30 Day Challenge 2 (Wed, Nov 12 - Tue, Dec 9)

[Matt Willard]

30 Day Soda and Internet Cutting Challenge (Wednesday, Nov 12 - Tuesday, Dec 9)

For this challenge, I will:

1. Not drink soda at all.
2. Stay off the internet until a certain time of day, except when using it for work.

For the first day, I will stay off the internet until 12 PM. For each day after that, I will stay off the internet for 10 more minutes than before. I've made a list of things I could do otherwise, but feel free to make suggestions.

[Kura Ookami]

Good luck with your thrity day challenge.

I like your idea of kaizen. I want to try my own thing based on this idea. I want to apply it to learning Japanese.

[daredevil83]

Good luck!:-)

[Matt Willard]

Originally Posted by Kura Ookami

Good luck with your thrity day challenge.

I like your idea of kaizen. I want to try my own thing based on this idea. I want to apply it to learning Japanese.

Using a Japanese philosophy to learn Japanese? How wonderfully appropriate.

I was made to learn Spanish in high school, which didn't go over so well, so I'm afraid I can't help you there. Still, I hope you find a good method.

[Matt Willard]

DAY ONE

-Soda: There's not really much I can say about this part of the challenge at the moment. I did have a craving for one, but I plan to indulge myself in water quite a bit to meet it when something like that comes up. I predict I'll still be eating junk food to cope, but that's something I'm going to try and get rid of another day.

-Internet: Things got off to a smashing start when I realized that it was only 10:35 when I finished my important tasks for the day (and I wrote 1,303 words beforehand in one long rush to get an idea down). I was a bit shocked-I was ignoring the clock in an attempt to trigger flow in my work, and I thought my tasks were running longer. Maybe they were just too short to begin with. To fill time, I decide to work on another side project, which went okay. Still, I think I'm going to have to take on a few more projects or get creative with what I can do with my free time to fill the coming void, and that makes me a bit concerned. We'll see what comes up.

[Matt Willard]

DAY TWO

Limit Goal: 12:10 PM

-Soda: Not only am I seeing soda everywhere I go (a bunch in the fridge, at school, at the Burger King I went to this morning), I'm having tremendous headaches due to withdrawal. The worst part of this is easily the withdrawal, and having a sprained ankle doesn't help matters. Once it decides to clear up in a few days, it should be a lot easier, but until then, I feel like crud.

-Internet: I went to the mall with my sister this morning so she could pick up Wrath of the Lich King and I could get a free breakfast out of it. When I got home, I read the new issue of EGM we got in the mail (wonder when the free subscription's gonna run out?) and by then it was 12:10. As mentioned beforehand, I felt like crud and not really up to doing much. I hope this clears up soon for my sake, as well as the sake of this challenge.

[nowhereman]

Don't mean to cut in, but good luck with quitting soda. You can do it. For many years I was a Diet Coke junkie, and just recently I realized that it wasn't that difficult to stop drinking it. I think it's OK to have a soda now and THEN, but not 20+ ounces a day like I was doing before.

As a matter of fact, I feel better and thinner now that I quit. Water is all I drink at work, and when I go out (which isn't often) I get Iced Tea or have some wine.

[Matt Willard]

@nowhereman: I don't mind discussion in this thread-in fact, my last 30 day challenge thread was just me posting, and that got kind of lonely. Anyway, I'll definitely do my best.

[Matt Willard]

DAY THREE

Limit Goal: 12:20 PM

-Soda: The headaches have definitely calmed down. I'm getting used to drinking water, and there's nothing as refreshing as icy water when you're really thirsty. I think I'm in good shape for the rest of this challenge.

-Internet: One of my big concerns is finding important projects with long-term payoff to fill my time in these coming weeks, so I definitely need to brainstorm some ideas. I plan on learning some programming on the side, but I want a decent variety of things to do, so it'll take some thought.

[Matt Willard]

DAY FOUR

Limit Goal: 12:30 PM

-Soda: It's strange to eat fast food and not get a soda. Not only did I have Wendy's last night, I had some McDonald's this morning, and it was weird balancing that out with some cold water. My real concern is how I'm going to cut that out of my diet eventually :V

-Internet: Just because I'm going to have a lot of free time doesn't mean I want to blow it on unimportant things, so while I'm doing this, I'm going to focus on adding things to do that are important to me, with long-term benefits. Of course, I'll also need room to experiment, but I don't want to squander my time. Today and yesterday I filled time by working on a project that isn't that important in the long run, and I aim to change that.

[Matt Willard]

DAY FIVE

Limit Goal: 12:40 PM

-Soda: I've been having an on-and-off headache, but I'm not sure it's from the withdrawal. It's nowhere near as bad as it was a few days ago. Also, we loaded back up on fruit, so now I've got something to satisfy my sweet tooth with during this challenge.

-Internet: Well, I've managed to find a good hands-on programming tutorial, so tomorrow I'm going to delve into that. I think I can afford to add more stuff slowly since I'm slowly gaining more free time, so we'll mess around with it a bit as we go.

[kweng104]

Again good luck Matt,
I don't drink soda that much so I can not say anthing to the first part in your challenge. The second part (stay off the Internet), however, does sound a big challenge.

I've been using Internet for such a long time and have developed an addiction to it. Internet offers a great source for my study / job but also things that can "ruin" my life (you know what I mean). And the feeling surfing Internet for a long time without indeed doing anything is a really bad one.

However, I will try to focus on my goal in my 30-days challenge first (get up early etc.). Cutting down Internet would be a great idea for another 30-days challenge.

Keep up the good work

[Matt Willard]

Thanks, kweng! The main thrust is filling up my time, and that's easily going to be the toughest part. But, I've already thought ahead about it.

[Matt Willard]

DAY SIX

Limit Goal: 12:50 PM

-Soda: There's not really much to say here besides the usual cravings for the stuff, but the fruit has been helping. I had a selection of grapes this morning and I was caught wondering why I didn't eat them more often.

-Internet: Spent most of my time trying to finish an important project, so I didn't really get into that programming tutorial. Even so. my day needs to focus on accomplishing the most important tasks first, so an experiment like programming is purely a side activity for now.

[Matt Willard]

DAY SEVEN

Limit Goal: 1:00 PM

-Soda: Besides the usual occasional cravings there really isn't much to report on here.

-Internet: I originally planned to have some of my writing take up a chunk of my free time, but today I wasn't really feeling up to the task. Was it one of those natural down days, or something else? Ever since I've heard about cyclical motivation, I'm starting to think it applies more and more. Since it'd be wise to fill up some of my time with reading, I think I'll also see if there's any books at the library about recharging energy and focus so I can keep a consistent work session.

[Kura Ookami]

You seem to be doing pretty well. Keep at it! (says someone who has tried a few 30 day trials and given up on them) Perhaps I should do as I say and say as I do?

[Matt Willard]

It takes persistence! I learned a lot about keeping on track from Zen Habits, which is another one of my favorite blogs I go to.

[Matt Willard]

DAY EIGHT

Limit Goal: 1:10 PM

-Soda: Without soda to fill up on, I've been taking greater notice in what I eat, which is a lot of junk I think I can do without. I plan to fix my diet as well, but this kind of effort to eliminate soda has brought greater attention to the kind of health I want.

-Internet: Again I didn't get a lot done, but that was because I was jaunting back and forth a bit today. I hope this doesn't become a trend-I'd really prefer to keep the habit I worked a month to set :V Tomorrow I need to do some cleaning, though, so that'll be a nice change of pace. I've also checked out "The Power of Full Engagement" from the library, which another blogger mentioned reading, to see if there's anything besides my physical health I can improve to increase my energy and focus. (Strangely, they had three copies of this book, but almost no Nabokov. Go figure.)

[Matt Willard]

DAY NINE

Limit Goal: 1:20 PM

-Soda: Nowadays drinking water feels out of pure neccessity rather than for flavor, and I'm not that comfortable with that. Of course, I've been seeking to replace that flavor with fruits and the like, but I'm not sure yet if that'll be enough. (It doesn't help that I can't really go out and buy fruit anytime I want.) I need to keep an eye on this.

-Internet: Spent the morning cleaning my room in preparation for future guests and reading "The Power of Full Engagement". It mostly confirmed things I already learned about from other sources, but the major impact I've been left with so far is a greater sense to define the path I want to take with my life, and how exactly I want to get there. It's left me asking a few questions about myself and reconfirming things I already know. As such, I may have to change my projects around to really better connect with what I'm striving for.

[Kaspian]

Originally Posted by Matt Willard

-Soda: Nowadays drinking water feels out of pure necessity rather than for flavor, and I'm not that comfortable with that.

This statement mildly boggles my mind. I've never considered that something I drink daily should be for flavor; the thought simply hasn't entered my mind. Water is the thing I drink to hydrate and take care of my body, and unless you count tea, I rarely drink anything else. (Occasionally I'll have 100% fruit juice.)

[Matt Willard]

Well, before I've usually had soda for flavor and to give myself something to do passively. Nourishment wasn't really important when it came to that. Now I've realized how much I've liked and craved the flavor from soda, which is something I'm trying to recapture in a healthier fashion.

[Matt Willard]

DAY TEN

Limit Goal: 1:30 PM

-Soda: I've had noticiable concern in what I eat lately. Beforehand, I used soda to get a rush of flavor and give myself something to do while surfing the net passively. Now I'm using fruit to replace that need, but I seem to go for something to eat a lot more often. It's clearly more due to a need for food as filler as opposed to actual hunger, so I guess the trick here is to stifle that need with more water, but I'm still concerned, and might have yet another reason to change my diet.

-Internet: Spent a chunk of my morning hashing out what my purpose in life was. I stumbled on something that took me aback, but I'm not entirely confident in it yet, so this will require more work. However, the closer I get, the more I'm thinking that some tasks may become even less important to me if I'm really trying to live a purpose-driven life. In short, things are a bit confusing right now, but it'd better that I looked at it seriously as opposed to not looking at it at all, I think.

[Matt Willard]

Note: Due to circumstances beyond my control, I will be unable to update this log at length today, because I discovered I'm spending the night at an aunt's house on short notice. Tomorrow I'll give you a full report as usual.

[Matt Willard]

DAY ELEVEN AND TWELVE

Limit Goal: 1:40 PM and 1:50 PM

-Soda: I almost made an error when my helpful aunt asked if I wanted a Capri Sun. I said yes, but quickly changed my mind. Still, that was close. But at least there was no soda at her house, so I was easier off.

-Internet: I played lots of video games with my cousin, plus their computer kinda stinks, so this was still easy to commit to. It's not doing wonders for my daily list of goals, though. When I make my list of tasks for tomorrow, I'll make sure to add on stuff I know I'm going to finish-something easier, because I think I'm starting to slip.

[Matt Willard]

DAY THIRTEEN

Limit Goal: 2:00 PM

-Soda: Not much to report here.

-Internet: I spent the whole day cleaning to prepare for the guest that's staying with us for a while. It was good, solid work. I'm going to have to watch out, though-he brought his Wii, and I promised myself that'd I'd only play a minimum of video games before the daily limit so I can use other ways to spend my time.

[Matt Willard]

DAY FOURTEEN

Limit Goal: 2:10 PM

-Soda: At times I really get anxious for some kind of flavor, but it's not too bad.

-Internet: Had some major computer problems today. I hope they're fixed. If not, yeesh, this could be a problem. Beyond that, I took a computer project way too far and didn't get much else done. I should probably push that near the back of my morning so everything else gets accomplished.

[Matt Willard]

DAY FIFTEEN

Limit Goal: 2:20 PM

-Soda: I still dislike bottled water, so don't expect me to buy it much, people who are following this :V

-Internet: Today was pretty good. Got most of my things done. I sure need to learn how to focus better, though, but that's something for another trial. I'll have to write later, though-had someone staying in my room and was afraid to type and wake him up, but my sister assures me that he's a heavy sleeper so it should be fine. Also got Chrono Trigger DS today too, which is awesome. After the limit, of course.

[Matt Willard]

DAY SIXTEEN

Limit Goal: 2:30 PM

-Soda: Man, there really isn't much happening in this area, other than it's getting easier to stay on water. I think I'll cut this section out in the future unless there's something good to report.

-Internet: Today went really well. I was decently focused and I got some important things done. I still want to build a greater focus so I can clear out projects more quickly, but other than that, things really worked out well today.

[Matt Willard]

DAY SEVENTEEN

Limit Goal: 2:40 PM

-Soda: I have to use the bathroom constantly these days. I wonder if there's such a thing as drinking too much water. I doubt it, but all the same, I'm going to make sure I compliment my water drinking in the future with other things like eating fruit.

-Internet: I was still decently productive, I think, but I could bear to have some more focus. That's a skill I need to train another time, though.

[Kura Ookami]

You could also drink fruit juice as well as water. Of course fruit juice contains a lot of sugar. I believe it's better for you than sucrose, but you can drink a lot of fruit juice fast and take in a lot of fructose quickly that way. I think I've read that it's a good idea to dilute fruit juice with water. You could try that.