Georges' 21 day Daily check-in

[Georges Sen-Gupta]

Georges' 21 day Daily check-in

I am trying to put my life back together by establishing habits to achieve three goals. The habits are
- 30 mins exercise every day
- at least an hour writing every day
- dance tango or study tango every day

There is a slightly different relationship between each habit and the relevant goal.
- Daily exercise has many good effects, such as improving mood and energy, improving health prospects and controlling weight. 30 minutes daily exercise is a habit. It does not really increase in complexity, and it has no end point.
- Finishing the novel requires the disciplined action of daily writing, but it has an end point, when the book is completed.
- The tango is a wonderful and difficult dance, and I want to feel pleasure and mastery when I go dancing. Mastering the tango also requires disciplined action of study, practice and dancing for real, but there is no end point - it is an activity that increases in complexity, and stays a challenge, without ever ending.

21 days is (apparently) the time it takes to establish a habit. I am starting in earnest on Monday 23rd July to let my mind get used to it. That means taking action between 23rd July and 5th August 2012.


:http://www.easygoals.com/email/IyBCIzUK

[Georges Sen-Gupta]

Three goals: exercise, novel, tango.
Went running before work - lovely calm sunny morning. Currently I do a lap of the park, which is 2.5km. That's about 20 mins - I'm considering getting a timer and running for 30 mins, which is the goal. There is a train that goes from the park to my house, but coming back is not so nice because it is crowded with commuters, so may change that.
I have a writing task for today - 1 hours writing work.
I am not sure what I am going to do about the tango. I am considering having a joint alcohol & tango budget. That is, setting a limit on how much I can spend - possibly 50 pounds per week. The idea is to shift the expenditure from alcohol to tango. I suppose the measure would be how much is left in the budget? How much tango did I do? I haven't worked this out yet.

I am 'officially' starting the 21 day period on Monday 23rd, so today is day -4. That means I've got a couple of days to get HabitCal and everything else lined up. For example, I use a motivational video from EasyGoals to remind myself of the goals. The idea is to keep refining the goal statements until they are as good as they can be. Also, there is an automated 'Did you do what you said you would do?' e-mail from Habitforge.

I think there is something about possibly having a 21 day measurement period every month, and a few days off. Anyway, that's all in the future.

[Georges Sen-Gupta]

1/3 habits so far today : Because I have not started my ‘official’ 21 day period (starts monday), I am exempting the tango for today. I am scheduled to go dancing on Sunday, which I am looking forward to, and there is dancing tommorow (Friday) and Saturday.
That leaves doing at least an hour’s work on the novel. I am thinking about using the Pomodoro technique, which involves focussing for 25 minutes and then taking a five minute break.
Having been up early and worked all day, I am struggling to stay concentrated. It will have to be a case of doing what I said I would do, never mind the quality. Tomorrow's another day.
When I feel solid with the writing and exercise, I am thinking about yoga and/or trained relaxation, using Pomodoro technique consistently especially at work, but that’s for the future.

[Georges Sen-Gupta]

Finally. Twenty past midnight. I did what I said I would do.

[Georges Sen-Gupta]

I have implemented the alcohol-tango budget using Toshl Finance for Chrome. I haven’t got the details right yet, such as the regular budget amount. There is also a tension between a weekly tracking cycle, which is better for focussing attention on behaviour, and monthly tracking, which fits more with actual money flow. However, the point is to encourage expenditure to shift from alcohol to tango, and it is about tracking a notional account, rather than a real one – that means, I think, starting off with tracking weekly until the desired behaviour is established, and then moving to monthly when it is no longer an anxiety-inducing behaviour. Toshl Finance has a very visual style with a HUGE font, and this makes tracking one income and two types of expenditure against a static budget fairly simple. I am feeling confident about this, but too soon to claim any success yet.

[Georges Sen-Gupta]

Three habits - 30 mins daily exercise, at least one hour writing the novel, and daily studying or dancing tango.

I will reset all my habit trackers to start again on Monday 23rd. It will give me a chance to get it all fixed in my head. The exercise and novel writing behaviours are fairly well specified, but it is still a bit unclear what counts as studying tango, for example, so that has to be sorted out.

I think that it would be nice to have trackers that started on the first of the month - It feels a bit like a new year resolution, only achievable. It might take a bit of creative use of exempt days to re-start the trackers, or I suppose just writing off the effort for an auspicious-feeling start.

[BertinHouston]

Sounds interesting, I do something similar (20 minutes focused working without getting up from my desk) and then 5 minutes to do anything I want, like this... What is an alcohol budget? I'm trying to lose weight and an effective way to do that - or so I have heard - is to limit alcohol intake to Saturday only. I am going to try that until I reach my goal weight.

Good luck with finishing the novel!

[Georges Sen-Gupta]

Hi - nice to hear from you.

http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/ has all the details of the method.

Nothing odd about the budget - the idea is to pay for the tango by diverting the expenditure on alcohol. There is a limited monthly amount, so the more tango I do, the less money there is for drink. It's just a public commitment to myself to encourage the tango and discourage the drinking.

regards

Georges

[BertinHouston]

OK I get it, I thought it referred to a specific number of drinks like Reinhard's 2-drink glass ceiling. Cheers!

[Georges Sen-Gupta]

Having read around the subject, it seems that having too many goals can be counter productive. In the light of this, I think it might be wise to postpone the tango habit until the exercise and writing habits are established. I struggled with the exercise target today, due to the weather, and still have to do the novel writing. Realistically, I've little chance to study tango or go dancing tonight.
For the moment, I will leave tango in the HabitCal, and mark the days as exempt or special until I am ready to take on tango as a habit. I might delete it from HabitCal if I think that’s a good idea, but not just yet. So for now, I am just going to leave tango as a pleasurable thing that I do, rather than make a trackable habit out of it. I shall leave it in my motivational material. Eventually, I know that the only way to master it will be to take it much more seriously, but not just now. I feel a bit of a weight off my mind just writing this.
So for now: Two habit - exercise and novel writing, and tracking the expenditure on alcohol and tango. Official start on monday 23rd July. Exercise done for today - writing before I go to bed.

[Georges Sen-Gupta]

It has not been a very successful day, as far as my habit formation is going. I was too tired to run before work, as I had almost no sleep the night before. I had intended to run after work, but was scuppered by the heavy rain. I did do 30 mins exercise indoors, but it left me tired rather than energised.

I have done a lot of good thinking, which admittedly does come easily to me. One thing is about the Pomodoro method; another is about not tracking tango as a habit; another is about becoming aware of how difficult it is to get down to anxiety provoking tasks. It is certainly much more difficult to write when I am tired and overwhelmed by lonliness and chores and the TV is on. I think all this means that I am on a better bet if I start writing earlier in the day.

I now have to go to HabitCal and record a failure. Back in the saddle tommorow.

HabitCal
http://everydaysystems.com/habitcal/vie ... el&t=Tango

[Georges Sen-Gupta]

I think that I am pretty much there with the daily exercise. I lay out my kit the night before, and look forward to doing it; I enjoy it and feel energised afterwards (mostly); It’s something I do to avoid writing and distract myself from the discomfort of procrastination. Granted, I haven’t demonstrated it on HabitCal, but I am confident that it will be able to do that in time. In fact, I am off to run now, but will be back later to work out some thoughts on procrastination, motivation, task scheduling, behaviour experiments etc etc.

[Georges Sen-Gupta]

"Most of us serve our ideals by fits and starts. The person who makes a success of living is one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That's dedication. " - Cecil B. DeMille

BTW I have just found out that Bevis and Butt-Head sang 'I Go You, Babe' as a duet with Cher. *Happy sigh*. Earth hath not anything to show more fair.

[Georges Sen-Gupta]

Practicing writing (or other anxiety producing activity): 22nd July 2012

This is either a Behavioural Experiment or a habit forming technique - depending on how well it works.

The idea is to reduce the anxiety associated with the writing task, so that it is less than the coping resources. In practice, instead of ‘Write for a hour’, which has proved too challenging in recent days, ‘write for 25 minutes, three times’.

Use the Pomodoro technique and CBT Behaviour Experiments
- practice anxiety producing activity
- get information about reality of anxiety, responding to activity, etc
- associate relaxation with writing (etc)
- associate physical cues with active response to anxiety producing activity

Uses WriteorDie and Relaxation CD

60 Mins
1. 5 mins: Use writeordie to set up Behaviour Experiments: What do I expect will happen?
2. Set up physical cues - scent; bracelet;
3. Set physical timer for 25 Mins
4. 25 mins: Focus on work for Save work
5. Start relaxation timer for 10 mins
6. 10 Mins: Relaxation with CD
5. 5 Mins: Use writeordie to complete Behaviour Experiments: What did happen?
6 15 mins: Break
Total 60 Mins

30 Mins
1. 2 mins: Use writeordie to set up Behaviour Experiments: What do I expect will happen?
2. Set up physical cues - scent; bracelet;
3. Set physical timer for 10 Mins
4. 10 mins: Focus on work for Save work
5. Start relaxation timer for 5 mins
6. 5 Mins: Relaxation with CD
7. 3 Mins: Use writeordie to complete Behaviour Experiments: What did happen?
8. 10 mins: Break
Total 20 Mins

Practicing relaxation is not a break: It is an active part of the process.

[Georges Sen-Gupta]

I had an unexpected experience with a reminder bracelet. I am thinking about using physical cues as reminders and reinforcements to develop the good habits I want, including a bracelet. I had already one, so I didn’t have to get a bracelet specially. It has plastic 15 coloured beads in a rainbow arrangement, which was intended to represent the underlying oneness of all world religions. Personally, I am not sure about that, but I do like the look of the bracelet. I thought that I would like looking at it, and be reminded of my goals and the habits I want to establish, and be motivated to take action. That’s all very well - I do like looking at it, and it does remind me of my goals. The unexpected part was that it is slightly uncomfortable. The beads are on a thin, stretchy plastic string. For it to stay upright, it has to be just tight enough to grip, or it swivels around and all I can see on the top of my wrist is a bit of black plastic, and the beads scrape on the keyboard. It’s just tight enough for there to be a small but real sense of relief when I take it off. In fact, instead of being a positive affirmation of my good intentions, it works better as a negative reminder that, for instance, I haven’t worked on my novel in the last two days, and I’m looking forward to taking it off. To take full advantage of this effect, I have considered wearing a rucksack full of copper coinage until I have done the daily exercise and writing that I said I was going to do. I would certainly look forward to taking that off. I suppose I could compromise and get some wrist weights, although that might interfere with the typing.

Well, it is 23.39 GMT. I could still achieve my daily goal of working on my novel if I stayed up until 00:30 or so.

[eschano]

Hi Georges,

About the reminder bracelet:

I went to Brazil for carnival (yes, super lucky me!) and one of their traditions is to tie a thin strip of fabric around your wrist with three knots. Every knot represents a wish you make. You're not supposed to take the bracelet off until it a) falls off, which can take years, or b) your wishes are fullfilled.

It's great as it reminds me daily of my wishes and so it's much easy to work towards fullfilling them everyday. Because its a strip of thin fabric it's also quite unobstrusive (although sometimes it gets on my nerves).

Maybe that could work for you given the three habits you chose?

[Georges Sen-Gupta]

Thanks Eschano - that might work!