Notion-y

I obsess over things. Book things, internet things, even people things. When I was a kid, my mum even had a phrase for it: he's notion-y  -- (n) prone to notions; obsessive

Like most things in life, being obsessive can be a force for good or evil. Obsessive people finish books in one sitting, they clean the house in one go (although I was never that strain of obsessive...), and when they decide to exercise, they really, if you'll excuse the sports pun, go the whole nine yards.

Spotted during Berlin run -- Dad's fitness app or air miles account? (The 554 are on consecutive days.) pic.twitter.com/YCT5uN8Bsx

— Patrick Collison (@patrickc) October 28, 2013

I got my notion-y-ness from both sides of the family, but I think it mostly manifests itself in my Dad. He's been running at least 5 KM each day for 564 consecutive. Obsessive? A little bit. 

But that's a good thing to inherit. I'm currently in NYU, where I get free access to their insanely well-equipped gym facilities, a 9-minute walk away from my dorm. Obviously, I want to take advantage of this fact, but I've always found the conventional exercise wisdom of '30 minutes of strenuous exercise 3 times a week' to be unhelpful -- it's hard to allocate exercise to 3 specific days, because then it's easy to keep putting it, at which point you have to scramble to make it up or let it fall my the wayside.

That's why it's easier to do something like exercise daily -- it becomes as habitual as brushing your teeth. I've managed to stick with it for 7 consecutive days now (6 swimming and 1 exercise bike session), and they say that 3 weeks is how long it takes a habit to form, so I'm writing about it now so that y'all can berate me if I fall off the wagon.