So Far, So So

Well, as the title suggests, I have had mixed results on my lifehacking project so far. I have yet to consistently get up at 7 in the morning, which is most likely because I have not been very consistent with my bedtime since my last post. I have also not been able to keep myself to any sort of schedule during the day. The interesting thing is that I have still been productive, but in a different way than originally intended. Instead of sitting down and learning C++ and Java from the books I have, I downloaded and watched a few entrepreneurial and business lectures on iTunes U.

iTunes U has been an excellent resource so far. It houses much of the open courseware from MIT, Stanford, and Yale among others. It also has ridiculous amounts of other information on pretty much anything there is to learn about. In my library, I have lectures and podcasts on programming, electrical engineering, entrepreneurship, and even aquaponics. I have quite a bit of learning left to do for the summer.

Aside from that, I also started the Insanity Workout program today with the preliminary benchmark. It was pretty crazy, and I can easily see why it uses "insanity" as a descriptor. I hope that doing the workouts in the morning will help give me a foundation of sorts for scheduling my day. Now, as I sit here and think about it, I might be looking at my days too much in a linear fashion. Until now, I have looked at scheduling a day like playing Tetris with different blocks of activity. Instead, I think I need to look at it in a slightly different way, expecting it to morph as the day goes on. I need to plan for the unexpected. Anyway, I will see if that works over the coming days.

Other Projects

Room Automation: I have recently been pondering various ways to automate my room and control various features from some central control point. This could be an excellent way to learn C++ as I could use a spare computer running Linux to act as the central core for a custom, C++ based interface. I could then hook it up to the two Arduinos I have, both for extra programming practice and for added modularity. I am also thinking about setting up a small aquaponics strawberry tower in my room, which would fit well with the automation. This will be an interesting and somewhat difficult set of experiments/projects, but it will be an extremely valuable source of experience.

Miscellaneous: I also took apart two more printers over the past two days, and yesterday, I got a decent amount of welding practice. The printers are being assimilated into my collection of parts, and they may be helpful with my automation project. The welding practice was fun, and once I get some more scrap metal, I may build some sort of sculpture.

So, I will continue my lifehacking experiment/challenge, in an attempt to condition myself for a normal schedule. Then again, if I use all the information I learn in the process to build a kick-ass business, I would have to recondition myself to the eccentric and inconsistent schedule I have now.

As always,
          Happy Adventures!

-Zach