[Ilya]

Hey, Bhairava!

I'm slowly getting the feeling that I've over valued, or misunderstood the concept of self-discipline. You describe it as a "conscious tool" which takes resources and energy to apply (and therefor burns out after a while) which seems to make more sense to me.

To be perfectly honest, I think it is possible to treat it as a skill in itself and eventually have "subconscious discipline", when you just make a quick mental note that you want something going on regularly and it will. Guess this would be nice, but I don't know yet how to do it.

In the end I want to do the following tasks on a daily basis but have them running on autopilot (habits) some of them are simply industry tasks but others like Exercises, Tai Chi, Linguistics and Drawing, I want as installed as habits to ensure constant progress in these skills.

Got it. A few thoughts.
First I'd ask you what's wrong? Why does it take you a lot of effort? If you didn't do the scheduled things (Excercises, Tai Chi, Linguistics, Drawings, Reading) what would you do instead? What you do when one day your schedule fails? Do you enjoy doing these things that you've scheduled?

While waiting for your answers, I'll make a few guesses on what the problem may be.
I've looked at your dayly schedule and I should say, you day is pretty packed. I see 7 hours scheduled explicitly. I don't know how long the rest of the activities take place but I guess it's at least a couple of hours not counting University. How long the things you want or must do daily
take?
One of the thoughts i've picked up from time management is that it is unrealistic to schedule more then 50% of the total available time. The schedule will look good on paper but will be very hard to maintain. Not because of laziness, but because our life is full of distractions. If you have several activities scheduled back to back and one takes longer then expected - the whole day turns into chaos. Maybe you just didn't mention it, but I don't see commuting (even if just walking from one campus building to another), I don't see hanging out with friends, I don't see taking a rest. I don't know what is Mac Max free or Max TV - may be it is hanging out with friends? In this case the schedule is relaxed at least in the evening.
So, maybe in the beginning schedule shorter amount of time for each activity and allow for "buffer space" between them.
Also, why do you allocate these amounts of time to each activity? Do they have to be in this order? Can you switch drawing and reading one day. Can you alternate - one day reading, one day drawing? May be you would prefer a little variety in your dayly routine?
I'm also curious why do you do both Excercises and Tai Chi? Can't you do just one but for an hour? Or alternate every other day? I know Tai Chi is "internal" martial art style, but it still can be pretty intensive. I also thought that it is actually better to excersise every other day then daily.

Up until now I've managed very well, but it's exhausting 'cause I have to constantly put conscious effort into getting myself to do a task.

What makes it difficult?

Do you maybe think that it's maybe because they are tasks that are constantly progressing and changing that they're so difficult to install as habits?

No, it is different in your case, I think. You know there are two different mindsets I use when approach tasks. One is goal driven - I need somethng done, how can I do it most efficiently? That's the approach I use when there iis some clear result that I want, to learn a skill, for example.

The other is process driven - from now on I will do this for the rest of my life whatever happens. Most often I don't really mean it. I use this approach for the tasks that just have to last. The simplest example is waiting for someone without knowing when they would come. The eternal personal development process is a more serious example.

In my experience, problems happen when I mix two together. For example if I expect that just doing something for a certain amount of time will bring me the results I want. This is just not true. If I'm doing a wrong thing, the correct results might never come.

So connected to this...

How would you approach this, if your goal was to master these skills and to do so you needed to practice regularly? And how would you approach the other regular tasks? (Not the skill ones)
Would you suggest starting with the easiest and doing it over a while, till I feel comfortable with doing it regularly (habit) and have a certain level of ability (skill)?

I would separate the habit of doing something regularly and actually getting results. For example, if I need to excersise daily, I would do it but lightly. Just to let my body know that I'm doing something different from the earlier habit.
When I get used to being in a certain place, at a certain time in a "work-out" state of mind, only then I would start doing the actual excersises. But when I do start, I would make sure I make the best of it. And with a habit of being there already installed it will be easier.

What do you mean by "alternating schedule"?

I mean that if you need to do reading and drawing, you can read on even days and draw on odd days. The benefits may be as good, but it is not too monotonous.

But in general, it's a matter of doing a given something regularly over a given amount of time and at some point it'll just be automatic, right?

Yes, but only when it has become easy enough. Autopilot switches on when the mind says - ok, this is so easy, I can't bother with spending conscious effort on it anymore.

You were saying that it depends on the results/feedback your getting, do you mean to say whether it's positive or not?

The feedback should let you know when you are doing better and when your are doing worse. But the positive is more useful It should be continous, it should be immediate, it should be strong enough for you to notice it. If these conditions are met learning happens much faster.

For a habit to be successfully installed you need to receive positive feedback over a given amount of time?

To learn a skill you need good (see above) feedback for as long as necessary. The better feedback is, the shorter the time is needed. Once the skill is learned to the point of unconscious competence, its simple repitition will turn it into a habit. When you are still stuggling with learning a skill, it is unlikely that it will settle into a habit.

Would you suggest totally drop my plan for the moment as good way to listen to the "lazy voice"?

No, you don't need to drop anything. You can "listen" while doing what you are doing. Actually, when you are doing and something goes wrong, that's the best time to listen to yourself.