Shake and Fold
A clever idea to save on paper towels.
Also functions as an exercise for minimalism – consume less, do less, live more.
He did use a lot of towels in this demonstration though.
Red Pill Hygiene
Yep. As it turns out, there’s a lot of incorrect conventional wisdom about how we wash ourselves. The following post is a short list of red pill hygiene ideas I’ve picked up over the last few months.
The first two are from this Jezebel Article.
Brushing your teeth
Studies show that flossing is much more important than brushing. Dental floss actually removes the bacteria that clump together between your teeth, without scrubbing and stripping layers off them.
But before you run to your dentist and smugly assert that Cracked told you that brushing is bad for you, brushing twice a day is generally still believed to be the best practice. But you should do it away from mealtimes to give your teeth time to recover from acid wear — ideally, right before you eat or drink anything. And although you might instinctively prefer a hard toothbrush to really grind off those asshole bacteria, studies suggest you should use a soft brush and focus on your gums more than your actual teeth. So it’s really more of a tooth massage.
Bathing
The most important thing to do to keep the skin healthy is to preserve the horny layer. There’s no magic number of showers each week, though it’s generally agreed that the number would fall somewhat shy of seven. Skipping showers, or, if you’d like a fancy French term, celebrating sans douche days, gives your skin time to repair some of the damage that the last shower caused.
When you shower, use warm or cool water and a mild soap (if at all), and rehydrate the horny layer by rubbing on some moisturizer afterward. Better yet, convince an attractive friend to help with this. Once you’ve cleaned up, you’ll want to make sure you air dry. Ignore protesting roommates or family members and remind them, as you’re drip-drying at the breakfast table, that they should be grateful you’re showering only a couple of times a week.
Drip drying, however, is a pain in the ass. Towel drying is fine, but try to dab the water off rather than rubbing it off. This is much better for your skin and I have noticed I get spots far less frequently since adopting this practice.
Deodorant
Baking, fucking, soda. (In the UK we call it bicarbonate of soda. Do NOT confuse with baking powder). You know all the manosphere hype about how great baking soda is? It’s true. The cool thing is it doesn’t even work the same way normal antiperspirants do. Blue pill antiperspirants work by clogging your sweat pores with silver or aluminium, then mask the smell (which comes from bacteria, not sweat) with some kind of fragrance. Baking soda, by contrast, allows you to sweat. However, the soda absorbs the sweat. It also absorbs the odour and is naturally antibacterial.
It’s cheaper than the normal stuff, and leaves your smell as a blank canvas that you can change with body sprays or cologne.
Hygeine Products
I heard over at the forum that you can make your own shower gels, toothpastes and shampoos by combining baking soda with bauxite, among other things. This sounds cool and I might try it, but I don’t wanna turn my shared kitchen or bathroom into a fucking lab. I like my flatmates too much for that. A common blue pill product buying mantra seems to be “nuke the fuck out of my body”. People scrub themselves raw with harsh chemicals only to see limited results. My advice is to go gently. If you live like a caveman you probably already beat the shit out of your body – give it a break! I like to stick to natural products and avoid harsh or over perfumed ones. Easy really. The one exception to the smell is my awesome mint shower gel – but this is compensated by the fact it’s made of actual mint leaves. Also don’t use tons of product, just use enough. Conserving it saves money and, once your body acclimatises, gives better results.
Brands I like: Original Source, Head and Shoulders, Bulldog, Simple, Freederm, Pears.
The last one is the absolute shit and is also manly as fuck.
P.S. Exams are starting soon, so posts will be less frequent (and judging by the last 2 days views of poorer quality). I’ll still be posting as often as I can.
Productivity Tip
I previously wrote about the importance of productivity, but didn’t detail as to how to achieve it. I believe that everyone has their own way.
Despite that, some pieces of advice are still gold. Here’s one of them.
Work for an hour, hard focus (no fucking facebook), then have a 15 minute break where you do jack shit. Rinse and repeat.
This can get you through a work day nicely and is more efficient than working for long stretches with distraction.
If the work your doing is academic, you ideally want to stop after three hours of work. Otherwise your brain gets over loaded. (I mean three hours in addition to class, not instead of).
How to be happy
Send £39.95 for more info.
That’s the problem with happiness, people think it has a price. People think it’s something you get by doing x, y and z. Be that a white picket fence and 2.5 kids or something less conventional like visiting a certain amount of countries or sleeping with a certain amount of women.
People think that happiness is a consequence. A result.
It’s not though, it’s a choice.
If you decide something will make you happy, it will make you happy. So why not cut the bullshit and decide to be happy. It’s easier than you think.
- Forget the past and the future. The past is done and the future is indeterminable, so stop thinking about the friend you argued with yesterday and the exam you have tomorrow. What matters is what you do right now, because that is the only thing in life that you can control.
- Realise that there is a time for grief and a time for sadness, but that time is not now.
- Stand up straight, in front of a mirror. Look yourself in the eye, smile and say clearly and with authority: “be happy”.
- If that doesn’t work listen to some music or some shit.
This is what works for me, I do it whenever I want my mood to improve.
The Caveman Principle
Homo Sapiens have been around for 200000 years. For 190000 of those years we were hunter gatherers, for the most recent 10000 we were “civilised” farmers. You know, with war and stuff.
I’m not gonna get into deep science here, I’m a (bad) physicist – not an evolutionary biologist, but 10k years is a not sufficient time to evolve out of are pre-agricultural brain and body.
Following me?
This leads to a fairly simple conclusion:
We have the brains and bodies of hunter gatherers. Therefore what is good for a hunter gatherer, mentally and physically, is good for us. And good for you.
Did hunter gatherers eat six meals a day in a diet based mainly on grains? Fuck. No.
Did hunter gatherers cuddle their way into sex? Fuck. No. Don’t. Be. So. Stupid.
Did hunter gatherers pollute their minds with politics and political correctness. Nigga. Please.
Don’t get me wrong, with game, eating, lifestyle etc you should do your own research and make considered choices. But you should always consider the following – would this suit a hunter gatherer?
Or the cooler sounding version:
Would this suit a caveman?
Would worrying about how many facebook friends you have suit a caveman? Would bitching about your coworkers (co-hunters) suit a caveman? Would a caveman worry about trivial political “choice” between identical parties?
No. The caveman is concerned with food, shelter, fucking, meaningful friendships and relaxing.
You are a caveman in fancy clothes, and thus your concerns should match his.
When I make decisions about virtually anything, this question is at the back of my mind.
The Seventh Habit
Write.
You don’t need an epic and awesome blog, just make sure you write something. This isn’t even for the sake of creativity, it’s for accountability. If you record when you do things badly and when you do things well, you can focus on improvement over mere existence.
I keep track of ideas, exercise and sleep pattern in this baby
Dat sexy leather bound journal.
Timewasting
How guilty are you?
Wasting time is a problem that, based on this infographic, can be divided up into two categories: distraction and time filling.
Distraction is dangerous, as already discussed, but can be combated by limiting your exposure to distracting things and working in a state of hard focus rather than multitasking.
Time filling is also known as busywork. Asking coworkers pointless questions, emailing, trivial phone calls etc. The key here isn’t to end these interactions but to only partake in those which add value to your life. Just don’t be an arsehole about it.
Once you’ve tackled distraction and time filling on a pragmatic level, you need to internalise these behaviours. I don’t use an information diet anymore because I don’t have the urge to waste hours on facebook. I achieved this through trial and error. Some things, such as detoxing, didn’t work for me. Other things, such as minimalism, detaching myself from consumerism, and continually striving for self improvement, did work for me.
My current experiment is in training myself to be productive by nature. We’ll see how that goes.
Try these things and see what works for you.
No Screen Sunday
Here’s an idea: for one day a week, don’t look at a screen. No computer, no TV (not big on that anyway). The only screens allowed are a phone, (to make logistical social arrangements or to do something productive like run an exercise app, not games, facebook or twitter) and a Kindle
This leaves an inordinate amount of time to do something worthwhile. Cook a meal, read a book, go for a walk, hang out. Just stay disconnected from the omnipresent distraction machine, and don’t fill the void with trivial shit.
I’m gonna be doing this starting Sunday. I am a firm believer that although technology is amazing, it can take over our lives without us noticing. By forcing myself to disconnect from it all I aim to clear my mind and chill a little. I’m predicting that this will also improve my attention span and concentration, and help me finally finish the book I’m reading (STILL on day bang).
A strict information diet wasn’t working for me, so hopefully just lowering the aggregate amount of junk going into my brain will do the trick.
Results will follow, as always, in a lifestyle report.
30 Day Lists
I am a compulsive shopper. A habit that fucks up my cash flow as well as my minimalism. I have however found a solution that I will share with you today.
The 30 day list.
Whenever you see or think of something you want to buy, write it down in a note file with the date you thought of it. You then simply forget about it, and are only allowed to consider buying the item 30 days after the date you first wrote it down.
If you get the urge to buy something, you can spend hours deliberating whether it’s worth it. By using a 30 day list you’ll find that once you’re “allowed” to buy it, your subconscious will have decided whether it is a worthwhile purchase.
It’s like a regimented version of “sleeping on it”. It works too. Recent items that I would have bought on impulse but rejected by waiting 30 days include a money clip
and a zippo
Without a doubt this method saves money, and more importantly the burden of making a decision instantly.
Buying things is a trivial luxury, and does not deserve too much thought. Let your subconscious handle that shit.
Try it for yourself and see.
Minimalism for the DYP
I recently mentioned writing a post about minimalism. I read the mnmlist.com archive and have applied a lot of the ideas to my life. I think anyone living or trying to live a red pill lifestyle would benefit from reading that blog in its entirety. There’s quite a lot to read there. It took me nearly 2 weeks so for the purpose of this post I will underline one core principle.
Minimalism is living more by having and consuming less. It is the rejection of consumerism for personal, rather than ideological reasons.
Sounds good right? Less stuff = lower expenses = less time wasted working to pay for unnecessary shit (I refuse to quote Fight Club here, people do that too much). There is one drawback however. Namely, it’s all a bit pansyish, and not conducive to having a fun and varied sex life.
True minimalists would not likely drink, take drugs, go to clubs, or make a habit of approaching strange women for sex. This is because minimalism promotes a sense of contentedness, rather than the aggressive, competitive attitude that leads to a fun sex life.
This same attitude can be a problem for people who are motivated by success and money. Stacking chips is fun, let’s admit it, but a minimalist would be content with little money – because that’s all he needs.
In short, how do we give minimalism a testosterone boost? How can you be a manly minimalist.
Introducing: Spartanism
Before some smartass pipes up about rampant spartan homosexuality, go fuck yourself. This is my definition.
A Spartan is a warrior. Warriors fight and conquer, and in order to do so keep their mind and body healthy. The body part is relatively simple, just eat well, exercise, sleep and don’t let yourself get stressed. The mind part is where the link to minimalism truly lies. A minimalist is content and happy with himself, a Spartan is happy with himself because he knows he’s awesome. A minimalist accepts does not dwell on failure because you cannot alter the past, a Spartan doesn’t dwell on failure because he’s too busy kicking ass at something else. A minimalist and a Spartan rarely (if ever) watch TV because it distracts them from doing what they want to do, causes undue stress, lambasts you with advertisements “for shit we don’t need” (couldn’t help myself) and is designed to make you docile and stupid.
You get the idea.
This is all well and good, you may wonder, but how can a money/vagina chasing be congruent with this.
As far as money goes, I just like doing well at things. If I had a job where I got paid lots I’d probably just save the money and travel a lot, rather than splashing out on status flags like a car and a fancy house. I like the feeling of success, I don’t care about the status. Doing something well has an intrinsic value.
Sex is the same. I just like having sex and like variety. I don’t get any affirmation from having slept with whoever, I just like doing it. As an aside, this is the biggest problem with “lad” culture. A bunch of dudes having sex with girls in order to impress other dudes. Stupid.
Anyway.
I would not encourage everyone to adopt this in full, or instantly. Different things will work for different people, and vary according to your goals. The central principle is getting rid of anything that doesn’t help you do what you want to do, or that distracts you.
What I want to do is relatively simple:
- Have fun (is there much more to life than that?)
- Have sex
- Do well at whatever tasks are presented to me (not really bothered about a specific job providing I have the skills to be good at it)
- Eat, sleep, shit etc
- Be healthy
- Learn
- Be financially secure
- Be free from stress
- Be a quick, clear thinker
- Perform music
- Be free to to what I want
Everything I have, use and do is centred around that list. Here are some spartan habits I’ve picked up as a result.
- Information diet - this allows me to get my work done and limits the amount of time I waste on forums and social media.
- Using an extension called Nanny for Chrome – aids with sticking to the information diet, and stops me staying up til 2am on my laptop.
- Eating semi paleo – I’m too skinny for/can’t afford to eat entirely paleo, this works for me and I definitely feel better for it.
- Outside of getting drunk, I only drink water, tea (green or black) and milk. I was recommended this by Wolf, who seems to be shitting wisdom at the moment.
- Not having a TV or a games console – TV and video games are fun, I’m not gonna deny that, but it’s SO easy to just laze about in front of the screen wasting time. If there’s something I really want to watch I’ll go online via netflix, iplayer or 4od. For video games I’ll just chill at someone’s house.
- Regular exercise.
- Going for walks – great for de-stressing.
- Not masturbating – it’s difficult, but you get ridiculously motivated.
- Meditation – good for sleep and stress. Good as bait too because you look deep and it allows for a humorous follow up: “Yeah I’m a part time Zen master”.
The other aspect is having few, high quality possessions. What I “own” at the moment:
- Laptop with charger
- Phone
- Speakers
- Wallet
- Keys
- Sunglasses
- Chess set
- Drug paraphernalia
- Sex paraphernalia
- Some posters
- Kindle
- Guitar
- Bass
- Amp
- Laundry basket
- Towels
- Clothes
- Toiletries
- Household items (laundry shit)
- Kitchen items.
- Some boxes
For an 18 year old middle class English kid, that isn’t much. I do have other stuff, back at my parents house, but I’ll be throwing that out or putting it in storage ASAP. If I were going by Roissy’s model of bachelor pad, I’m living in the beginnings of a “man manor”. The only possessions that I keep around despite a lack of function or form are ones that hold a bit of my identity. Namely my instruments (although they have both function and form) and the chess set (a gift). I also like to keep photos and letters if there’s a good story behind them.
Despite how I am attached to some of my possessions, the key point is that they are replaceable. A Spartan/minimalist knows this. Possessions are just stuff, stuff that can be replaced and has no real value outside that which you place on it.
If I pick up any more Spartan ideas, I’ll write about them in future. Pretty soon I’ll be sorting through all my clothes and throwing out all those which I’ve held on to just in case I needed them again.
Until then dear reader.