Life of (f)Utility: Hacking the Human Race

Stuff I do

One of the earliest pearls of wisdom that I accepted was that “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” –Aristotle

For better or worse, here’s a brief list of what I repeatedly do:

1. Always orient my shirts in the closet the same direction. This saves me from having to turn it around and also, it makes my closet look a lot more organized.

2. I narrow my wardrobe to two pants and 5 different shirts. For cold days, I wear a grey zip-up sweater on top of it all and a medium weight coat. The reduction in wardrobe selection free’s my mind for more important decisions.

3. Zero tolerance policy on my incoming mail. As soon as I get it every day, every single important piece of mail gets filed away in a three right binder with dividers. My policy is that any piece of mail that is associated with something that I have an account of any kind with gets filed by date. Bills get batch processed online.

4. I use quicken religiously and update it 2-3 times/week. Once you get used to it, it’s really not that bad. It is kind of a pain, but I know exactly where I stand financially and what direction and magnitude my cash flow is month by month. The piece of mind that this gives me priceless. Moreover, it gives me the ability to anticipate and forecast expenses.

5. I don’t eat breakfast… I just drink tar-dark coffee with a couple heapings of non-dairy creamer. This seems to have diet shake effect. I’ve been doing this for years and don’t seem to have any side effects. I do feel that I need to follow up with a nutritionist about this. It’s probably terrible for me. One thing I do know is that if I eat just a little, I will be famished by 10:30 am. I’d have to take 30 minutes or so to eat a big enough breakfast to hold me over till lunch. By avoiding eating anything - I seem to slow my metabolism down enough so that the coffee keeps me full all morning. It’s not uncommon for me to go till 1 pm without the thought of food.

6. I am not vegetarian, but I eat very little meat. And when I do, I try to stuff my self with grains and vegetables first. Once I’m practically full with this stuff, I’ll have some bits of meat. The lasting effect is that I’m full and I’ve gotten my ‘meat fix’.

7. As soon as I come in the door - I empty my pockets. I always dump my 5 key things: wallet, phone, pager, keys, moleskin - into the same place.

8. I use my phone as an alarm clock. Not sure why this works for me. It just does. Maybe because there’s something more urgent about silencing my phone than an alarm clock. (note: because of #7 - I always know where to find it.) I guess one of the reasons that I like to use it is that it serves as a flashlight, since the room is still dark at the time I get up.

9. I change the oil in my car myself because it is very easy to do and it saves me the hassle of driving somewhere to have it done. Changing the oil regularly (in addition to maintaining tire pressure) is one of the only things you can do that really has an impact on the health of the car. It gives me an opportunity to look under the hood for any signs that anything else might need attention.

10. I always bring my lunch for work. I always wash the tupperware at work before I put it back into my backpack.

11. I always use the same fork.

12. I always give myself the first 2 hours of every day to work on personal projects (I get up at 5am).

13. I always use reusable bags when I go to the grocery store. This saves me from the proliferation of plastic bags in the house and reduces waste. I also find that I can carry more bags in one trip.

14. I don’t have GPS, so when I use mapquest - I always right down the *distances* in addition to the “Left on this street”, “right on that street” information. This is usually faster than printing out the mapquest directions. If all you record is the directions without the distances, you are totally screwed if you unknowingly pass the street you are looking for.

15. I *very rarely* buy brewed coffee at Starbucks or anywhere else for that matter. Once you use the Melita - you will not accept any substitutes. It’s a heck of a lot cheaper, too. For $7, I get a bag of fresh roasted beans at Costco that will last me at least one month. Every cup I brew knocks the socks off anywhere else.

16. I never keep cash in my wallet. If it’s there - I’ll frivolously spend it.

17. I always keep the 5-6 most important cards in the same place in my wallet. There’s a compartment for easy access, and I keep them all there. Since doing this, I have *dramatically* cut down the time I spend in line at the checkout diggin around for my card.

18. Every morning - I clear out the dish drying rack. This seems to have a calming affect for me. Takes me about 2 mins.

19. I usually floss my teeth after lunch and dinner. The feeling of cleaning out my chompers gives me a calm feeling, as well.

20. I’m always mindful of the 1:30 - 2:30pm lull in energy that may/may not happen after lunch. When I feel myslef feeling low in energy or short in attention span, I get up and walk around or run an errand. This keeps me as productive as possible throughout the day.

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