, but it's best to be clear about what you're doing. And make sure you have other things you can count on for support.
It's easy to underestimate how hard it can be to accomplish big goals. The marathon metaphor is a good one for willpower in general. The pacing of a marathon is slower than a sprint.
If you expect instant results, you may get them, but you won't gain willpower merely by attaining a goal.
Athletes who love to practice end up being the best athletes. They show up for practice whether or not they win.
Transform Into Yourself
I'm writing this not because I want to help you achieve things. I want you to break apart who you once were and become who you were meant to be.
When you have the right goal, what's at stake is you.
Too many times people say, "I don't want to anymore" when they mean "I'm afraid I can't."
Plenty of people have plenty to say about how to reach goals:
you need motivation
you need clarity
you need consistency
The things we know we should be doing but aren't.
Everyone's trying to boost productivity but few people are trying to cut through their own nonsense.
Some people set New Year's resolutions by looking at different areas of their lives and saying, "I should improve this." And they probably won't follow through, because it doesn't really matter to them… or anyone else.
Others will take the opportunity to assess where they are now and compare that with where they want to be.
"Nothing wrong with where I am, but moving forward, this is not going to be "me" anymore."
When it's goal time, don't polish the brass on a sinking ship. Don't pursue someone else's idea of a good life.
Check in with yourself. Fast forward to your deathbed and ask yourself questions.
Sort out who you want to become. Filter out:
who you think you are (but aren’t)
who other people seem to think you are
It's not only criticism that holds people back. If you've gotten positive reinforcement for some parts of you, it's easy to say, "That's me. If I act this way and do that, people like me."
Whether it means changing careers, improving your relationships, or something else, I hope you go for something transformative.
Here are some lines from the Emerald Tablet, a revered artifact of alchemists:
If it be cast on to earth, it will separate the element of earth from that of fire, the subtle from the gross.
With great sagacity it doth ascend gently from earth to heaven. Again it doth descend to earth,
and uniteth in itself the force from things superior and things inferior.
Thus thou wilt possess the glory of the brightness of the whole world, and all obscurity will fly far from thee.
Unite the above and the below. Be an artist. Take liberties. It’s your life.
Let’s make it a year of transformation.