The delightful joy of doing the routine badly at first after 10 tries

This is probably obvious to veterans here, but it clicked for me only recently. health got easier when I stopped treating every attempt like a final exam.

Part of me wanted the fancy version with all the tools. The better version was boring: one notebook, one reminder, and a willingness to be clumsy with the recipe for a while.

My current rule is simple: if it takes less than 7 minutes to prepare, I am much more likely to keep doing it.