Relentless Optimising
As I head towards my 30's with few years left to go, I realise there are some character traits that have remained consistent over the years, one of which being the fact that I am a relentless optimiser.
For some reason, the phrase feels incomplete without "relentless". Here are some ways in which I have optimised my life, mostly trying to make full use of what few hours I have.
This post is a lot longer than I had initially forecast, but I have found it a great exercise in analysing the little things I do. You might find some obvious stuff, maybe genuine life-altering changes here too, if you choose to adopt some habits.
Media Consumption
Reading
I have always had a habit of reading, in large part due to the nook (Barnes and Noble) e-ink reader that my mom got for me. I've recently rekindled this habit and I'm trying to go through the must-reads and classics.
Reading takes time, idle time, which I can't bear to spend when I could be doing something more active.
Thus, I only ever do it on my commutes, which averages to about 10 hours a week at minimum, since I go to the office 5 times a day and work is 1 hour away from me.
There may be lapses sometimes, but generally it's a lot of time a week to spend reading, if one has the discipline to whip the book out instead of leaving it in their bag.
I hate to be one of "those guys", but you'll really get more out of it compared to scrolling short-form video content on the bus.
Unfortunately, I don't really have the habit of reading other times, like in bed or on a plane. I keep bringing a book to my trips, and I never have the time to sit down and read (because that implies a sub-optimal itinerary, right?).
Movies
I like watching movies, and wish to eventually clear my watchlist, but rarely have the attention span to just sit and watch shows at home, if I'm not going to the movies.
I watch them on planes, or recently, on the walking pad. In the past year, I've optimised my movies on plane rides by diligently watching as much as I could.
How I do this is by scrolling through the typically finite list of movie offerings on planes, and shortlisting what I want to watch, and picking the best choices that I can fit into the duration of the flight.
In one such flight, I watched 3 movies, by no means short ones. This was a long flight, about 8 hours, and I watched Interstellar, Jurassic Park, and Transformers One, in that order.
I wish I could've watched the first two under proper circumstances, they were great. As nice as Transformers was, I doubt I'd have found it worth a ticket to the cinemas.
In another flight: John Wick 3 and Deadpool and Wolverine, the latter piqued my interest due to the portrayal of Gambit but certainly was a waste of time.
Oh, and if someone at a house party puts up a movie as background noise, if it's something I've never seen, I will most likely be paying attention, giving the media the respect it deserves.
Games
I also have a never-ending backlog of games thanks to Steam's generous sales.
Anyway, I don't particularly have any strategy for clearing said backlog, but I spend my lunch hour chipping away at my games, and I rarely go for 100% achievement completion.
That said, I have stopped playing "waste time games", defined as live-service games.
I see games as a medium rife with potential for artistry and storytelling, and while live-service games can be meaningful, there is no defined end to them.
I wish to use my gaming time to explore broadly, rather than spending all my time in one place. It's led me to discover my love for the Metroidvania genre. It helps that I'm decently good at my games, too. While my friend was trying to finish Silksong, I had already completed it and moved on to complete other shorter games: Ori, Blasphemous, Nine Sols.
Health
At the gym
Funny enough, I used to read between sets of rest at the gym. I found it wasn't really worth it reading in batches of a few minutes at a time.
Instead, I recommend doing some light work between sets.
I currently stretch between sets, no excuses for not stretching, which I am lazy to do at times. I do Joe DeFranco's Limber 11 in between sets.
I believe Jim Wendler is a proponent of face pulls and band pull-aparts as light work, anytime you can fit it in.
Of course, anyone who runs a push/pull split can tell you that there won't be major consequences to supersetting push and pull exercises. A handful of pull-ups between push exercises will do you so much good, to increase overall volume.
Brushing Teeth
Related to the previous one: I recently saw a video of someone recommending stretching while brushing their teeth. It's incredible the things that don't seem obvious can just be pointed out to you.
I rarely have the patience to really brush for the recommended minimum 2 minutes, but now I try to stay in a a deep squat (Asian Squat) whenever I brush, to extract the most value out of the time I should be spending brushing anyway.
In the morning I brush my teeth while brewing my coffee. The net result is that my teeth stay yellow.
Walking
Walking, among other low-intensity steady state (LISS) exercises, are extremely good for weight loss.
The key is sustained exercise over a long duration which is also light on your joints... there is some science to it that explains why it's good for fat burning.
The thing is, no wagie can spare that much time in their 4HL.
I work a desk job, and getting my steps in is time-consuming... The only way I can justify walking for at least an hour a day is if I can do something else at the same time.
It's nothing new to watch videos or read on the treadmill. My walking pad even lets me game while clocking steps!
The best part is, consuming media helps to distract you from the material reality that you're on a treadmill, and could lead to actually reaching your target goals.
Meal Preps
While we're on health-related topics, here's one more. Nowadays, I eat the same thing for lunch every day at work, which is air-fried chicken thighs with broccoli. It has the nutritional profile which I desire, which is high protein, decent fat, and substantial veggies.
Chicken thighs are some of the easiest cuts to cook, and the boneless frozen ones I get from the supermarket are cheaper than breasts. I just chuck them into an oven or air fryer and let it sit for half an hour.
The fact that it's mostly hands-off helps reduce the time spent on prepping meals, and for the amount of effort it requires, the results are disproportionately tasty. My only gripe is that I can't eat it fresh every day, because the skin comes out so delectably crispy, which goes away when I keep it in the fridge.
Not including carbohydrates might sound weird, but I still take in carbs from other meals of the day, and reducing intake in this one meal helps me stick to my diet. I don't expect this recipe to change until I start wanting to gain weight.
I've realised I'm not particularly food-motivated, and my diet is largely utilitarian, where I value food based on what it provides nutritionally. That is not to say I don't enjoy eating, but I am actually happy eating the same thing. As long as it's high in protein. Some call this guychow.
Shoutout also to: ground beef, greek yogurt, kimchi, eggs, potatoes.
Trust the common
A short aside, I want to talk a little on how I develop my optimisations. I believe that optimisations come from repetition, like how desire paths spring from ostensibly optimal pathings done by humans.
Anything that is done in service of a goal by tons of people worldwide is probably optimal, which is why ground beef is the staple food of gym bros, because it works.
Life and Finances
Transportation
Ho boy. I believe I'll write a separate article detailing how the transfer fare scheme works in our local public transport system.
It might not amount to much, but clever navigation can save you up to $2-3 in unnecessary fees if you plan your trips right.
Oh, and I save 50 cents a day by travelling during pre-peak hours.
Annual Leaves (Paid Time Off)
This one might be slightly contentious. I obviously value travel, so I am always trying to optimise the time I get to spend traveling.
For many Singaporeans, that means using our leaves in conjunction with public holidays to get long weekends. Using up to 5 days of AL for 9 days of holiday (including weekends) is great bang for your buck.
I can't understand those who use their AL like... taking a day off every week to simulate a 4-day work week for a few months (though I would like to instate a 4-day work week). The contentious part is that I find this frivolous, but not everyone has the same priorities.
While trying to plan a trip, a friend of mine once said in passing, "money is unlimited but time is not", or something to that effect.
While I wouldn't exactly use those words, I understand the sentiment, in that money can always be earned, but our time on this Earth is limited. It goes to show our privileged position and our privileged passport as Singaporeans that we are able to afford to travel as much as we do.
I do dearly miss my days of being a student where I could disappear for a month. If I had a chance to do it all again, I'd go on that 3-month Europe exchange.
Now that I'm earning wages, suddenly S$10,000 to spend on 3 months of hopping around the European continent doesn't sound so bad (in fact, that's incredibly value for money, on a cost per time basis), but having 3 continuous months of free time is something I can't buy anymore.
Traveling
While we're on the subject of traveling, I tend to treat every trip like it's the last time I'll step foot in that country.
Sorry if you have to travel with me, but I enjoy jam-packing every day with activity. If you sleep in on a vacation, you're dead to me.
My ideal trip involves a fully-loaded breakfast buffet (I love continental breakfasts), and then going about the day fuelled up.
As I said before, I'm not particularly food-motivated. I don't travel to eat, but in the spirit of trying everything once, I do make stops to eat local fare.
After which, I'll be happy to skip on food, or just eat whatever suits my nutritional goals. In a recent Japan trip, I enjoyed eating ramen and local dishes, but wouldn't go out of my way for them (thankfully, you don't have to. There's a ramen place everywhere). I was equally happy eating UFO instant noodles with ready-to-eat sausages and meat.
One must imagine Sisyphus happy
In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus talks about what one does in face of absurdity, defined as the certainty of death at the end of one's life.
This book came at a good time in my life, in part due to the rapidly approaching big three-oh and then the midlife crisis.
I'll spare you the details of his essay, but in one section he drew attention to the profiles of several absurd individuals. He talks of experiencing life in terms of quantity instead of quality.
I found that very profound, and felt that it's what I have been doing all my life, of trying to maximise what I can get out of it; not in spite of the certain death that follows, but because of it.
...if I admit that my freedom has no meaning except in relation to its limited fate, then I must say that what counts is not the best living but the most living.
I completely get you, Don Juan.