Automate Everything!

"Flogging the Freelancer" is a blog post a day on freelancing in the gig economy. Browse the archives here.

I've become oddly obsessed with automating shit in my life lately. Oddly because I'm not a robot, and I mostly think the whole quantification hack zone is a bog of absurdity. That said, I've had wild success improving my credit rating over the last several years in part due to automation. In 2010, I actually didn't have a credit score. I didn't have credit cards, and I guess this just meant I was not even in the credit zone. But in part because I went from paying bills late to auto-bill pay, I now have a credit rating of like 758 or something. You know, it changes a little, but it's somewhere around there. How great! How unlike me. Credit card companies now up my credit limit. Who would've thought such a thing was possible.

In any case, for the last couple weeks I've been walking around trying to automate other shit in my life. For example, last year was a real failure in terms of body management. Like, I worked out inconsistently and I followed a good diet inconsistently and I did these exercises I have to do inconsistently. This isn't good because I don't want to get sick again, and it means sometimes I feel like shit and sometimes I don't, but mostly it means that I feel like I don't have any control over anything, most importantly the meat within which I'm encased. So this week I prepaid and prescheduled some Pilates classes, and I'm hoping that will help. I also walk. Which is better than you'd think. If you can manage to get yourself out of the house.

Thanks to my friend Damon Brown for mentioning this blog in his Inc. column recently: "5 Simple Ways to Kill Procrastination Today." I was entranced with this line by James Clear: "Find ways to automate your behavior beforehand rather than relying on willpower in the moment." Willpower is like trying to harness the wind, so I guess I'm trying to take the guesswork out of everything. But I have to say, I am currently failing at taking the guesswork out of writing or creative production, which feels like herding chickens, only the chickens are made of words, and they are covered in a thick sheen of Crisco. In addition, I failed to get a Forbes post up last week. Admitting this is me trying to shame myself into getting it done. 

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