Deliverable

Ultimately it seems that it comes down to this:

Are my daily actions in line with my short, medium and long term goals?

Daily actions = how you choose to spend your day

If these are aligned then I’m on the right track. If they’re not, then adjustments need to be made. Do I know what my short, medium and long term goals are? If asked, could I articulate them? Are they SMART? How will I spend my time today?

I will write my morning pages before 9 a.m. today. complete

I will sand and stain the shelf for the studio by 11 a.m. today. complete

I will finish my laundry by 11 a.m. today. completed by 11:15 a.m.

I will do a vocal warm-up before 1 p.m. today. complete

I will complete at least 180 minutes of work on the book before 5 p.m. today. finshed 189 minutes by 5:25 p.m.

I will complete at least 60 minutes of practice on the trombone before 5 p.m. today. complete

I will plan out tomorrow with a “1 Day Multi-Challenge” post before midnight. complete

Notes to Self:

• If I’m to finish my laundry by 11 a.m., it means I have to start it by 9 a.m.
• If I do all my work on the book in the afternoon, I’ll have to start before 2 p.m.
• If I do all my trombone practicing in the afternoon, I’ll have to start before 1 p.m.

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1 Day Multi-Challenge
Start & End date: Today

It’s important for me to remind myself that things are getting better. Deliverable and all this life hackery are making a difference.

• I sleep in my bed now instead of falling asleep in front of the television.
• I’ve given up the indiscriminate watching of television.
• I eat fiber breakfast cereal every day.
• I take a multi-vitamin every day.
• I make sure that all of my dishes are washed before bed every night.
• I do some type of exercise daily. It might not always be perfect, but I have been consistently exercising every day in some way.
• I’ve cut out my intake of sugary snacks, especially soda.
• I practice at least one instrument every day.
• My trombone playing has improved due to the regular practice.
• I’ve honored the promise I made to myself to work on my projects for a minimum of 50 minutes a day. (“Projects” has basically meant “The Book.) I’m on track to deliver version 1 on time.
• My apartment is a hell of a lot less cluttered than it used to be, and all in all a lot nicer to live in.

One of the things I struggle with is the speed of my progress. Many days it can be difficult to “see the forest for the trees”.

Things are better. The struggle is worth it.

Rinse and repeat above statement 100 times daily until I believe it.

It’s not perfect, but it’s progress. That’s what I need to keep reminding myself.

I’m going to just set this goal and hit the publish button before I have a chance to over think it. I know that in the past I’ve felt better when I’ve started my day with morning pages, so here’s the challenge:

Every day for the next thirtydays I’ll write morning pages.

What are “morning pages”?

3 pages of stream of conciousness writing, as described in Julia Cameron’s book “The Artists Way“.

Why are morning pages important? They help to clear out all of the gobbledygook in your head. They help you focus. They help you put things into perspective. (For a more detailed explanation check out Julia Cameron’s book.)

I’ll make every attempt to actually do these in the morning, but I know that in the past there have been times when this just doesn’t work. The most important thing is to do them daily.

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30 Day Challenge: Morning Pages
Start date: Tuesday, 8/15/06
Next check-in date: Wednesday, 9/13/06

Version 0.7

I broke out the more advanced content into a second book.

I will complete at least 180 minutes of work on the book before 11 p.m. today. complete

I will complete at least 60 minutes of practice on the trombone before 5 p.m. today. complete

Plan out tomorrow with a “1 Day Multi-Challenge” post before midnight. complete

Notes to Self:

• This means if I do all my work on the book in the evening, I’ll have to start before 8 p.m.
• This means if I do all my trombone practicing in the afternoon, I’ll have to start before 4 p.m.

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1 Day Multi-Challenge
Start & End date: Today

There have definitely been days when this challenge has been difficult to complete, simply because of the amount of time involved. There have been two or three times when I’ve been really close to just giving up and saying the hell with it. “It’s too late to do 50 minutes on the book” I say to myself… but then I somehow I find time to watch an episode of a TV show I’ve taped. In the end I manage to talk myself into just “putting in the damn time”. I’m also noticing that it’s much easier to just “put in the damn time” earlier in the day. Once this is done the rest of my day is my own and I can be free from the guilt of knowing I should be working on my project.

I was initially hesitant to continue for another 30 days, but I also know that I’m into the home stretch with the book, and the delivery date is a little over a month away. (“Projects” has really meant “The Book” for the past 60 days…). Now that I look at the calendar, I realize that my 90 day check-in corresponds exactly with the date that my Preview version of the book is due. I’ll take that as a sign that I need to continue for another 30 days.

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30 Day Challenge: Projects
Start date: Saturday, 8/12/06
Next check-in date: Sunday, 9/10/06

This past Thursday was my 30th day with out refined sugar. Ok, technically it wasn’t 30 days completely devoid of refined sugar… I continued to eat my Frosted Mini Wheats in the morning and I’m sure there were meals where refined sugar was used in the preparation of the food. The main point of this 30 days was to break my soda habit, and I think I went a long way towards that goal. There were definitely times that I craved a soda, or found myself wanting a desert while eating out but I’m glad that I held on and made it through. I’m going to give this another 30 days.

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30 Day Challenge: Refined Sugar
Start date: Friday, 8/11/06
Next check-in date: Saturday, 9/9/06

Today marked the 60th consecutive day that I’ve eaten my fiber cereal, and taken a multi-vitamin.

I had originally planned on continuing the challenge another 30 days, but frankly the check-in’s are becoming tiresome, especially since I feel fairly confident that I can continue this habit without keeping track of the number days that I do it consecutively.

I’ll continue to track this on my “Habits Tracking” page (because that’s easy enough to do…) but basically I consider this a successful completion to the challenge.

Hopefully it’s enough of a habit now that I’ll continue eating cereal in the morning and taking my vitamin indefinitely.

I will complete at least 180 minutes of work on the book before noon today. complete

I will complete at least 60 minutes of practice on the trombone before 5 p.m. complete

I will complete at least another 100 minutes of work on the book before 5 p.m. complete (The last stretch was actually completed at 5:53 p.m. For some reason I thought 4:20 p.m. was 100 minutes before 5:00 p.m. Clearly my math skills need some looking into.)

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1 Day Challenge: Multi-Challenge #4
Start & End date: Today