✴️ How I'm Making... #24

Author

Ben Jang
November 10, 2024

Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome

Charlie Munger

Stick around for a game-changing trick that I use to wake up at ungodly hours every day!

✏️ Summary

  • Incentives win over willpower

  • Make it easy to do the right thing

  • Make it hard to do the wrong thing

I wake up at 4:30 every day.

I don't say that to brag, nor to tell you that's what you should do. I say it because even though that's what I've been doing for the past 2 years, I still find it difficult.

The tricky thing isn't getting out of bed. It's resisting the urge to get back in.

I've tried everything - moving the alarm to the other side of the room, writing down to-do lists, or even forcing myself to take a cold shower as soon as I got up. All of it worked to varying degrees, but it was only when I moved to my new apartment that the real trick revealed itself.

The answer is a loft bed.

📈 The Lesson

The loft bed with a ladder made it much harder to get back into bed, which in turn makes it easier for me to stay awake.

I struggled with the decision for a while. Getting a loft bed felt like a downgrade in status. I worried I would struggle to sleep. I was worried I would fall off. But a few months in, I can confidently say that the bed has given me at least 10 hours a week back in productive output.

People talk about willpower like it's the only way to do hard things. It's not true. You can change your surroundings and rig the game so that you can succeed, even when you don't want to.

Doing the right thing is hard. Doubly so if that thing requires a sacrifice. So make the decisions today that will make tomorrow easier. After all, if you won't, who will?

🔗 Progress Update

This was the first newsletter I wrote entirely in WordRobin.

The app is becoming less like a toy, and more of an actual, useful tool.

This newsletter looks like this

The new helpful thing I’m working on is the Sentence Flow widget.

It allows me to visualize and play around with individual sentences, like lego blocks. I can see how the sentences relate to the context of the paragraph, and change the text as I see fit.

I’ve also added Robin - the editor who will give feedback on your text based on the context of the paragraph given.

Robin’s Feedback

What’s Next?

I need more feedback! If you write frequently and want to try out WordRobin, let me know 🙂 

That’s all for now!

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Ben | X