Time of writing: 10:29
Time taken: 63 minutes

I learned about myself through introspection by asking numerous if then questions. For example...

If I sleep late, I tend to wake up late.

DUH. It's obvious but most behaviors are influenced in one way or another by Activities of Daily Living (ADL) such as sleep, eat, cleaning, exercise, and work.

Just as how developers can nest if then statements, I can create a causal chain of if-thens to discover things about myself. For example...

If I sleep late, I tend to wake up late.

If I wake up late, I tend to be less productive for the rest of the day.

If I am not productive, I won't be able to achieve my life goals.

Therefore if I want to achieve my life goals, then I should not sleep late.

From this chain of if-thens, I can deduce that I should not sleep late.

Some level of skepticism is normal. But I learned that some of my behaviors do not align with my goals and that its time for behavior change. For example...

If I talk, I tend to gain more opportunities.

Based on my experience, talking to people opens more doors to possible opportunities compared to when I simply stay quite. However, I fail to actualize this in practice. Why is that the case? Although this exercise doesn't help solving the issue, it certainly helps to surface problems to habitual behaviors that doesn't align with my intention.

Does what I do and say contradict each other? I find myself saying, 5 more minutes of study break, only to find myself mindlessly scrolling10 minutes later.

If I take a break, it tends to be longer than planned.

Therefore I should take fewer breaks? Perhaps. I continued creating if-then statements on a similar topic.

If I take a break, I tend to impulsively browse YouTube or 9gag.

If I browse YouTube or 9gag, I tend to stay longer than planned.

If I have a choice between going back to work and continue browsing, I tend to do the latter.

This tells me that I need to replace study breaks with activities that I can easily switch back to work. Some ideas: a power nap? A short walk, chore, brew coffee, stretch? Any of those sounds like a good plan. I can use a bit of a stretch right now.

Try it for yourself!