I’m running behind schedule today, so this will be a short one. This low-content diet experiment is going great so far. I’ve had one of the most productive periods of my adult life in the past 24-odd hours. I’m feeling immense clarity, more so than when I meditate even.

I feel like this is one of those cheat code Pareto distribution decisions. Sort of like a dieter choosing to simply replace soda, juice, and alcohol with water. It’s just so instantaneously effective.

Without content to pacify the quiet moments, you get bored as hell. Lonely too. It sounds bad, but what happens is you start to crave activity, which can be easily channeled. Attack your to-do list, create something, or channel it into your social life: pick up the phone and call your parents, or your friends, or meet someone for a drink.

When your general level of entertainment goes down, you start to look for it more in actual life - in the people you talk to, the problem you’re solving, or what you see happening. This is probably what people mean when they talk about ‘mindfulness’, or being ‘present’. I know it’s pretty ridiculous for me to be making these claims less than a week in, but these are my first impressions.

In this state of bored loneliness, all kinds of things start bubbling up: forgotten tasks, new ideas, different angles of thinking about a situation. Also just self-awareness, as in, “why the hell am I craving a drink at two in the afternoon?”. Speaking of which, I’m hungry. I suppose I better go do something about that.