Public Commitment 2021

This years theme is Serial Tasking.

In 2021 I aim to be better at doing one task at a time. Writing this post, not browsing online to distract myself. Reading a book, not checking my phone every few pages.

Another way of expressing this theme is being indistractable.

If I do want to take a break from one activity, or switch to another task, I should be cognisant of doing that.

I have the following implementation intentions planned to make this theme work:

  • Phone away, especially when reading (or when sleeping)
  • Toggl (time tracking) open on iPad to be more aware of the current task and to make conscious switching even more frictionless
  • Become better at doing nothing when taking a break vs finding something (useless things like YouTube) as a distraction
    • Picking up meditation again to become better at this
    • And when I learn to work better with Affinity Designer (Photoshop-like) I can also see myself doodling more (or just on paper)
  • Manage my environment better by being more proactive in when I can or can’t be bothered (read: WFH life)
  • Do different activities in different places (e.g. reading in chair, break on couch)

One thing I want to achieve with this theme is to continue to learn about and understand the world. The topics below are, somewhat in order, the things want to learn and write about here on this website.

Topics

  1. Animal Welfare & Ethics of Eating Meat
    • What is your personal impact?
    • What is the impact on people (who work in the industry, health, pandemics)?
    • Arguments for/against consciousness (level) of animals
  2. Eat for Health & Energy
    • Revisit essay and update habits
  3. Flexible Weightlifter
    • Revisit essay if necessary, already have a plan for this year
  4. Reason and Science
    • Write a page that details my philosophy/summarizes how I see the world
    • Probably will feature many mini posts that could themselves turn into longer posts
  5. Effective Altruist
    • Update my essay/write a new one about how to effectively spread the ideas of EA
    • Or how to do this in the best way for myself (i.e. is that speaking more about it, writing more online (in Dutch), showing my donations, how to measure this all)
  6. Dog Whisperer
    • Teach Max not to bark at the doorbell (be less on guard) and not to eat stuff in the street – I have a plan for both, probably won’t be an essay
  7. Financial Independence
    • Revisit essay, possibly focus more on the time x money aspect
  8. Writing
    • Possibly continue to write fiction again
  9. Stoicism (Philosophy of Life)
    • Explore this in more depth, bring together ideas from several books
  10. Longevity
    • Explore where the research stands this year and what looks promising
  11. Meditation
    • Write down my experiences later in the year
  12. Religion
    • I’ve read quite a bit about religion, but still have to read the primary sources and more direct commentary on this, and then write something from my own perspective
  13. Entrepreneurship/Marketing
    • Learn to better market my own work and make money with it

Next to these ideas for essays/topics, I have some goals I want to achieve in 2021.

Goals

Goal 1: Write something every day

Write a book review, essay, notes from things I’ve learned, and more, every day. The difficulty will be in writing something on the weekend. One step I could take is to plan to write a book review (easy to do) or notes on things I’ve learned (vs writing a large essay or the like).

Goal 2: Promote my work

This applies to both Blossom and Queal. Becoming better at marketing what I’ve made and showing what the value is in it. This also implies that I should spend less time on making the actual work (i.e. getting help with that) and more on the marketing of it. I have the resources (websites/ebooks/books), implementation is key here.

Goal 3: Meditate daily

Using Waking Up for this. It also has great lessons that I might listen to after a meditation session.

Goal 5: Learn 3 songs on the harmonica

I’ve been gifted a harmonica for Christmas (per request) and I would like to play music again. The goal for three songs is arbitrary but I think better than ‘learn to play’ in general.

Goal 6: Add 2 features to this website

The first would be the dark mode, the second I don’t know at this moment.

Goal 7: Improve my learning process

This one is still a bit vague but includes more spaced repetition (Anki), atomic notes (Obsidian), discussions with other smart people.

Goal 8: Move more money towards effective charities

Again a bit vaguer. A possible number could be €100.000 if GeefBeter.nl takes off (a website/tool to help others start birthday fundraisers). I think I should be able to donate €10.000 next year so that would already be great by itself.

Goal 9 (new): Achieve the elusive six-pack

I’ve wanted to do this for years. This year is the year.

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And, some more concrete goals for Blossom and Queal

Queal

  1. Increase revenue by 20%

Blossom

  1. Launch/run Blossom Analysis
    1. Weekly updates
    2. Database
    3. Essays (psychedelics and …)
  2. Launch/run Blossom Guides (rename?)
    1. 2 to 3 sessions per week by mid 2021
    2. Possibly together with other coaches
  3. Launch/run smaller projects
    1. PsychedelicsBooks
    2. PsychedelicsCourses
    3. PsychedelicsDirectory
    4. PsychedelicsProtocol
  4. Launch/Kickstart PsychedeliCards
    1. First half of 2021

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Finally, some goals that are more for fun/relaxation/habit

  1. Do sports 5 out of every 7 days
    • Same for mobility training
  2. Achieve <12% bodyfat
  3. Play videogames for more than 100 hours (estimate 2020: <10 hours)
  4. Drink fewer alcoholic drinks than last year (estimate/log 2020: sum 559, average 1.5, median 0 (more days no drinks), max 15, 10+ 5 times, ~56.000kcal ~18 days of energy)
  5. Learn to ride a motorcycle