Notes on Models: Something particularly interesting about the connection circle is that there is some density of arrows by “goofing around.” It seems that my mental tiredness yet my “alertness” of being awake is the perfect combination to goof around and not meet my 9:45 pm bedtime. At the end of the day, I want to decompress and balance that mental burnout, and I also sometimes feel awake. Rather than just letting “decompression” time be at some undefined point during the night, I should bake it in as part of my nighttime routine. Something else particularly interesting, per the Iceberg Model, is the my mental model about wanting to decompress while awake but feeling a bit uncomfortable since I feel I could be doing work. However, I realize this is counterproductive as I end up going to bed later. I feel mentally tired after so much work, so I goof around later, and go to bed later. I am reframing it as an “investment” to setting myself up for success and being as successful and productive as possible the next day.
The habit being tracked is going to bed past 9:45 pm on nights prior to a weekday. This habit was tracked for the duration of two days. In particular, it was tracked the night of Thursday January 8 and the night of Sunday January 11. The data was logged by taking pictures of what was being done during the night prior to bedtime. For example, here to the right are a few things I was doing Thursday night. At 7:12 pm I was getting packages from the locker. At 7:54 pm I was having dinner. At 11:27 pm I was looking at some wire for some crafts on Amazon.
Then, on Sunday night I was also on my way to not going to bed by 9:45 pm. At 7:12 pm I was doing homework as I had an oral quiz the next day. At 8:45 pm, I was in San Francisco at a lights shows event, celebrating my birthday which was January 7. Then at 9:55 pm I was counting my macronutrients.
My experience logging the information was somewhat uncomfortable. I just took pictures whenever, and my goal was to go to bed “early” but I didn’t have anything specific in mind. Also, it felt weird and uncomfortable to purposefully not try to change it. It felt uncomfortable to just go to bed as I would regularly do since I felt like I was not doing my best. However, I knew I just had to go to bed as I would regularly do for the purposes of this assignment.
I mainly learned that I had a non-specific goal. I wanted to go to bed early, but didn’t have what “early” really meant for myself. I also learned I had to go one layer deeper in terms of my goal. My goal was to wake up at 5:30 am. But what I really needed for that was to go to bed by 9:45 pm to sleep a good amount in the first place. This way, I would be ready to wake up at 5:30 am. I also realize I was not really setting myself up for success by for example, doing unnecesary things like browsing Amazon, past 9:45 pm. I had my priorities order all wrong. Next time, I should prioritize getting ready for bed (e.g. doing skincare, putting pijamas on, being in bed ready to sleep) before looking at Amazon, for instance.
Footer: Juan Pablo Pacheco, January 13, 2026, Writeup: Measuring Me Take 2, page 1
