Execution thread

[André Casal]

Hey guys,

I'd like to share (and keep sharing) progress, struggles and the solutions I found. I'll keep things short and to the point.

My current goal is to create (some free, some paid) online courses around web development on YouTube.
Here's the plan:

1. Took a full course on how to create YouTube videos ✔︎
2. Created a minimal branding guide ✔︎
3. Setup my YouTube channel ✔︎
4. Create a VS Code course
   1. Introductory video (at the end of the course)
   2. Interface ✔︎
   3. Settings
   4. Create a playlist for every (500+) setting ✔︎
   5. Window States
   6. Workspaces
   7. Theming
   8. Autocompletion
   9. Snippets
   10. Emmet
   11. IntelliSense
   12. Code Editing
   13. Formating
   14. Linting
   15. Transpilation
   16. Code Running
   17. Debugging
   18. Extensions
5. Create an HTML course
6. Create a CSS course
7. Evaluate if SCSS is still worth it and if so, create a course on it
8. Create a course on JS
9. Create a course on TS

Solved challenges:

• Maintenance, working out, grocery shopping, keeping things clean and working. Solved it with an efficient daily routine. ✔︎
• Internal conflicts that were making me emotionally unstable. Solved it with a cognitive coach. ✔︎
• Incoherent and confusing plan. Solved it by clarifying decision criteria to eliminate competing priorities from my, now linear, plan. ✔︎
• Productivity/efficiency. Solved it by implementing a modified version of GTD with "Inbox", "Waiting for", linear plan and daily routine ✔︎

Current main challenge: Motivation.
Comes in spurts: some days I work for 11 hours, most days I work for 1 or 2 hours, some days I don't work at all. I would rather be consistent.

Things I've learned:

• Beating yourself up doesn't work.
• Motivational videos don't work.
• Accountability works to some degree.
• Coffee works to some degree.
• Bad habits have a problem: the reward is immediate but the cost comes in the future.
• Good habits have a problem: the cost is immediate but the reward is in the future.

I haven't found a clear pattern or solution yet.

 

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[André Casal]

1 year and 11 months later:

1. Went from 800€/month working 8-12 hours a day to 3000€/month working 2-4 hours a day tutoring software engineering college students ✔︎
2. Started living with an awesome entrepreneur who became my best friend ✔︎
3. I'm at 4100€ out of 6000€ on my emergency fund. Able to save 2000€/month. Going to start learning investment soon ✔︎
4. Went from having no girlfriend or a shitty girlfriend to having girls whenever I want using dating apps. Currently on my first serious and long-term open relationship with an incredible woman ✔︎

Current main challenge: motivation
Currently working with a psychologist to solve this.

Expanding on my current challenge:

• Learned about the Self-Determination Theory of Motivation
  • Feel effortlessly unstoppable when relatedness, autonomy and competence is there ✔︎
  • Learned about the "Ideal vs Real vs Self Imposed me" thought experiment ✔︎
    • Understood traveling is not important to the real me ✔︎
  • Autonomy is perfect ✔︎
    • Replaced the belief "with great capacity comes great responsibility" with "with great capacity comes great opportunity" that was forcing the self imposed me to take responsibility for being productive therefore making me feel guilty when I wasn't, hindering my autonomy ✔︎
  • Solved having negative performance feedback from a close friend hindering my relatedness ✔︎
  • Currently working on greatly increasing my competence with a full stack software engineering mentor

The belief that the quality of my life is proportional to the quality of my mind keeps guiding me very effectively through life.

 

[André Casal]

8 months later:

Master VS Code course is almost complete. 10% to go. I'll launch it beginning of 2022 ✔︎
Just launched a mini-course: Organization for Students for 49€ ✔︎

Solved challenges:
Realized my problem wasn't lack of motivation, but lack of energy ✔︎
Energy has been solved ✔︎

• Eating healthy (mostly veggies) and drinking lots of water
• Working out in the morning instead of the evening
• Drinking coffee in (and only in) the morning
• Meditating and having sex in the evening instead of the morning
• Going to bed and waking up early and at the same time every day (the hardest challenge for me)