# 21c/Q2 – new habits for a new quarter-century **URL:** \ **Category:** Concepts\ **Created:** [January 1, 2025, 5:21am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/21c-q2-new-habits-for-a-new-quarter-century/2024 "2025-01-01T05:21:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/johnnydecimal/32/1759_2.png) [@johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/johnnydecimal)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 5:21am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/21c-q2-new-habits-for-a-new-quarter-century/2024/1 "2025-01-01T05:21:24Z")
> **[22.00.0096 21c/Q2 – new habits for a new quarter-century](https://johnnydecimal.com/20-29-communication/22-blog/22.00.0096-21c-q2/)** > > Quarter-centuries don't roll round very often. Let's use it to shake things up. Happy new ~~year~~ quarter century.\[1\] This doesn’t happen often. I’m going to use it to re-shape some of my behaviours. As I was born in 1976, this roughly coincides with Q3 of my life. Let’s shake it up a little. **Would you like to join me?** Habits are better formed with friends. # Vision statement Behaviours are driven by goals, so let’s define _what_ I’m hoping to achieve. This is the immutable part. And then we’ll talk about _how_ I’m going to do it, which might evolve over time. There’s more than one way to skin a cat. ## 1: Check stuff less often As in, check my mail less often. The price of that stock I own. That tech website I browse when I’m bored. Reddit. Or something related to what I’m doing: I’m reading a book and the character is on Bleeker St, NYC, and I think _I wonder where that is_ and 35 minutes later I’m on YouTube via maps and a pizza shop and a recipe and … you know how this goes. **This is a habit that wasn’t possible at the start of 21c/Q1 and is now endemic**. In 2000 I had a computer in the house but its default state was powered off: when I wanted to do a thing, I turned it on and loaded that thing.\[2\] The internet, such as it was, was dial-up; the connection took a full minute to establish. You didn’t just _check stuff_. Now, the device I’m writing this on has instant access to all of the information that humanity has ever generated. Let me try it now. I’m going to time how long it takes me to find some interesting fact about that pizza shop. 15 seconds. [John’s of Bleeker St](https://johnsofbleecker.com/) is open today 11:30 through 22:00. So we’ve conditioned ourselves to think that 15 seconds is the distraction: and then, what’s the harm? Of course this isn’t how it works. **The solution, I believe, is to completely break this habit**. It has to be: otherwise Q3 rolls around and I’m a 75-year-old dude glued to his phone? That sounds pathetic. I intend to be a 75-year-old dude glued to Schubert on vinyl. So am I becoming a meme and [quitting the internet](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=giving+up+the+internet&t=osx&ia=web)? No: my job is on the internet. You can’t quit the internet. But you can spend a _lot_ less time there. And you can make sure that the time you spend is deliberate, and that it is serving you well. That’s the vision. ## 2: Live more deliberately I’ve alluded to this already in my stalled YouTube series [Focus and Productivity](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtBN5zRaar6oCKPQ3MdILOsinh6W4JV_x).\[3\] **I want to move through life more deliberately: to do one thing at a time, and to be aware of what it is**. The first corporate training course I ever took was on ‘time management’. I was on a graduate program at Rank Xerox in 1996. The advice was so inane as to be absurd: _if you’re waiting for a large job to print_, said the instructor. _Don’t just sit and look at your computer screen. Do something else! This is called multi-tasking_. Sounded like a great idea. Something an instructor told you to do. 29 (!) years later, I’m not so sure. Again, technology is the enabler. In 1996 there was a hard limit on the number of things I could have done while I waited for my print job. Now the list of things is functionally infinite. Great, so I’m more productive! Well, no. Because an infinite subset of the infinite possibilities isn’t productive work. It’s Reddit. I think that we need to learn to do less in order to do more. Not a new idea: in _Deep Work_, Cal Newport sets out four rules.\[4\] The second: **embrace boredom**. Give your brain time to think, to drift, to wander in to idle spaces. This ties in with Johnny.Decimal. I want to work by engaging with my system. Something like this: 1. Choose what to do. Identify the appropriate Johnny.Decimal ID. 2. Open that ID in my JDex and my task management system. Check in with myself. What’s to do? What did I do previously? Is there a context to load? A thing to not forget? 3. Do the thing. And _only_ the thing. If there is a pause, just pause. 4. Finish the thing. Close it down, mentally. Put it away. This applies to life as much as it does to work. Example: yesterday, I had to drop a parcel off and shop for dinner. About to depart, I put in one of my AirPods as I was half way through a video a friend had sent me.\[5\] Fortunately Lucy was there, otherwise I’d have cycled 3kms without the parcel, which I’d left on the table: a victim of distraction. (It would not have been the first time that this had happened.) I don’t think the solution to this is technology; it’s not yet another to-do app. And I don’t _want_ my life driven by a reminder app. I want to drive it myself. **The solution is to be more considered in what you do**. To engage with life and not let _it_ be the background to some YouTube video. ## New Year’s resolutions don’t work… Yeah, [so they say](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=do+new+year%27s+resolutions+work+science&t=osx&ia=web). But I have a data point. Exactly four years ago, after doom-scrolling Covid for all of 2020, I decided – mostly in the moment, if memory serves – to stop reading the news. And I did. Since then I haven’t once visited the home page of a traditional news organisation, or watched any significant portion of a TV news broadcast. (I still keep up with ‘tech news’ because I’m a nerd and it’s not really news.) It wasn’t the resolution that helped, it was having a date to anchor it to. By the end of January if you still haven’t done _the thing_, well you’re not going to start doing it in February. And four years later here we are. It worked for me. Science. # Let’s leave the _how_ for tomorrow **Would you like to join me? Let’s do this together**. Your goals should be _similar_ to mine but if they’re not exactly the same that’s okay. And you might not want to go as hard as I plan on doing. But I’m Johnny.Decimal: this is content. So that’s also okay. I think if we do this together, we can keep each other honest. I’ve created dedicated threads on [Discord](https://discord.com/channels/822215537589354566/1323892020510457957) and the [forum](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/21c-q2-new-habits-for-a-new-quarter-century/2024). Throw your hat in the ring! And if you don’t keep it up, _that’s_ okay. There’s a good chance that I’ll fail. This feels like it’s going to be difficult. But let’s give it a crack. Think how nice it’ll be in 2035: someone says, _hey, you are like a **really chill** person_, and you can say, _yeah, I haven’t been distracted by the internet since the start of this quarter-century_. * * * 1. Don’t pedant me here. I don’t care if the millennium started in 2001 and therefore it should be '26 not '25. 100/4 = 25. End of story. 2. This thing invariably being _Counter-Strike_. 3. Another perfect example of distraction just occurred. I opened YouTube to grab the link to that playlist. One of the suggested videos was a repair of a vintage Omega watch, just like mine! I’ve been trying to find its exact model specification for _ages_. So I can’t just ignore that link: I might never see it again. And I didn’t. But now it’s open in a tab, un-watched, and I’ll figure out how to queue it for later viewing. 4. If you haven’t read _Deep Work_, please do. 5. Having become aware of this earlier this year, I have drastically reduced the number of podcasts that I listen to. And essentially never while outdoors. ---
**Author:** ![johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/johnnydecimal/32/1759_2.png) [@johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/johnnydecimal)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 5:47am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/21c-q2-new-habits-for-a-new-quarter-century/2024/2 "2025-01-01T05:47:06Z")
Just now, waiting for my blog post to publish: _Ooh I should check my email._ **No no no**. Just sit and stare at the screen for one minute man. ---
**Author:** ![johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/johnnydecimal/32/1759_2.png) [@johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/johnnydecimal)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 5:50am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/21c-q2-new-habits-for-a-new-quarter-century/2024/3 "2025-01-01T05:50:37Z")
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**Author:** ![obsidian\_starcaller](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/65b543/32.png) [@obsidian\_starcaller](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/obsidian_starcaller)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 9:30am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/21c-q2-new-habits-for-a-new-quarter-century/2024/4 "2025-01-01T09:30:14Z")
Call me a contrarian, but I have a long-standing rule that New Year’s is the only day I’m **not** allowed to make a resolution. ---
**Author:** ![brookscl](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/brookscl/32/918_2.png) [@brookscl](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/brookscl)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 4:24pm UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/21c-q2-new-habits-for-a-new-quarter-century/2024/5 "2025-01-01T16:24:56Z")
Your approach reminds of [Yearly Themes](https://www.themesystem.com), which I’ve done since 2020. Maybe your theme is **Live Deliberately while Embracing Boredom**. I’m still working on mine. My 2024 theme of focusing on language learning was a bust. ---
**Author:** ![hans](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/hans/32/719_2.png) [@hans](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/hans)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 4:52pm UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/21c-q2-new-habits-for-a-new-quarter-century/2024/6 "2025-01-01T16:52:53Z")
Happy New Year! Such an apt pair of comments above me. I’ve never done New Year’s resolutions as such, since of _course_ we all know _that_ doesn’t work … but of course, blind to to the fact that I’m making resolutions most other days of the year in hopeless attempts to escape my bad habits 😉 In the last week of last year, however, I felt a clear theme settling in for 2025. This kind of clarity that feels like it it already _is_, rather than that I decide to make it so. The phrase for me is: **Less is more.** To be fleshed out further, but the initial topic for me is learning and doing more efficiently. Less time swearing at the computer, more walks to let my thoughts wander and let the solution just come. Accepting that the cycle of frustration and then letting go is in fact how brain plasticity happens (and no other way); and maybe, hopefully, being a little less frustrated with the frustration, and deploying it a little more strategically. ---
**Author:** ![johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/johnnydecimal/32/1759_2.png) [@johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/johnnydecimal)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 10:19pm UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/21c-q2-new-habits-for-a-new-quarter-century/2024/7 "2025-01-01T22:19:20Z")
I know the theme idea well! So yeah, this is absolutely more of a theme than a resolution. ---
**Author:** ![johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/johnnydecimal/32/1759_2.png) [@johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/johnnydecimal)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2025, 10:22pm UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/21c-q2-new-habits-for-a-new-quarter-century/2024/8 "2025-01-01T22:22:52Z")
100% this. We started this by chucking away many, many kilos of stuff.\[1\] Clothes (25kg), the garden shed where Lucy keeps her chicken stuff (80% of it), the garage (at least 50% of it), books from our mantel (75%), other stuff in cupboards (50%). I can’t stress enough how worthwhile this is. We’ve had a leaky tap for a while. And I’ve had a spare tap for just as long. But the other day, post-clean, I realised … I know _exactly_ where all the things are. Tap. Teflon tape. Tools. So I replaced the tap. Took about 3 minutes. * * * 1. Or donating it or e-recycling it or whatever; you get the idea. ---
**Author:** ![hans](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/hans/32/719_2.png) [@hans](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/hans)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2025, 9:14am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/21c-q2-new-habits-for-a-new-quarter-century/2024/9 "2025-01-02T09:14:51Z")
I have about twenty of that kind of task lying around – just the _physical_ ones. I’d guess their duration would range from five minutes to two days, with a median of two hours. I felt very validated by Piotr Wozniak’s term [executive paralysis](https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Executive_paralysis). The last month I’ve been basking in that validation, and the new year is the time to make something of it. The key being to do it _indirectly_ and compassionately. Trying to tell myself I _should be able_ to do these things induces paralysis. Having a little bit of breathing room shifts perspective, and suddenly things start happening. ---
**Author:** ![hans](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/hans/32/719_2.png) [@hans](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/hans)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2025, 2:39pm UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/21c-q2-new-habits-for-a-new-quarter-century/2024/10 "2025-01-02T14:39:40Z")
Here’s no. 1. Hanging up a second dish rack. This has been lying here for months. Took five minutes. ![IMG_20250102_153245](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/uploads/default/original/2X/e/ec816841826a001900a3e97936ca8bcd6fa2b851.jpeg) I suspect this was not unrelated to the 15 minute nap I gave myself permission to take just before. ---
**Author:** ![johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/johnnydecimal/32/1759_2.png) [@johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/johnnydecimal)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 12:36am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/21c-q2-new-habits-for-a-new-quarter-century/2024/11 "2025-01-03T00:36:42Z")
The funny thing is that it usually only does take five minutes. God knows the tasks I’ve spent _hours_ of mental energy procrastinating and then I do them and, oh. That took three minutes. Now don’t I feel like a boob. ---
**Author:** ![Alex](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/alex/32/395_2.png) [@Alex](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/Alex)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2025, 1:50am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/21c-q2-new-habits-for-a-new-quarter-century/2024/12 "2025-01-06T01:50:41Z")
> Call me a contrarian, but I have a long-standing rule that New Year’s is the only day I’m **not** allowed to make a resolution. Yep - I’m the same. If it’s worth doing - start right now, don’t wait until 1st Jan. ---
**Author:** ![caliban](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/ecccb3/32.png) [@caliban](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/caliban)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 6:33am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/21c-q2-new-habits-for-a-new-quarter-century/2024/13 "2025-01-07T06:33:11Z")
Happy new quarter century! This resonates with me. I’m not sure what my personal goal should be, but I will think of something along similar lines.