Posts tagged habits
A forgotten cup of tea
A forgotten cup of tea

I recently picked up my old habit of painting. Several nights in a row, when the kids have gone to bed, I bring out my trusty old iPad pro with the pencil and start sketching. I bring a cup of tea to the table to complete the little ritual. It’s been over three years now since I stopped painting regularly and sometimes it is perhaps a good idea to take a break, because I am having a ton of fun now when I picked up the pencil again. I have entered the magical flow state many times lately. I know this for a fact, because I have found myself time and time again with a cup of cold tea next to me.

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HabitsRikard Öqvistflow, focus, habits, painting, attentionComment
An antidote to stress
An antidote to stress

A week ago, we christened our daughter. We had just left for the church with not much extra time to spare when I realized that we had forgotten an important detail – The christening gown… After the child, this is perhaps the second most important thing for the ceremony, so forgetting it at home is quite the achievement. In a case like this, you better make sure that you left too early because doing an unplanned detour back home to pick something up costs a lot of time that you do not have. At least that is the obvious solution; never leave at the last minute but instead wait a while at the destination. That will give you the margin you need. But i think there is another way that is even more important, at least for me.

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Diary, HabitsRikard Öqviststress, preparation, habits, efficiencyComment
The 3-point list
The 3-point list

Even though it is still vacation, as a house owner it is important to keep the momentum going with regards to long-term improvements. It is not enough to just deal with the daily upkeep, one also must invest some time in improvement and development of the property. I have a long list of things that I know should be done, because they will bring about many quality-of-life improvements. However, they are not mission critical like moving the lawn, house cleaning or buying groceries. A method I have used to great success is to define three special tasks that deals with development, and make sure that I execute them the next day. It brings about a very good gut feeling when I tick off these three boxes, because they are clear progress towards a larger aim.

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HabitsRikard Öqvistfocus, habits, priorities, productivity, vacationComment
The weakest link
The weakest link

When I practise musical instruments, I always select the most difficult song I can imagine. The primary reason is that it will ruthlessly reveal your biggest weakness to you. Then, enlightened, I simply focus on that specific weakness for weeks, months or even years until I discover the next weakness. This past month, I made a wonderful discovery in my drum practice (I started in 2019). Finally, I could easily tell that my left hand was my weakest link.

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Music, HabitsRikard Öqvistdrums, practice, habits, improvementComment
Difficult problems are also Easier
Difficult problems are also Easier

Two months ago, I became a father for the third time. I have heard countless times that “when you become a parent, you will never have any more time of your own again” or something similar. Which is a big fat lie, of course. It just requires priorities and planning. A very good approach to a problem that seems too difficult is to realize that the reason you are stuck is because the problem is too easy. By increasing the difficulty level, you eliminate more of your options, until only a handful or preferably only one option remain. If you only have one choice, then the path forward becomes rather obvious.

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Diary, HabitsRikard Öqvisthabits, routine, consistencyComment
To-do lists and vacation
To-do lists and vacation

Vacation is rapidly approaching, and there are 10X more things to do compared to available time. The usual approach has been to go for the more boring list and as a house owner there is an endless supply of things to attend. I have things on that list that has been there for five years. But one has to prioritize… Me and my wife just tried a new approach. We wrote both a “chore list” and a “fun list”. Consequently, this shall be our best vacation ever, Inshallah.

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DiaryRikard Öqvistscheduling, vacation, planning, habitsComment
Less is more
Less is more

After finding my destroyed Airpods a week ago, I did a little experiment and dug out my unused pair of cable headphones that came with the phone. Now I have been using them for a week and I have made some interesting observations. In a full week, I have used them only two times. I took a phone call while walking, and I listened to some Youtube stuff tonight for around 10 minutes. And it is not that I have improved my self-control. Simply put, the cable headphones are lightyears worse than wireless Airpods. They are extremely bad from a usability perspective. Paradoxically I can now confirm that it is also their greatest strength.

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Diary, HabitsRikard Öqvistapple, airpods, focus, habits, disciplineComment
Good riddance!
Good riddance!

Some months ago, on a dog walk this winter in a rough snowstorm, I dropped my Airpods. I didn’t notice they were gone it until I got back home. I instantly returned and backtracked to look for them. But a white Airpod case is near invisible in snow, and even though I was back in the same place just a couple of minutes later, they were already buried. They were gone. And that turned out to be a very good thing.

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Habits, DiaryRikard Öqvistapple, airpods, habits, coffee, attention Comment
Kid routines
Kid routines

Routines are critical for a successful life. They are the foundation upon which the house of your life is built. With a solid foundation, the house can endure tougher challenges than were it built on clay. When we got our first son in 2019, we had to build new routines. It took about two years to iron out everything. Then, son number two arrived in 2021 and all routines were blasted into smithereens, and we had to restart the routine building process for another two years. In about a week, it is time to destroy the routines once again.

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Family, HabitsRikard Öqvistchildren, family, habits, routinesComment
The importance of a clean mind
The importance of a clean mind

One of the most important lessons I have learned from my weekly writing is the importance of a clean mind before writing. The first hundred posts or so, I wrote first thing in the morning. And the past few months it has usually been the final activity before bed. That implies a very high probability that I have recently used my smart phone just before writing. Or watched something on YouTube or read something… whatever. It doesn’t matter because the effect is the same. It feels almost impossible to come up with something original topic when you have saturated your mind with someone else’s thoughts.

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Habits, DiaryRikard Öqvistwriting, focus, habitsComment
Why routines are critical
Why routines are critical

Oh, how easy it is to lose a habit. This is my 218th weekly blog post, but a couple of weeks ago I stopped caring about which day I should publish it. It used to be Mondays, almost without fault for a couple of years. And here I am, Sunday evening, in the final hours of this week before my habit is officially broken. It is interesting that these things always seem to gravitate towards “I’ll do it later”. But later usually never comes. Obviously, it can never work if you don’t follow a routine. Lesson learned.

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Diary, HabitsRikard Öqvistblog, writing, habits, consistencyComment
KISS - Do not disturb!
KISS - Do not disturb!

One of the things that come with the package of self-employment is the inability to take prolonged vacations. On one hand, it is obvious that it would be amazing to check out from work 100% during the Christmas and new years holidays. To completely get rid of that nagging feeling that you always have some mandatory “homework” can really bring peace of mind and well needed rest. On the other hand, working when everyone else is in vacay mode, has made me realize how brutally my productivity is destroyed by constant interruptions.

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Habits, PhilosophyRikard Öqvistfocus, habits, productivity, mindfulnessComment
Willpower and habit formation
Willpower and habit formation

Christmas rush at work, a man cold, and severe sleep depravation after a morning flight. And a whole bunch of sleep depraved nights before that. I am quite sure that the cold is a consequence of an immune system that is just as tired as me. A bit of proper sleep would probably do the trick, if there were enough clock hours. The energy reserves are gone, I am running on fumes now just hanging in there for the final check out on Friday. It is times like these that things are really put to the test. How much do I really want to write this blog post and practice my drums? To go to bed right now, is the easiest sell in the world.

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Habits, MusicRikard Öqvistwriting, drumming, habits, consistencyComment
Extreme learning
Extreme learning

One of the drawbacks with acquiring a PhD is that you “lose” around five years of work experience, because you are busy studying. It’s the same with all forms of education a.k.a. sacrificing the present for the future. I felt this very strongly during my first years as an acoustician. My friends who went straight to a private sector employment had several years head start on me, so by the time I was finally ready to start working for real, I was far behind, and I was frustrated by the feeling that colleagues assumed that my experience would be great and not comparable to a fresh recruit. Of course, when you have a good education/toolkit in your mind, it is only a matter of time before you catch up and take the lead, and in my case, I reckon it took around ten years in total (including PhD studies). During my insane quest to learn the drums, I realized something similar the other day with regards to music.

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Education, MusicRikard Öqvistdrums, music, learning, habits, education, school, focusComment
An analogy between drum practice and a career
An analogy between drum practice and a career

Five weeks ago, on day 1539 of learning Bleed, I doubled my efforts in drum playing from 15 minutes per day to 30 minutes per day. Up until the 9th of October, it felt as if I had almost stagnated for about 6-9 months. It is very nice to see the results now and wow, what a difference it made to increase the efforts. For the past 36 days I have finally felt steady progress again. I suspect that after 4-5 years of daily practice I had reached a skill level on the drums where 15 minutes just isn’t enough to advance anymore. It’s an interesting observation because I have seen similar patterns in my professional life.

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Diary, PhilosophyRikard Öqvistfocus, skill, practice, habits, career, drums, acousticsComment
Lifesaving habits
Lifesaving habits

It’s been a couple of weeks now with late work-nights. A temporary reduction in sleep hours is usually no problem, but it is annoyingly easy to get stuck in a loop where you are active later in the evening or night, which both makes it harder to fall asleep and reduces the quality of the hours you get. Consequentially, it will be increasingly harder to get up in the morning and/or you will lose focus during the day, which will reduce productivity. And then you will need to work even longer hours to compensate, which only adds yet more gravel in the delicate machinery. It is a dark spiral. How do you break it?

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Diary, HabitsRikard Öqvisthealth, habits, stress, dogs, musicComment
Sunken cost fallacy
Sunken cost fallacy

Back in July 2023, I began my fifth year of daily practice to nail the song Bleed by Meshuggah on the drums, as a beginner drummer. The insanity of this project is of epic proportions, which can be verified by anyone who has ever heard the original. Many people have asked how I am able to be so consistent with my practice, and if I interpret them correctly, it seems like they would have given up long ago. However, I have finally reached the stage where I cannot keep up my 15 minutes per day. It is simply too difficult. That’s why I have now decided to double my efforts.

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Habits, MusicRikard Öqvistdrums, focus, incremental improvement, habitsComment
Breakfast is BS
Breakfast is BS

Yesterday I had one of the most memorable meals in my life. A perfectly prepared medium/rare entrecote steak and a glass of water. There’s a Swedish saying that “hunger is the best seasoning”, and few truer words have ever been spoken. My spice of choice was a 26-hour gut-rest fast with only H2O to hydrate and nothing else. I don’t think I have ever been without food for so long before, and that made my meal a religious experience. The fasting put a whole new perspective on eating, and I was not aware that a piece of meat could ever taste that good. It opened up a whole new dimension.

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DiaryRikard Öqvistfasting, health, food, habitsComment
How to maintain a habit
How to maintain a habit

I was defeated by life once again yesterday, by failing to publish my weekly blog post every Monday. Still, two times out of 197 consecutive weeks isn’t too shabby. But as I suspected back when I missed the first one, the chance that it would happen again increased tremendously. But a week with several deliveries in combination with sick kids for several days is just a combination that cannot add up. Not without giving the middle finger to your wife at least, but it was not worth it. Instead, I have been thinking about potential solutions to the problem of how to maintain a weekly writing habit.

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HabitsRikard Öqvistconsistency, habits, writing, willpowerComment
Practice until you never fail
Practice until you never fail

Mostly, it is very easy to do the weekly brain dump that is my blog. Tonight, I feel rather empty. Strange. But it is the same pattern with my daily musical exercise. Some days are just totally off. The solution is fortunately extremely easy. Just do the task anyway. I am just too critical of myself and even if this will be my worst post so far, it will still be 1000X better than no piece at all. The unconditional importance of carrying on cannot be overstated. Besides, these worst days are the best and most important. They will ruthlessly reveal how good of a writer, or drummer or whatever you are. No-one cares what you can do on a good day. It is the bad day that counts. Don’t practice to win, if you want to become very good at something. Practice until you never fail instead.

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DiaryRikard Öqvistincremental improvement, practice, habits, exerciseComment