Morning Coffee 59: May 29th, 2023

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Good morning, and Happy Memorial Day! Three day weekend, a lot of time with the family, a lot of good food. This past week consisted of playing basketball, playing Zelda, and decluttering my digital files. Hope this letter finds you well.

Table of Contents

1. Habit Stacking
2. Somewhere In The Heavens

Habit Stacking Marathon

This week on Morning Coffee, I write about habit stacking and a little game called Marathon.

Habit Stacking

I’ve been thinking about habit stacking lately, and how combining several tasks into one is such an efficient way to live. Here’s a few ways that I accomplish this on a daily basis:

• Coffee: Instead of doing an instant coffee at home, which only takes two minutes, I’ll walk with Rose to the nearby coffee shop and back a few days out the week. This process, which takes 30-40 minutes instead of the instant coffee, makes more sense to me. It helps me get to 10,000 steps easier, I get to spend time with Rose, I get to leave the house for awhile to decompress, and I get my coffee. Four things in one.

• Writing: Writing this newsletter is another form of stacking my creative life. I get to collect cool things from around the web each week, I get to think through different ways that I’m productive, I get a creative outlet that allows me to write over 500 words each week, I get the pressure of a deadline that’s due every Monday, I get to reduce the amount of things I share to the world on a daily basis, since I’m saving everything for once a week, and I get to build an audience that subscribes. That’s seven things stacked together.

• Running: When running on the treadmill, I’ll also put on a movie, tv show, or basketball game. Sometimes I’ll save something I’m looking forward to watching just for the treadmill to make the run easier. By doing this, I’m getting my exercise in and catching up on a show at the same time. Two things in one.

• Errands: When Olivia needs a break from the baby, and Rose needs a nap, I’ll take her with me to run a few errands. When I get to the destination, I’ll park and let her finish her nap while I tackle a writing project. That’s four things in one.

These are just a few examples of how to stack life together. When you approach life this way, by batching things together, it becomes much easier to live an efficient life. It also transforms the harder or boring moments into something to look forward to.

Somewhere In The Heavens

Last week, Sony had their PlayStation Showcase. I think 34 games were announced (I don’t care about most of them, only a handful). I made a playlist of my favorite trailers, but here’s a list of the main ones that I’m interested in:

• Marathon
• Metal Gear Solid
• Spider-Man 2
• Concord
• Alan Wake 2
• Sword of the Sea

Marathon is the one I’m most excited for. It’s from Bungie, the makers of Destiny and Halo. Here’s how they describe it:

Become a runner in bungie’s new sci-fi pvp extraction shooter. Compete for survival, riches, and renown in a world of evolving, persistent zones, where any run can lead to greatness.

The explanation of the game doesn’t matter as much to me though. I’m excited simply because of how cool it looks. All the weird looking photos in this newsletter are from Marathon. That style speaks to me (my keyboard from last week belongs in this game. Same colors).

I recommend watching the announcement trailer (and the mini documentary titled “Somewhere In The Heavens”) to see even more of these cools aesthetics.

This is Morning Coffee: a weekly newsletter that arrives in your inbox every Monday morning. I write about productivity, technology, and cool things I find on the internet. My wife wants this to be my only job, so pay what you want, purchase my books on Amazon, or join my Music Program.