October 11, 2023: Laptop as productivity machine and no-coffee challenge failed
October 11, 2023. Today in the library, unfortunately, I couldn't resist it anymore around 10:30 AM and succumbed to my addiction: I got myself a coffee. That's probably the end of the No-Coffee Challenge for me. It's a pity that I'm so weak when it comes to coffee. It's probably my worst addiction. Surprisingly, every sip of coffee made me less happy than usual. But I still see it positively because in Borsum, I have a caffeine-free substitute: lupine coffee, which I find even tastier after a period of getting used to it. To make it, I use a lot of lupine coffee and pour not too much water on it. This makes it taste more intense. And instead of oat milk, I use vegan whipped cream, which makes the lupine coffee even richer. It tastes better than real coffee.
When I returned to my seat in the library later, a blonde law student sat down directly behind me, even though there were still places available everywhere. I always saw her whenever I was here on the fourth floor, even on weekends. She wore glasses and seemed very diligent. She always worked with the book "German Law" and almost never had any tech on the table, at most a tablet for writing. Many index cards were scattered on her table, and she worked deeply at times, sometimes looking around when someone passed by her table.
For lunch, I went to the cafeteria and ate my self-prepared meal (green peas, corn, radishes, carrots, and ground flaxseeds). While I sat there and tried to eat mindfully, an idea came to me on how I could better anchor my improvements in terms of habits and abilities in my brain. I know that affirmations work very well for me. I could record the changes I make every day and keep telling myself them so that I don't forget them and permanently integrate them into my life.
After lunch, I continued writing my life story. The law student sat down at the table in front of me and glanced in my direction. Either she was interested in me or the power outlet at the table behind me wasn't working. Let's see, maybe I'll talk to her if she gives me a sign, in the form of a smile.
In the evening after dinner, I looked at ScreenTime on my MacBook. On average, I spend 10 hours a day on the PC. Three hours of it with Safari for programming, browsing. And two hours on YouTube to watch random videos. Even if they are educational videos, I don't watch them purposefully, and I always watch them while eating (it doesn't work so well when you do nothing while eating), and do I learn from it? Mostly not really because I'm already eyeing the next clickbait thumbnail in the video recommendations or browsing in the browser at the same time.
Even the Mail app, which I only used for 5 minutes a day, was a huge distraction because I could easily open the app directly to check my emails with Command + Spacebar and typing "M". In these 5 minutes, I must have opened the app at least 30 times. That's 30 distractions too many. So, the duration of use is not the decisive factor to reduce, but the number of openings. Since I'm not so much concerned about avoiding these distractions, I'm taking a somewhat more radical approach. I'm turning my MacBook into a productivity machine! I make it as difficult as possible to access digital distractions. But then the Downtime feature came on, and I had to put away my laptop.
Tonight, I noticed that after a several-day coffee break, two cups of coffee in one day, I can't sleep anymore. I couldn't fall asleep until 1 AM. You can feel how the body gets used to caffeine.
Learning: I should transform my laptop into a productivity machine to avoid destructive distractions.