Such as a thing as too many 30-day trials?

[StevenA]

I'm just wondering if too many will be effective or not, because I currently have about 20 on my next actions list where I'll see them. I think of new ones just about every day, and I get too excited about them to just leave them on my someday/maybe list when I could be using them now.

[JiriNovotny]

Whoa, that's a lot!

Well, if you check up your list every day then I guess it can't hurt. You will probably slip here and there but I think it should work, if you take these challenges seriously.

Would you mind sharing some of your trials? It might be really inspiring.

[StevenA]

Originally Posted by JiriNovotny

Whoa, that's a lot!

Well, if you check up your list every day then I guess it can't hurt. You will probably slip here and there but I think it should work, if you take these challenges seriously.

Would you mind sharing some of your trials? It might be really inspiring.

Sure! Whenever I'm brainstorming trials, I look at my to-do lists for recurring items that I could possibly automate.

Here are some that I'm doing right now:

Put dishes into dishwasher after eating.

Exercise for half an hour three days a week.

Spend half an hour three days a week reading a book from the canon by my community pool.

Don't buy any new music until I've satisfactorily absorbed the music I have (I have about 15 unopened CDs.)

Don't watch television or any movies unless it's something a friend recommended to me.

Spend 10 minutes a day thinking of lyrics.

Spend 10 minutes a day at the 4-track thinking of melodies to record.

Don't pace while on the phone (A nasty habit I've had all of my life.)

Don't put phone calls on to-do list if they can be made now (Phone anxiety.)

Whenever I'm upset with a friend or family member, take the time to journal and figure out what is upsetting me, if it is justifiable, and if so how to resolve it. (Conflict resolution.)


Trials like the conflict resolution one have been insanely helpful but were extremely difficult to translate into a trial and to think of in the first place. Still I'm getting better at turning more seemingly abstract obstacles into the trial format, and I'm really getting a kick out of living them.

[msd]

Doing many 30-day trials is counter-productive in my experience. I used to get all excited and start millions of them at the time only to give up after a week or two because it got too overwhelming. I also used to beat myself up a lot for this.
So now, I only work on one 30-day trial at the same time. you may think that one is not enough, but that's what been most effective for me. In that way, I can safely install 12 new habits in a year. I'm fine with that for now

[GreatnessBlog]

Originally Posted by StevenA

Don't pace while on the phone (A nasty habit I've had all of my life.)

Sounds like a great habit to me! Who couldn't use a little more exercise?

[micth]

i think that too many can become counter productive. I think though that you should experiment and try to find the optimum amount of trials you can do at once. Of course this will differ from person to person. It would probably best to also consider how hard/easy the trials your currently doing, and have less trials when they're hard and more trials when they're easy

[StevenA]

Originally Posted by GreatnessBlog

Sounds like a great habit to me! Who couldn't use a little more exercise?

It isn't when the other person on the phone is asking why you're breathing heavy and not paying attention to what they're saying. Perhaps it just isn't a good habit for me because I have difficulties with multitasking.

Originally Posted by micth

i think that too many can become counter productive. I think though that you should experiment and try to find the optimum amount of trials you can do at once. Of course this will differ from person to person. It would probably best to also consider how hard/easy the trials your currently doing, and have less trials when they're hard and more trials when they're easy

Thanks for the good idea. I've been resistant to putting any sort of cap on my current trials because some of them are so ridiculously simple that I don't even have to read over them at all during the trial. I'll develop a capping system based on how difficult it is to make or break particular habits.