Comment by chollida1 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by chollida1 | Hacker News Reader

I think I've said this before but its 3 things that all end up having the same effect.

1) Meditation to get my mind in check

2) Fitness/Diet, making sure I'm at an appropriate weight and fitness level

3) Sleep, shouldn't require any explanation.

Having these 3 things in check is the equivalent of 10+ IQ points. The last two items shouldn't require any explanation but Meditation is one that people often have issues seeing the value of.

For me meditation does 2 things,

1) it allows you to master the art of "staying in the zone". Lots of meditation is just accepting that you mind has many thoughts at once, acknowledging them and continuing on with what you are doing.

Once you can master the art of acknowledging your thoughts but not letting them disturb you, it lets you maintain a flow state in the real world.

I can now get interrupted and almost without fail immediately get back into a productive work state.

2) I've noticed that as I get older that most of what makes a person look smart in a conversation is that they've already had the same conversation and thought through their opinions.

When mediating on an idea, its very similar to having these conversations about ideas. You get to flesh out your ideas by having this conversation with yourself. It's an invaluable took to have.

I was about to write my own reply, but you literally hit every point I was about to make.

There is one thing that I would like to add.

4. Task making/Goal setting- The domain of this MUST encompass your entire life. (Personal/Professional/Health/Hobbies/Relationships).

Try not to put an emphasis on professional/business things. Generally those have the highest priorities, and don't need as much active attention in this context.

Goals should start at 5 years out and work backwards to next week.

Every morning/ start of each week/start of each month- review your goals and allocate "hard time" to them.

Want to learn guitar? Good. Tomorrow at 3 o'clock go to the store and buy one. Don't research the best guitar manufacturer for weeks and eventually buy it, just ask the guy behind the counter his recommendation and buy it on the spot. Next week, Tuesday 6pm- Sign up for music lessons for every Wednesday at 6pm for the next 6 months. No exceptions. Do not let anyone or anything take that time slot away from you.

But you may say, I'm the only one that can do "X" task and I'm needed at that time slot every week. Then build fault-tolerance in that task. Either with multiple people knowing how to do what you do, through documentation or automation. Engineer a solution to your time problem.

Or if you're the founder of your startup, and you can't justify taking a 3 hour break once a week.

You're lying to yourself.

I highly doubt you are completing work at 100% duty cycle if you are working 60-80 hours a week. Getting a few hours a week of "you" time each week is a small time investment, for huge returns in more effective decision making for the rest of the week.

This may vaguely fall under meditation, but knowing that you are tangibly and actively working towards things that you value, will prevent you from getting "time depression".

Yes, I just made up that term. "Time Depression" as I call it, is doing the "same" thing day-in and day-out. As a result, you get depressed since you "feel" like you didn't accomplish anything.On paper, you closed 90 issue tickets last month and committed more code than anyone else on your team.If you did all that, and don't have a feeling of accomplishment. Then you need "you" time.

Now go buy that guitar.

Do you have any advice on how to build the meditation habit? I tried reading and following Search Inside Yourself, but it didn't stick.

There are apps that will count your streak. Some paid, some free. I've seen that help lots of people get consistent with it.

My own is to pick an easy time and duration to meditate for, such as every night before you get into bed for 5 minutes. I think for folks on the lazier side (like me) the habit for something like meditation should start with as much convenience as possible. That's how I started flossing every night (and started having good visits to the dentist for once).

Nothing that I'm sure would "Just work" for everyone. For me a few things I do when I'm trying to build a habit, this is general to building habits and not specific to meditation.

1) Like going to the gym you need to do it on a schedule. Even if you don't feel like going to the gym just go for 5 minutes, if you don't feel it then leave.

Meditation is the same. Just do it for 5 minutes, if you aren't feeling it then stop.

2) do it every day, even if its not the same time each day, even if you get interrupted, even if you aren't feeling it, just do it. 5 minutes each day is better than not trying because you believe you are too busy. I do it first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

3) Track it to make sure you are making progress. Something about what gets measured gets done. Truer words have never been spoken.

4) Give it time, again using the gym analogy, expect it to be a good month before you start to see results. I mean you might see results earlier, but doing it for a week and getting frustrated that you aren't seeing any results is, well, silly. But I think alot of people actually make this very mistake.

You wouldn't expect to run 3 times and then run a marathon on your next outing. Meditation follows the "before you are good, you'll be very bad at it" law that most things follow.

I’ll expand on “do it every day”.

Do it anytime you remember to. You can take one conscious breath right now. Two or twenty when you’re driving. A few more when walking.

My takeaway from meditation is that it changes my perception of me and the mind — from a thinking machine limited to and suffering of the limitations of that — to a much more expansive being for which thinking is one of many modalities, a modality occupying a tiny part of a vast, vast space.

Dwelling as this entity is infinitely more productive and joyous than dwelling in the tiny (by comparison) confines of the thinking one.

Spending more and more of the time as that is where it’s at for me.

The way? Remember that I am identified with the thinking one and use my attention to resensitize myself into the rest.

I recommend “Turning your mind into an ally.” Excellent little book.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com