
Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life? - jkchang
Could be anything you stopped or started. How has it improved your (day to day) life.
======
gmays
\- No TV (and no news). Stopped watching years ago, spend more time on
productive things.

\- No video games. I binge and play again for maybe 1 week a year.

\- Spend free time with wife, because that's all she really wants.

\- Workout 4-5 days a week. Lift early between 10am and 3pm, whenever I reach
a good stopping point. Listen to Mixergy or similar podcast during workout. Do
cardio in the evening (between 7pm and 10pm) and sit on the bike for 30 min to
1hr and read.

\- Sleep 7-9 hrs/night.

\- Never set an alarm.

\- No alcohol, tobacco, drugs, coffee, or tea. Ever. Might sound crazy, but
it's not hard since I just never started.

\- Don't blog or use Twitter.

\- Cut hair weekly (short haircut, cut it myself), shave almost daily
(whenever I go somewhere). A military habit, but when you look good, you feel
good.

\- Had a few close calls while deployed (was a Marine for 8 yrs) and learned
life is too precious and too short to do anything but my best work and left
the Marine Corps as soon as I returned from my last deployment. I started
making decisions based on what I'd regret the least, regardless of outcome.

~~~
pizzeys
How do you know that 'no alcohol, drugs, coffee etc' has been good for you if
you have no basis for comparison?

~~~
runjake
Honestly, because he was in the USMC (US Marine Corps). You can't avoid being
exposed to all of the above, and subsequently, its effects -- even if you
yourself do not personally partake in any of those vices.

------
cprncus
Flossing religiously. I used to be Bleeding Gums Murphy, but no more. A dental
hygienist showed me the proper way to floss and now I will get up at 4am if I
somehow forgot to floss before bedtime, go into the bathroom, and floss. I've
only missed once in 7+ years. Bad gums are associated with heart disease,
tooth loss, and other nasty effects. No thanks.

Quitting, after 30+ years, saying, "God bless you" (or really, "Gahblessyou")
automatically after someone sneezes. If you stop and think about _how dumb
this is_ , it feels really good to break this ridiculous cultural habit. I've
been "clean" from this for 2+ years now.

~~~
read
Seemingly small things like flossing and using your non-dominant hand to open
doors improve self control. Deceptively small things like that lead into
bigger things.

~~~
hansy
Whoa can you explain what you mean by using your non-dominant hand to improve
self-control?

~~~
read
Using your non-dominant hand challenges the brain to coordinate a new
movement. The brain is not an expert in this new movement. It has to work hard
to get it right and does a bad job initially. Since it's bad at it, you have
to stick with it to complete the movement. It takes longer, and during the
process you have an urge to drop it and continue with the dominant hand.

Fighting off this urge and continuing to use the non-dominand hand at
something you are bad at improves self-control. You put yourself in a position
where you don't quit when something works poorly for you. You make a habit of
sticking with things to get better. It's worth cultivating habits that get you
exploring things you're bad at.

I admit shaving with the non-dominand hand gets dangerous. But you can witness
this effect by trying something simpler like stirring a glass of milk or
brushing your teeth.

~~~
hansy
I guess I never thought about it this way. The only time I ever did anything
significant with my non-dominant hand was when I used to play lacrosse, and I
had to shoot and throw the ball using both my left and right hands. Of course
the purpose of this was trite; become harder to defend.

Anyway, using my non-dominant hand for trivial activities sounds fun. At the
very least, should I lose my dominant hand in a light saber duel in the future
with a man who claims to be my father, I'll know I've got an adequate backup.

------
lessnonymous
Stopped reading and watching "The News". What a waste of time. If there's
something important, someone will tell me about it.

~~~
andappmeet
I mean it's really up to you but I disagree with this. Reading the news
enables you to have an understanding of current world issues and become a
contributing member of society. I'm not sure where you live, but I feel like
in the Silicon Valley there is pretty large bubble where people are so focused
on building a startup they forget how thousands of children are being gassed
in Syria. I believe that reading the news can give you perspective on the
world and life.

Just my $0.02. Don't have to agree just my thoughts.

~~~
brianchu
There's a big difference between reading the news every day, reading the news
every week, and reading the news every month.

I used the read the news every day (and reading news magazines weekly); what
ended up happening is that I also ended up reading through a lot of fluff and
reading about a lot of inconsequential mere-fact-stating news. Even if you
read the news every week, there's a ton of repeated analysis that you have to
filter out. I ended up realizing that this was a legitimate waste of time.

Now I just read the news maybe every month. I'll usually only read long-form
synthesis/analysis articles, rather than the kind of stuff that comes in
through AP/Reuters. The exception being news articles coming in through HN, of
course.

Going back to your analogy, while I'll keep myself updated on the major
movements in the civil war in Syria, what I don't need to read about is how 12
people died in a bomb blast on Tuesday in <city> or something extremely-low-
level like that.

------
sentinel
Picking up the habit of working regularly on side-projects.

I am lucky enough to have a couple of friends interested in working on the
same project as myself. The habit of all of us getting together for a couple
of hours during the weekend has tremendously advanced the project.

It helps to work with friends or people in general, because it rarely happens
that none of us are in the mood for working. And when we are, we pull the
other ones in.

For about a year before starting this, I would only ever so often sit down to
advance the project, but after starting this 1-2 times per week get-together
with them, the project has improved (complete code refactoring + 2 versions
out on the App Store), in about 3 months.

As well, myself, I have improved as a programmer and have gotten a rekindled
interest in programming. I think my friends can agree that it has affected
them similarly.

~~~
vojant
That's really cool. When I've been trying to work with someone else on side
projects, someone always wanted to quit. It's really hard to find people who
will do that regularly.

~~~
sentinel
I can understand. Maybe it's more important to find a project that motivates
everybody. I usually want to quit projects that don't appeal to me very much
as well.

------
portmanteaufu
Regular exercise.

I did a CS master's degree at night while working a full time job programming.
After sitting 9 hours at work, I'd sit a few hours in class and then sit a few
hours doing homework. After three years, I was a wreck. As soon as I
graduated, a buddy of mine spurred me to join a gym with him.

Now I do heavy lifting 3 times per week and interval training 2-3 times per
week. I'm not the healthiest eater (maybe I'll fix that next), but I feel
great. There's something indescribably satisfying about breaking your own
records.

It doesn't matter which exercise you pick. The benefit you get from doing
_something_ over nothing is enormous. The important thing is that you do
something that you like enough to stick with. As a non-competitive athlete, I
find that fitness is 80% attendance.

------
argonaut
Stopped playing video games and stopped regularly watching TV or TV shows
(though I still enjoy movies and TV shows, I don't make it part of my
schedule). Biggest waste of time during my teenage years.

------
skwosh
Fasting (< 500cal) two or three times a week is rapidly decreasing my volume,
and bringing increased mental clarity and alertness. It's a good rhythm to get
into, has a pretty dramatic (positive) effect on how I feel, and it's a nice
way to atone for yesterday...

~~~
bryans
There was a great episode of Horizon titled Eat, Fast And Live Longer which
tackled the benefits of fasting. Even a very reasonable fasting routine seemed
to have a non-trivial positive effect on the show's host. It was convincing
enough that I gave it a shot, and though I haven't been able to stick with it
(or an exercise routine, for that matter), I felt significantly better in the
~week following even a one day fast.

One of the things suggested by a researcher in the episode, is to make your
"cheat day" the day following a fast. Tell yourself that you can eat anything
you want, because (and this was certainly my experience) even if you intend to
binge heavily, you most likely will not. You will, however, still feel
incredibly satisfied after devouring that bag of chips, or splurging on the
cheesecake after dinner. I can't remember the exact number, but the researcher
mentioned that during this routine, the subjects would only eat around 10%
more than their recommended daily caloric intake.

~~~
skwosh
Yeah, that show [1] suggests that there are number of positive effects to
limiting calories and protein intake, such as reduced risk of cancer, heart
disease, cognitive disorders, and an increase in (neuronal) cell-repair and
longevity.

Something that I have noticed is an increase in self-control. Previously my
relationship to food had been rather habitual and sometimes even addictive.
I've found that fasting has made it a lot easier to control what I eat on the
other days...

[1] [http://vimeo.com/54089463](http://vimeo.com/54089463)

------
bjourne
I stopped using shampoo and conditioner. It's the best fashion advice I've
ever had and it's funny that it came from a hn article. Better looking hair,
better protection against cold, no more dandruff, much smaller dry scalp
patches and so on. Thanks HN!

~~~
davidcollantes
If you do not use shampoo, what do you use to wash your hair? Genuinely
interested, I can't live without Head and Shoulders.

~~~
guruz
Some help here:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/NoPoo/wiki/index](http://www.reddit.com/r/NoPoo/wiki/index)

After some weeks, your hair gets used to having no shampoo.

I'm doing it since 2 months and all is fine.

~~~
Kiro
So instead you must use baking soda?

~~~
aaren
Yes. Sodium bicarbonate. Make sure it doesn't have any flour in it.

Buy a tub of sodium bicarb and put it in an old shampoo bottle. Add water and
mix - aiming for shampoo like viscosity.

Depends how much hair you have, your activity levels and where you live but
start with using it once every couple days. You may end up at once / week, but
depends on the above factors.

Use it like shampoo, but more vigorously.

------
Gigablah
Started eating better. More fresh vegetables and lean meat, less sugar, a lot
less carbs. Dropped 28 pounds so far. Huge boost to my self-esteem.

------
aegiso
10K run every day and 10 hours of sleep.

The productivity gains are in the 2-3x range.

~~~
od2m
You probably already have overtraining syndrome if you've been doing this for
any length of time.

[http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/overtraining/a/aa062499a....](http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/overtraining/a/aa062499a.htm)

~~~
jf22
From 6 miles a day? Probably not. That's not that much physical activity at
all.

~~~
od2m
Every human is different, but yes I believe that's too much. If he had said,
"I exercise 5 days a week, take 1 week off every 3 months and 2 consecutive
weeks off per year." Then that is different. But he said he runs a 5k EVERY
SINGLE DAY, and that is far too much abuse for a human body. The most
insidious symptom of overtraining syndrome is a compulsive need to exercise.

If this individual is overtrained, his body will find a way to stop him. He
will become ill from immune suppression or injured from the constant stress
that never fully heals, or too depressed to exercise at all.

Body builders have a saying something like, "Muscles are made in the bedroom
and the kitchen."

------
shubhamjain
Despite having a very long wish list of things I long for to do, I am usually
in for redditing, reading HN, sitcoms, booze and weed. I hadn't opened Sublime
for past two months, neither read anything nor any activity faintly
productive.

After reading an amazing article [1], I have beginning to feel an amazing
happiness with everything I am doing now and it just so simple. The trick is
to ask yourself every time you start doing something: "What I will be doing
now, Will it help me in future in anyway?". Of course, you must not drag
yourself to despise everything not related to higher gains but realize that
life in the future is function of what you do now, and the decisions you make.

[1]:
[http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/10/27/procrastination/](http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/10/27/procrastination/)

------
kiyanforoughi
Switching off the sound my phone makes each time I receive an email, text or
messaging notification.

I also stopped checking my email actively in the evening (only once before
going to sleep to make sure there are no emergencies) and I try not to touch
it more than once on Saturdays.

I have such a clearer mindset now these days.

Try it! You'll see.

------
bbissoon
I stopped relying on my cellphone so often. It feels good not to be a slave to
every "Ding!" or "Beep!" that I hear.

I also got back in my old SEGA games and cooking food my mom used to make when
I was a kid.

I grew up in church but slacked because life got hectic. Now I'm attending
when I can, I'll read the Bible in off time and I've made myself more
available to help others.

This might sound stupid, but it's something about the times where all I could
do is go outside and play football in the park with my friends that I miss.
Now with my younger siblings, I see them so attached to technology, it makes
me sad that they're so trapped and in tuned with news and post from people
they'll probably never meet instead of the people they're in front of every
day...

~~~
b3b0p
What SEGA games have you been playing? Very cool!

Funny how most of the comments mention giving up video games altogether and
you mention getting back into them.

~~~
bbissoon
Me and my friends get together and play Streets of Rage, Shinobi, old school
Madden and Charles Barkley Shut and Jam!

~~~
b3b0p
That sounds like fun! I'm jealous. I never played Barkley, but I have fond
memories of playing Streets of Rage and Madden on the Genesis. The controls of
the current iterations of Madden for me are much to complex, it's a chore to
remember and master.

------
sathishmanohar
Taming my lizard brain.

I was going to through a Seth Godin Book, In which he talk about amygdala, the
part of the brain responsible for fight or flight instincts.

After that I started thinking, most of the things I worry about doesn't end up
happening. But, I was constantly worrying about it. Sometimes I wont go to
business oriented community meet ups, just because my lizard brain throws some
'what if that happens' at me.

Recognizing that part of my thoughts and reacting only to things that really
needed my attention helped tremendously in shaping my time, focus and work
then on.

------
mikeg8
Reading. I never used to open a book for more than 20 minutes but once I
started reading books I actually enjoyed (Gladwell, Freakenomics, other books
related to business, personal growth, human behavior etc) I realized what an
amazing habit it is. You learn a lot, work your brain, give the eyes a break
from a screen and you can take a good book/kindle anywhere. No power needed.
Start reading books.

~~~
ishwarn
Care to share some book recs? I'm always looking for new ones.

~~~
mikeg8
Outliers, definitely the freakenomics books, I enjoyed Rich Dad Poor Dad, The
Lean Startup, Power of Habit, Defining Decade (if your in your 20's, fantastic
book), The Happiness Advantage, Great by Choice from Jim collins...

~~~
ishwarn
Thanks! From that list, I've read Outlier, The Lean Startup, and Power of
Habit. Currently reading A Short History Of Nearly Everything, and I plan on
following that with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. After that, I
will probably jump on Defining Decade.

------
lexandstuff
Giving up high sugar foods completely (no soft drink, candy, dessert etc). I
went from battling colds year round to almost never getting them.

------
kopos
I started waking up at 5.30 in the morning. Code for about an hour and then go
for an early morning walk with my spouse for another.

~~~
lucaspiller
Do you do the same during winter when it isn't light until 8am (depending on
where you live of course), or do you push the walk back a bit?

~~~
kopos
Its winter now in India. Right now I'm doing a sleep at 11 - 11:30 and wake up
5:30 to 6 am routine. Then code for an hour or so. And then go for the walk
and be back by 8.30 am. If I am not able to do a walk I do some calisthenics
for 15 mins.

The weekends are more liberal. Things are a bit late but the only point is to
not to miss the routine.

------
sfrechtling
I now sleep more (> 7 hours a night). Amazing gains in what I notice - and how
much easier it is to think. Like running downhill.

------
kszx
(1.) Eat well, drink well, sleep well, work well.

(2.) Quantified self: Targeting productive and unproductive time with
RescueTime, and committing to explicit targets with Beeminder.

(3.) Less but better. Less input but better input. Less output but better
output. Afford the luxury of being slow and having time for introspection and
inspiration.

(4.) When you can't sleep, don't try to.

~~~
alexenko
Never heard of Beeminder until now. Out of curiosity, what targets do you have
that work really well for you?

~~~
kszx
I have the best experience with targets where data logging works
automatically, i.e., where I don't need to bother with manual data input.

\- RescueTime: Productive and unproductive time, or specific software/website
categories, automatically logged by the computer;

\- Draft: Words written every day (just started, but looks promising);

Also successful: binary variables (1 or 0 every day, either done or not done).

------
elwell
Dropped: porn and reddit (though I'm still on HN obviously)

~~~
daliusd
How do you know that dropping these improved your life?

------
kfk
Travelling on a kayak (Passau-Bratislava in 2012 and Krakow-Gdansk in 2013).
Both the memories and the planning for the future trips (Iceland 2014!) give
me something to hold on to during the dark moments. Previously I used to
travel by bike, but I had stopped that for 3 years before picking up kayaking.

------
waltercfilho
Stopped adding sugar to my hot drinks, completely.

~~~
tcgv
I did the same thing, and it is funny cause now that I only drink sugar-free
coffee I actually enjoy it much more! And I'm also able to tell difference
between good coffee and bad coffee cause there is no sugar in the way hiding
coffee's taste.

------
mping
Started to practice genuine Shaolin QiGong & Shaolin Kung Fu. Got lucky with
the master I found. Been practicing for 7 years, wouldn't trade it for a pile
of gold. It just enables me to do everything better. I mean _everything_. Most
of the ordinary day-to-day stuff doesn't bother me so much. I don't waste as
much time as before doing useless things.

Also reduced the amount of TV/Internet time; started to eat vegetarian
practically every day.

<shameless plug> I built this app just for that:
[https://routinetap.com](https://routinetap.com). I'm working on a pure js
version.</shameless>

------
4lun
Disconnected the TV from the aerial. I now watch a fraction of TV that I used
to (via streaming or personal library).

I used to waste so much time watching reruns and trash TV just because it was
there when I turned the TV on.

------
g2guo
I have been building micro-habits that make small increments in improving my
life. I am currently working on three things: reading, exercising and coding;
every day in my personal spare time. I use an iOS app to track progress (Way
of Life). The key is to make them easy to accomplish so you do them everyday
and it becomes a habit that can grow into something more difficult.

------
pearjuice
I stopped eating regular meals and live of a cup of black unsugared coffee, a
cup of water and a daily switched apple or can of tuna in natural olive oil. I
haven't felt healthier in years. Regular meals are not necessary to survive
and with this diet you will save a lot of money, feel healthier and become
spiritually awakened.

------
sillysaurus2
Writing like pg.

~~~
hansy
What steps have you taken to help you write like him?

Actually, I'd be super interested to see the evolution of your writing style.
Do you have a blog?

------
jonwhittlestone
I haven't yet - but I'm planning to ban the smart phone and tablet computer
from the bedroom.

~~~
elwell
a very good idea

------
uptownJimmy
For me, it was a tidy set of lifestyle choices that I made, all at once:

1\. Stopped drinking. 2\. Started running three miles every morning, crack of
dawn. 3\. Stopped watching TV. 4\. Cut out almost all junk/fast food.

The change in my productivity and general sense of well-being has been
profound.

------
kennethtilton
It was a long time ago, but I used a golf scoring gadget to keep count of my
daily driving excesses. Counting a behavior changes it. The awareness broke
the habit. Improvements of course were to the number of points on my license
and the safety of all.

------
zupitor
Started practicing touch typing a year back. Doubled my typing speed from
30wpm to 60wpm.

------
alejantrot
Quitting smoking. Best habit I ever had. It improves my life every time I pick
it up.

~~~
vojant
How did you quit? I really want to quit right now, I even switched for
e-cigarettes but I came back to normal after one week.

~~~
amasad
Program yourself to hate smoking. Continue to smoke but try to be conscious of
it. Feel the smoke while you inhale, try to think about what's happening to
your gum, teeth, throat, lungs, hands etc. look at yourself in the mirror and
notice the negative effects of smoking. If you're in a city that bans smoking
indoors then feel sorry for yourself everytime you go out to have a
ciggeratte, because this habit is controlling you and making you do things you
won't necessarily do. Start thinking about how the not smokers have a better
life and how they're better for not letting this happen to them. Eventually if
you keep thinking like that, just negative things about smoking, you'll start
hating it and naturally cutting down until you find the right moment to go
cold turkey and then just do it.

Hope that helps, it worked for me.

------
Nanzikambe
Stopped eating fast food and drinking any artificial
flavored/sweetened/preserved drinks (exception beer).

Closely linked: learned to cook for myself and making an effort to cook
something I've never tried once a week.

------
talles
1\. Going to the gym as the first thing in the morning.

2\. Saying "No" more often.

~~~
gmays
Interesting. I found that going later in the day ( sometime between 10am and
3pm, whenever I take a break) is better for me because I'm most
productive/focused in the mornings.

~~~
talles
I prefer going as the first thing on the day. A 'shock' way to get awake. And
I am _definitely_ more productive at night. Something I love about it is that
I got to the office with the blood pumping, while everybody is kinda asleep
yet begging for coffee...

Also, I know that going after doesn't work out for me. Since at the end of the
day I'm tired and it's somewhat of an excuse to miss the gym for the day.

But it's really a mater of taste and lifestyle. Most of my coworkers do at
lunch time. This way they don't sacrifice much of their time since it's a
forced free time on everybody here anyways.

------
meerita
I quit smoke, also, quit eating outside. The improvements were impressive:

1\. Better sleep. 2\. Better weight control. 3\. Skin stopped being dry. 4\.
Better sex life too. 5\. Good energy.

I never measure my work productivity.

~~~
mikeg8
I'm really curious about eating outside. I feel that only could have improved
dry skin but that could have also been improved by eating more carrots and
other dietary changes. I love eating outside!

~~~
meerita
Quitting eating outside was one of the best things I've made.

If I can install Rails 4 then I can prepare the best Curry Chicken out there.
I eat more for less money and cooking became part of my hobby that helps to
distress a lot.

Also, I was noticing my daily diet was based on the same quantity of dishes,
what I meant was: trying different dishes wasn't normal, I hanged out always
to the same places with the same menus, at the end eating a different thing
was rare.

I go dinner around 2 times a month just to eat those things that are really
hard to prepare: sushi, etc.

------
ragatskynet
I started running and waking up earlier. They looked so big to begin with but
they were very very easy to adopt. Now i am trying to finally quit smoking
once and for all.

~~~
kzisme
How do you get up early? I've always been a night person and currently it's
7am and I haven't slept.

------
JoelAnair
Psychedelic drugs. They help keep priorities in order and aid creativity by
forcing you to examine different points of view and approach problems from
different angles.

------
melancholy
Drinking green tea helped triple my water intake. Sharply cutting
carbohydrates from my diet. Lifting weights 3X a week.

I am in better physical and mental shape than ever before.

------
ereckers
Dropped politics, picked up a good office chair.

~~~
hansy
Ditto to both, except instead of the office chair, I just raised my desk.

------
rusabd
it seems almost everyone disconnect himself from the economy in some way to
improve lifestyle. I myself stopped consuming sugar, started lifting weights,
got married, got kids, learned how to make sourdough bread, kefir, how to
build bicycle wheel, how to slaughter animal, how to keep bees... Wow it is a
lot for the 3 years :)

------
clockwork_189
1) Pomodoro Technique while working on tasks 2) Running "StayFocused" on the
background while doing tasks.

------
gembird
less worrying about being next billion dollar app and focusing on critical
thinking

------
miriadis
\- Not taking so seriously my career. \- Practicing a sport, in my case
swimming.

------
kapowaz
Stopped reading Hacker News.

~~~
LogicalBorg
I also stopped insulting random strangers on the internet for no reason. Until
you made me start again. You dumbass! This is all your fault! jk

------
kraorh
Started jogging. Its helping me stay active the whole day and sleep better.

~~~
bencollier49
What time in the day do you jog?

------
markyc
quit fapping

r/NoFap

------
tzaman
Starting a Keto diet

------
rjurney
Anapana and Vipassana meditation during insomnia.

------
blibble
soft drinks

------
davidsmith8900
\- I stopped trying to control life. Started focusing on how I can make the
best of what Im presented in life.

------
contextual
Study the Bible and/or Zen poetry every morning, preferably before reading
anything else.

