The best tool I've found for monitoring sleep quality and recovery.
Extremely useful for seeing how lifestyle changes are affecting my sleep and for giving me rapid feedback on what's aiding or hurting my physical recovery.
This is my favorite white noise machine I've found, and I've used it for over 8 years now. It uses tiny fans in an adjustable compartment so you get a natural wind noise, instead of a synthetic recorded one.
Last but not least, Alexa helps link everything together. I can control the blinds, lights, and noise machine (via a plug) from it, and set commands like "Good Night" to turn everything on and off at once.
Going from writing non-fiction blog posts to writing a non-fiction book has been harder than I expected.
Here are 9 things I wish I had known before starting...
1/ Tweets and articles have ruined your internal locus of writing motivation.
When you get a rush of dopamine every day or week as the payoff for your work, it will be excruciating to go for months with none.
One option is to tell yourself to just be proud of your work and not need external validation.
But it's much easier to have a few trusted people who can occasionally look at things and remind you that yes, you know what you're doing, and no, it's not terrible.
I think making a conscious effort to spend as much of my day outside as possible (even while working) has done more for my day-to-day sense of well-being than almost any other change.
I’ve never written a novel before, but I want to this year.
So I’ve read ~10 books on the fiction writing process in the last couple of months.
Here’s the best guide to outlining an idea for a book I’ve found:
(From Conflict & Suspense by James Scott Bell)
1/ Start with your LOCK:
a LEAD character worth following.
an OBJECTIVE with physical, spiritual, or professional death on the line.
a CONFRONTATION with a stronger opponent (antagonist)
a KNOCKOUT ending that surprises & delights the reader
Write them all down on a notecard.
2/ A Disturbance and a Doorway:
Come up with a DISTURBANCE in your Lead's life that creates their Objective.
Then a DOORWAY OF NO RETURN through which they pass, leading eventually to their major CONFRONTATION.
Also called the CALL TO ADVENTURE and the THRESHOLD