Work your way to the top

Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition. -Auden
Our time on this land is short anons, let's get our shit together and get stuff done.

I plan to get really organized. I hope to get serious about reading and learning in the coming months, and I would appreciate some tips and advice.

Assuming I have something like 5-6 hours of free time every day for just learning, I'm thinking of dividing my time like this-

10-20 pages of philosophy a day, more if not particularly difficult.
50 pages of prose, less if work is difficult/requires concentration.
An hour of learning science/math/history
An hour for learning a language.
An hour of creative output if time is available. Writing, painting, music etc.

What do you think?

I think this makes me want to kill myself and write cynical essays about people like you

Where will you get all the time?

Don't give up user, and don't listen to doubters.

Recently had a sort of mid-life crisis. My reading/writing was lacking because I got a new job at a big law firm and am a lawfag every day. But I realized that I still had time, still had hours.

So I created a routine. I read non-fiction on my kindle on the train (10-20 pages). I read another batch of pages at lunch.

I come home and read prose or poetry while eating my dinner (20-40 pages). I drink some wine (8-10 more pages).

Then I spend the rest of the evening writing. I complete 1,000 to 1,500 words a night, on average.

This routine has completely reinvigorated me. When I was using work and "muh free time" excuses I was highly depressed and hopeless. I spent more time worrying about my free time than actually doing anything with it.

Your routine is great. You're great. I am proud of you. Let's do this.

I've gotten this optimistic only after a very long period of depression. Be strong user.
It's not about the time. Some harsh reflection will illustrate clearly how much time you, and everyone else wastes. It's about dedication, which will be very difficult. But I'll certainly try.

I think humanity needs structure. Its worth it. I have been planning on doing the same while looking for work. I would encourage keeping a journal or notes so that you can reflect and develop your own ideas.

sorry I just haven't had my coffee yet today

Cheers man, hope that works out well for you. Time, nothing's more valuable.

Look up Henry Miller's routine. I've been trying to figure out how to adapt it to fit my lifestyle. I'm working 40 hours a week and go to school.

> self improvement routine
> not including any type of physical exercise

This. If you don't exercise you're robbing yourself of a 10%+ IQ boost

This is good. This is a good thread, OP.

listen to those lecture audiobooks like "great courses" or "modern scholar" when you have time to sneak them in, most are only a half hour so not really the full 90 minutes or more of a real college lecture, but if you find you have time through out the day, you can pick up some extra knowledge like that, watch all the yale open courseware classes too, they never update them so you can get through them all if you just do a lecture or two here and there

you will not stick to this. and abiding interest/enthusiasm is key. if you're doing this just to get good, reconsider. what do you actually want?

What exercises should I incorporate? I already walk for an hour every day.

Get into lifting.

Or running

bump

or both, or biking, or swimming, or jumping rope, or yoga, you ever seen an unhealthy yoga person? have you? HAVE YOU? I"M NOT GAY!

Lifting, running, sports, anything that you'll actually do, incorporate in your routine and not procrastinate. Walking is good, but it's mostly complementary and not a good exercise by itself.

I'd say just run man. I lifted for about 6 months, it felt good and I gained about 10kg of solid muscle but you have to maintain it once you're at that stage. It's a commitment and it's not sustainable unless you are actually interested in incorporating it into your life as a hobby.

Running on the other hand, just walk out the door run to the park do some laps do some sprint s do some pushups pullups and you're set. You won't gain mass you don't need and it stabilizes your mood at a good level.

You'll never do it

Nothing will stop me from trying though. I'm not going to get scared before I begin.

routines are for autists

just do whatever you want

going through philosophy itself will take 2 yrs of 5-6 hrs/day. do that first, with canonical literature sprinkled in if you need a break. everything else you can do later. start with the greeks. breaking things into little time blocks like you've done will make it all feel like a chore and will last 3-4 days. it's not even what auden meant by that quote.