My project is an ongoing one of self improvement. I've spent most of my adult life working on technical stuff, and it's taken a bit of a toll on me.
I quit working about ~20 months ago, started a low-carb time restricted eating regime, lost ~230 lbs, have been doing 15-25 hours of cardio a month for the past year, started going to therapy, got an ADHD diagnosis, read a bunch of classic literature (Middlemarch and The Count of Monte Cristo are my favs thus far), maintaining a 19 week streak of Latin language learning through the killer Legentibus iOS app, and I'm playing guitar every day (trying to nail the the major scale in three different fingerings across all 7 modal starting points).
I miss my old job working with Vitess and Kubernetes a lot (Hi Sam!) but eliminating all work stress has really allowed me to take control of my life.
I was diagnosed with ADHD last year, and am curious as to what you've learned in your time. I'm taking 40-50mg methylphenidate hydrochloride (Ritalin) daily and working a hybrid web developer role. I'm trying to increase my reading of literature and begin writing, but I find myself just watching YouTube/browsing Reddit and HN.
Diet matters. Protein, especially in the morning. Carbs and sugar are so bad for focus.
Sleep is essential. Getting a full night of quality sleep will probably help more than anything else. If you often wake up feeling tired already then maybe do a sleep study to see if there are problems there.
Exercise helps.
Developing a system for organization is key to unburdening your mind. There are various books for adults, for me I also found an executive function coach gave me the right amount of accountability and discipline to practice the systems enough that they didnt feel like a burden anymore.
Thanks! It has helped explain a lot of things about my life, and what I now understand as dopamine-seeking behavior, as well as why I found it so difficult to switch focus once I became obsessed with something.
I got a prescription for Adderall, and I take 10mg dose a couple of times a week when I need to get psyched up for deep-cleaning the house or doing a week's worth of food prep, or folding and putting away a mountain of laundry. Moving your body doing repetitive manual tasks just feels amazing on speed. My wife is pretty happy not having to over-function for me, and to have help around the house. Having healthy food that you want to eat in your fridge is also very helpful.
I seem to get plenty of motivation and focus for doing things I want to do by doing an hour of cardio every morning at the gym. Recently I've been moving between HR zones 1-4 while listening to the 4 movements of Beethoven's 9th, which I have a recording of that is just over an hour. I sometimes time it so I walk out of the gym at the end of the 4th movement to thunderous applause in my headphones. Reading while doing boring steady state Zone-2 on the elliptical is amazing -- I rarely feel smarter or more engaged. I read all of Jane Austen's novels that way, and it inspired me to read more!
I also go to bed every night at the same time, get up at the same time every morning, and if I don't manage to get at least 7 hours of sleep I take a nap during the day. I have developed friendships with the regulars at my local coffee shop and often have good conversations at nearly the same time several times a week. I meet with a couple of old college friends every week for dinner. I also take leisurely cold-ass showers every morning when I get back from the gym to prove to myself that I have executive function, and because by the time I've shaved and brushed & flossed I feel like a million bucks.
Yaaayyy Legentibus! I only dipped into it but next time I return to Latin really look forward to working through all the material. Extensive reading ftw.
Having enjoyable text to read/listen to that is just comprehensible enough to get you to keep working at it really a pleasurable way to learn a language. LLPSI is also great, and at times is a delightful read. I find myself also really enjoying Ørberg's student manual, in which he reveals (in English) all the finer points of the Grammar the text is trying to get you to internalize. It's amazing how much grammar you can just intuit by reading -- like I understood participles without explicitly realizing they had been introduced in Chapter 14.
The LLPSI-verse was my gateway drug (Luke Ranieri's reading is great, if a little hard to understand due to dropping final -um).
I have a bad tendency to do grammar exercises instead of trusting comprehensible input, happy to see such a strong cottage industry of Latin writers now!
I quit working about ~20 months ago, started a low-carb time restricted eating regime, lost ~230 lbs, have been doing 15-25 hours of cardio a month for the past year, started going to therapy, got an ADHD diagnosis, read a bunch of classic literature (Middlemarch and The Count of Monte Cristo are my favs thus far), maintaining a 19 week streak of Latin language learning through the killer Legentibus iOS app, and I'm playing guitar every day (trying to nail the the major scale in three different fingerings across all 7 modal starting points).
I miss my old job working with Vitess and Kubernetes a lot (Hi Sam!) but eliminating all work stress has really allowed me to take control of my life.