Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of.
- Benjamin Franklin

Return on investment (ROI) is a term you hear frequently, usually in relation to business and finance. The goal (obviously) is to maximize return on the money you invest. The implications of this concept go much deeper when you start to think of time as your primary investment rather than money. Everything you do is an investment of time. When you watch television, you’re making an investment in entertainment. If you watch a show that sucks, you’ve made a bad investment and receive a poor return for your time.

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Something strange happened this weekend. My roommates both went to the beach, leaving me with the apartment entirely to myself for the first time all year. After dinner I settled into the couch and turned on the television. A depressed, lethargic feeling came over me as I prepared to sacrifice the next couple hours to the plasma screen gods.

At that moment I decided to do a little experiment: no television for the entire weekend.

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I’ve decided to enter a contest to become The Next Internet Millionaire. Basically, it’s an online reality show where contestants complete for $25,000 and the opportunity to do a joint venture with internet marketing legend Joel Comm.

Check out my video audition. Hopefully I’m not too different from what you’ve imagined. While you’re there please vote for me too.

Obviously the potential for this to be ridiculous is enormous, but I decided to go for it anyway for a few reasons.

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It’s been three weeks following the slow carb diet suggested by Tim Ferriss. I have to thank Eugene Thong because his breathing advice cured the exercise induced headaches I’d been getting. This is very important to learn for anyone who isn’t experienced weight training with the 5-5 cadence (5 seconds up and 5 seconds down for each repetition).

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The Natural Productivity Cycle

In your personal life, when attending to business or working on side projects, how often do you spend 8 consecutive hours in front of a computer? It doesn’t make sense because we lose the ability to concentrate effectively within a few hours.

Everyone goes through alternating periods of high and low mental acuity. There are days when I work on personal projects for well over 8 hours, but the time is always divided into multiple sessions. I might spend a few hours coding a design, a few hours writing, and a few hours reading feeds, moderating comments, and responding to email.

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It’s been nearly 6 months since the first post was published at Pick the Brain. Over the course of 97 posts and 1602 comments, traffic has grown to over 3,000 unique visitors a day, over 2200 readers have subscribed to the RSS feed, and several articles have been featured on the popular pages of Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Netscape. It isn’t the most amazing start (there have certainly been bumps along the way) but I’m proud of what I’ve built and optimistic the site will continue to grow.I want to share what I’ve learned, but it’d be pointless to try explaining it all. Rather, I’ve compiled a list of the 27 most important lessons.

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Note: This is the second update of my experiment with the slow carb diet. If you’re new here I suggest reading the introduction and first update so this post makes sense.

It’s been 2 full weeks since I started the slow carb diet and results are slowly starting to show. I’ve definitely gotten leaner, but for dramatic effect (and because I don’t have a scale) I’m going to hold off on weighing myself until the 1 month mark. Sticking to the muscle gain program has become second nature. Today I was able to walk past a spread of free desserts without eating any, although I was disappointed it wasn’t my off day.

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The Difference Between Experts and Drop Outs

This chart I found at Creating Passionate Users illustrates the development curve of experts, amateurs, and drop outs. An important detail to note is that the line for all three groups starts at the exact same point. Everyone starts as an absolute beginner with no ability. The drop outs never get anywhere because they give up at the first sign of adversity. The amateurs achieve a degree of success but become complacent and stop improving. The experts are the only group to reach the top tier because they continuously improve.

Experts aren’t more productive because they’re more talented or because they work harder. The difference between the experts and everyone else is the optimization mentality: constantly striving for improvement. Although the mentality is mind numbingly simple, only a small proportion of people actually live by it. Why is this the case? I perceive the cause is a common misconception about the nature of success.

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Consider some of the choices that impact our lives on a daily basis:

• Do I stay up late hanging out with friends, or go to sleep and be productive tomorrow?
• Do I eat out because it’s easy, or cook at home and save money?
• Should I work late and get ahead, or enjoy the beautiful spring weather?

Each of these choices boils down to a simple question. Do I want to enjoy the present moment or plan for the future?

These are all difficult decisions because both answers have their merits. The present moment is fleeting and immediate, while the future is constantly hanging overhead. Part of us is constantly begging for indulgence while another part is worried that we’re falling behind and won’t be able to recover. Satisfying both sides requires balance.

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Note: This post is part of the Fitness Experiment series. If you’re new here you should read this post for the background.

It’s been one week since I started the slow carb diet and Tim Ferriss’ workout routine. I’ve never put myself on a restricted diet so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

The Slow Carb Diet

After exchanging emails with Tim I’ve modified my goals a bit. Initially I wanted to gain weight and cut fat. These are opposing goals so I had to choose one or the other. I’ve decided to go with fat burning, at least for the first few weeks.

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