i have a bunch of habits in my list that i want to form. and leaving it to the brain is a difficult thing because the brain isn’t really trustworthy. ancestral regions like the limbic system in the brain go mad in the 21st century technological world. i decided public accountability might help.

i asked llm to tell me the neuroscience about this and it told me this -

  1. the basal ganglia is the part of the brain responsible for habits. once habits are formed it doesn’t take much effort for the brain.
  2. in order to create new habits or break old ones, it is required to activate the prefrontal cortex and override the basal ganglia.
  3. updating the log daily gives dopamine boosts.
  4. the fear of failing in public activated the anterior cingulate cortex - the region of the brain responsible for processing pain.

so i’m going to make this page a public accountability ledger. i’ll update daily and never modify past entries except for formatting.

self discipline is not so easy so the way credibility will be ensured is through the following methods -

  1. git has a commit history - meaning that it records every edits made in the file. each week i’ll post screenshots showing that i did not make any editing entries.
  2. the self must not be relied on and enough friction points must be made so that the neocortex has enough time to engage the top down executive function and override the impulsive limbic system. so to ensure i do not delete this page - i’ll also weekly archive this webpage with the wayback machine.

the system atleast for now looks foolproof. the only thing to do is to ensure that i update the log daily. so important to make the edits easy and fast to reduce friction for the brain.

habit definitions

  1. mindfulness - do one activity of the healthy minds project app
  2. exercise - either strength or jogging
  3. reading - reading atleast a couple pages of a book
  4. no dopamine flooding activity - no social media or short form content or anything of the like. if using social media, active hunting for knowledge and not getting carried away by the algorithm in the infinite scroll.
  5. setback - personally defined activity.

Y denotes that i performed the habit that day, except for the last two habits where Y means i did not engage in cheap dopamine and did not suffer a setback.

N denotes that i did not perform the habit.

2026-03-16 Mindfulness:Y Exercise:Strength(chest,triceps) Reading:Y NoDopamineFlood:Y NoSetback:Y Notes:Brain did get attracted to social media but brain was aware thanks to this log. what’s important is to sustain the awareness.
2026-03-17 Mindfulness:Y Exercise:Strength(core) Reading:Y NoDopamineFlood:Y NoSetback:Y Notes:
2026-03-18 Mindfulness:Y Exercise:Walk(3km,36min) Reading:Y NoDopamineFlood:Y NoSetback:Y Notes:
2026-03-19 Mindfulness:Y Exercise:N Reading:Y NoDopamineFlood:N NoSetback:N Notes:ill
2026-03-20 Mindfulness:Y Exercise:N Reading:Y NoDopamineFlood:N NoSetback:Y Notes:ill
2026-03-21 Mindfulness:N Exercise:N Reading:N NoDopamineFlood:N NoSetback:Y Notes:ill
2026-03-22 Mindfulness:N Exercise:N Reading:Y NoDopamineFlood:N NoSetback:Y Notes:ill
2026-03-23 Mindfulness:N Exercise:N Reading:N NoDopamineFlood:N NoSetback:Y Notes:ill
2026-03-24 Mindfulness:N Exercise:N Reading:Y NoDopamineFlood:N NoSetback:Y Notes:ill
2026-03-25 Mindfulness:Y Exercise:N Reading:Y NoDopamineFlood:N NoSetback:Y Notes:ill
2026-03-26 Mindfulness:N Exercise:N Reading:N NoDopamineFlood:N NoSetback:Y Notes:
2026-03-27 Mindfulness:Y Exercise:Walk(2.2km,27min) Reading:N NoDopamineFlood:N NoSetback:Y Notes:
2026-03-28 Mindfulness:N Exercise:N Reading:N NoDopamineFlood:N NoSetback:Y Notes:
2026-03-29 Mindfulness:Y Exercise:Strength(biceps,triceps) Reading:Y NoDopamineFlood:Y NoSetback:Y Notes:project hail mary
2026-03-30 Mindfulness:Y Exercise:Strength(shoulders) Reading:Y NoDopamineFlood:N NoSetback:Y Notes:
2026-03-31 Mindfulness:Y Exercise:Walk(3.2km,41min) Reading:Y NoDopamineFlood:N NoSetback:N Notes:
2026-04-01 Mindfulness:Y Exercise:Strength(core) Reading:Y NoDopamineFlood:Y NoSetback:Y Notes:
2026-04-02 Mindfulness:Y Exercise:N Reading:Y NoDopamineFlood:Y NoSetback:N Notes: cs50x puzzle day begins
2026-04-03 Mindfulness:Y Exercise:Strength(chest,triceps) Reading:Y NoDopamineFlood:Y NoSetback:N Notes: