OneByOne's log - beating habits, one by one

[ONEbyONE]

Hello all. This thread is what I hope will be my log that I'll update about once a week. I hope this is allowed by the rules on this forum.

So about me first:
I'm a 20 year old boy who comes from Denmark.
I've read some of Steve's articles, and I think most of them are of high quality. So I thought that I'd share my short term goals with you guys. In that way I, and you, can follow the development, and maybe you can come with some good inputs and some good advice. :-)

I am pretty convinced that I know what I want of my life, and I have tried to make a bigger picture of my daily life through planning.

I'll take small steps at a time and write what steps I'm trying to complete at the moment, and how well it's going. Therefore my log will mostly be about replacing bad habits with, IMO, good habits.

So I'll start writing my short term goals now . Which hopefully will lead to my long term goals.

- Advance in speed reading (Aiming at getting up to 230 words pr. minute)
Usually my reading speed decreases a lot during reading which is pretty sad, since the stuff I read usually isn't that hard to comprehend, my normal speed lies around 130 words pr. minute I think, and sometimes it decreases to around 70 words pr. minte.

- Be able to eat faster than now (Just want to be able to finish my meals in a normal amount of time)
This has been already improved a lot. Before I could sit and eat a pizza in about 1 to 1½ hours!! Usually this was because I did other things while eating, now I think I've a good eating speed at most foods except dry food, and here I'm thinking of my sandwiches, although this has also improved I still hope to improve here. I hope to be able to eat mosts meals in 5-15 minute. I should probably say that I aim for eating 7 small meals a day.

- Start on my bodybuilding program at the fitness center (Getting more muscels on my body for beaty and health, plus this will hopefully also pay back in my concentration ability.)
So I've been wanting to do this for about 2 years now, I've for a long time known exactly what excersize's I'll use, what my program will look like, and where I'll train. My only problem is that since I don't know the technique I fear that I might get an injury. Although me and one of my friends will start training together, then we can look after eachother while training and he should know most of the techniques.

- Follow my diet (My goal is to get more mass first, then I'll cut the fat away later, so this is mostly intended for gaining more muscels, which is my current goal)
Well this has been going great for a long time although during summer vacation my selv discipline kind of fell, but I do know how many calories I need to eat to get more weight on my body, and I do know how many proteins I need for muscle building, I do know how to get a good amount of "the right" fat, and I do know how to get a lot of fibers, not to talk about the vitamins and a high amount of fruit. The only problem is following my diet together with my BB-program, but I'll keep trying!

- Reading more continuerly (My goal is to read the stuff I like every day, except sunday where I'm with my friends )
So until now I really haven't been able to be continuos in my plans, although I know it's what I want, it just seems like if I do one little mistake or get slow at one thing it all fells apart, this is where I've been stuck for a long time, but I really hope it'll improve, although I don't know what to do about it anymore really, my last idea have been to add an error interval to my plans so that I hopefully still will keep going even if something unexpected happens.

- Turning off the computer at 20:30 (This is to be able to be in bed at 21:00-22:00, so I can get those 8-9 hours of sleep every day.)
I've experienced that I kind of loose control around these hours, chatting with people to after midnight etc.

- Get up as soon as I wake up (So I don't sleep to long in the morning)
Well I followed Steve's guide on this one, and I had it! I had it, for a whole week, the longest I've been able to get up early for years, and what happens? I fell back after that week, I still wonder if I just could have holding on the habit for a month or so it would probably have sticked. Well I'll just have to get up on the horse again and continue.

Well these are my short term goals for now, I'll just write them up short again, when these have been altered from wish thinking into being good habits, then I'll move on.

#1 Try to advance in speed reading during reading

#2 Make a habit of a meal lasting 5-15 minutes a day

#3 Get a habit of going to the gym, and following the program I have.

#4 Make a habit of eating what I've written in my diet

#5 Make a habit of reading during the day six days a week

#6 Make a habit of turning of the computer at 20:30

#7 Make a habit of getting up when the alarm clock goes off.

So this is me trying to take control of my life, I hope writing here will help me dealing with these 7 quests, and hopefully in a couple of weeks I can procede on to the next stage of habits.

Thank you for reading and for your help

Regards OBO

[Zukin]

Hi OneByOne - those are all great goals. Best of luck on your progress

[ONEbyONE]

Well hi again. Now about a week has passed and I'll update my log.

But first thank you for your comment Zukin.

So since last time my summer vacation has ended, and I'm back at business, and what a wake up call . I wish I knew why I get so lazy in my vacations .

Now I have never written a log before, so I hope what I write is easy to read.

So for my goals:

Advance in speed reading
Well just before the end of my vacation I tried to use a program I have downloaded. If people wants to know its name I'll gladly post it, if it isn't against the forum rules. To begin with my speed was already a bit faster than usual, I guess it's because I had putted my self up to it, and it was not like reading 90 min. in a row with short stops all the time for notes. Well I got up to around 240 words pr. minute during the 2 hours I practiced, although my comprehension dropped about 10-15% I still think it's the right way to go. Unfortunately I haven't had the time to actual measure my speed during reading in my own books. I guess I'll have to set some sort of arrangement with myself e.g. measuring my reading speed 2-3 times a week, and probably practicing 1-2 times a week with the computer program, for about those 2 hours practice. So it seems like I have a new thing to plot in to my plan . Hopefully there will be a bit more development next time.

Be able to eat faster than now
Well my tactic here has changed to go back to basics, make small portions, if I can eat a lesser portion in the time I want to I can then make the portion a bit smaller and advance slowly but efficient instead of not getting anywhere with to much to eat. This have got a bit better than last, but nothing I can say for sure at this moment.

Start on my bodybuilding program at the fitness center
Well me and my friend, which I think I wrote in the last thread are going to train together, however although the plan was starting last sunday, I had been informed that I could save about 175 danish kroner, or I think about 25 euro, if I waited until at least one day due to a new center opening, which should have had a opening offer. Well it turned out to be false, although it really isn't that bad, nothing positive about it, but if we get a good continuity in training, well one lost session then just lies in the standard deviation that you have to remember. So next wedensday we'll start, and I hope it will be fine. One major bummer however is that his doesn't know all the techniques as of yet, but he expect to learn them soon enough, well at least some training is better than none and we'll probably have to replace some of the exercises for now to get a good full body training.

Follow my diet
This is going a lot better than in the vacation, however I've been a bit unlucky with one of the items on my diet list, well anyway this is one of the things that I know I can eat fast, and not gaining weight the first half weak isn't that bad, however if this continues I really don't know how to solve this problem, not with this food particularly since it can be replaced, but there are other things which can't. And beside I've a very small freezer so I can't just buy a lot when the food can be bought.

Reading more continually
Well I'll get back on this one later, very slight to none improvement as of yet.

Turning off the computer at 20:30
I'll also have to get back on this one later, no improvement as of yet. Really sucks! However when first the habit has been established, the same goes for Reading more continually then I think it'll get a lot easier. Well we'll see, hopefully you wont read about me still having this goal next year.

Get up as soon as I wake up
This was actually going pretty fine until to day ehm, I guess I'll try to update again later, I'll probably try to make some kind of graph of my wake up time in the x-axis, and the date in the y-axis or something. Can graph's be uploaded to this homepage?

Thank you for reading and for your help

Regards OBO

[Livgivare]

If Priority is hard, and everything is started at the same time. And you somehow feel alot of stress. Please take a peak at the 30 Days Trials system!

Love Leelene

PS: Velbekomme til forumet!

[ONEbyONE]

Hi Leelene (Livgivare)

Nice to see you know a bit danish though usually one uses "velkommen" while "velbekomme" is more like when eating a dinner.

I have had the pleasure of reading the article you're referring to, and it's actually the one I used when I tried to learn to get up early. To bad it only lasted a week hehe, but these things I've written down, most of those, meaning
#3 - #7 are very important for my personal acceptance of myself. So these I at least have to make a good habit of at the same time. Especially #5, and #7. So sadly most of the progress has been at #1 and #2. Al though I've had progress, and those are going great I think I probably should shorten my list, since the stuff of higher priority haven't had the progress I require for my self.

Therefore I'll now shorten the list, and number my development plan in number after priority, so the new schedule looks like this:

#1 Reading more continually

#2 Make a habit of getting up when the alarm clock goes off.

#3 Get a habit of going to the gym, and following the program I have.

#4 Make a habit of eating what I've written in my diet

#5 Make a habit of turning of the computer at 20:30

So with the new list in place I'll do as I use, comment on what have happened during the week.

Reading more continually
Well I don't really know how it got to this, again... but it seems like one more week have passed, and yet I haven't made any progress here. Really a bummer I think you call it?
It has been rated #1 due to I'm studying, and I've moved out of my parents home, to the other side of the country, to get this education, and do what I've wanted since I was very young, and still know I want to, so not reading really makes no sense. This especially since I know when I start to read I usually enjoys it a lot.

Make a habit of getting up when the alarm clock goes off
Well it has improved here in the last part of the week, I think if I go to bed early today I'll hopefully be able to get up early again, although it means I won't be able to get any reading done. For my early in bed is between 9 pm and 10 pm.
This has been rated #2 not only because it has some very high social value for me getting at class on time, though in principle it isn't necessary, then however, it's very important due to my daily / weekly planning that I get up in time.

Get a habit of going to the gym, and following the program I have.
More to come, but let's just say the habit seems to be there, or almost at least , this however will probably mostly be updated at a fitness forum. But until then I'll keep updating on this habit here.

So 2 times the first week, and 3 times this week, 5 out of 6 so far.

Make a habit of eating what I've written in my diet
I'd really wish I didn't get so lazy in front of the computer, and the shops had the stuff on my diet, since I try to have a + on the energy balance on about 300 kcal, then it gets really frustrating not getting that last meal that gives 600 kcal's, so I end up on the negative side of the energy balance. One might ask why I just don't buy some other food, well it's because the freezer at the place I live is really small, so there just isn't enough room baah! This then have the effect of making me just wanting to give up on the whole idea, making my time at the gym worthless . Though I'm sure this will get better next week, when they finally get the last part of my diet, else I might have to increase the amount some other places, until then, which I probably am going to do although this will decrease my eating speed.

This subject should probably have been rated higher than going to the gym, but going to the gym also have social aspects that seems to verify that I'm not alone, and without muscle training it's limited how much muscle's will be build when looking at the - fat / non fat - mass gaining during the diet it should be clearly a lot more non fat mass than fat when going at the gym.
So even though, looking beside for the social aspect, going to the gym is pretty much a waste of time if I don't eat enough food to build non fat mass then I still think my #3 - #4 rating seems to fit my desire.

Make a habit of turning of the computer at 20:30
Turning the time over to Copenhagen time zone (+1) you'll probably notice it's 9 pm already you might have guessed this hasn't been going so great the last week, so I've only one thing left to say guys.

Goodnight and see you next week. Thanks for following, it's really nice to have some place to write down what is frustrating me, and having the possibility to get advices from experienced people. Hopefully I'll soon get more progress in my doings.

Regards OBO.

[ONEbyONE]

Hey fellows I'm back again for a short update here in my log.
So I'll just get started:

Reading more continually
Well still no progress here, I really have a hard time getting started with this, which is really bad. It's mainly due to procrastination, meaning that I start on something else than what I should do, like cleaning or something, I guess a lot of you knows about this, from studying.

Make a habit of getting up when the alarm clock goes off
Well this I think has been improved a lot although I have had some troubles getting in bed early enough and further more it didn't went that good today, although this seems a bit more bright, and when I find out how I'll probably come with a graph, or maybe just a data set, where you can see the improvement.

Get a habit of going to the gym, and following the program I have.
This is still going strong although interruption happens and then I haven't been able to go there myself, but I'm sure this is just getting better and better, and I guess I'll be able to remove it in about 6 weeks or so.

Make a habit of eating what I've written in my diet
This is also going a lot better, I still haven't been able to get what I usually want, so today I decided to buy something else, luckily there was room in my refrigerator. I'm really excited of the progress that has happened here during the last couple of days.

Make a habit of turning of the computer at 20:30
Well I've started on making a data set of when I turn off the computer, as it seems for now I have improved, but there's still a long way to go, if you know my time zone (Denmark) you will also know that I'll turn of in about 5 minutes, so I'll remember to write goodnight in the end.

So that's all for now, I'm sure that if I don't slip, and fail completely when I travel home again, and if I just can start to read, at least on the same basis as I did in high school / college (only reading the absolute necessary) then I'm sure with all the time I've set off for reading I'll by myself read more, and thereby progress. I've realized that it's stupid to put to high expectations on one self, especially since when one doesn't live up to ones expectations one's ambition in the subject will usually drop exponentially to zero. That's my current experience.

I hope you've enjoyed reading, see you next week for another update.

Goodnight.

Regards OBO

[Joel Chue]

You are progressing well.
Keep up the good work

[Livgivare]

Ah, I know very little Danish, but I know very much of Norwegian. So I assume that I understand Danish really good, but have a bit of rough time with Danish as all other Swedish people. But I try my best.

Good to see the progress!

Love Leelene

[ONEbyONE]

Hi Livgivare, hi Joel Chue.

I couldn't resist taking a lurk on the site hehe.

Thanks for the comments to both of you, it means a lot

I'll surely keep going, and I have a feeling that this week will be even better than those before.

Have a nice weekend everyone.

Regards OBO.

[ONEbyONE]

Hi again everyone.

So back to the weekly update in the log.

Reading more continually
Only a little progress here, I don't know how come I completely by myself prioritize this so low.

Make a habit of getting up when the alarm clock goes off
Unfortunately after my post last Friday I haven't been able to go to bed very early, so setting the alarm clock to the usual time didn't seem like such a good idea. But I've written down how it has been doing over the last week, and as you can see:
18-sep 11:35
20-sep 13:35
21-sep 06:04
22-sep 09:44
23-sep 10:15
26-sep 06:01
It hasn't been that good, but compared to the time I've went to bed I think it's progressing very well actually, because only 18-sep and 20-sep I wasn't able to get up when the alarm rang, 23-sep is due to me going to sleep very late, as you'll see later in this post. So I'm positive about progress, and soon continuity here, although when I've written this before, as it seems, it has only gone down hill after that for most of my subjects.

Get a habit of going to the gym, and following the program I have.
This is still going great, this Friday I know I won't be able to go, but I'm certain that soon I won't have to post about this anymore.

Make a habit of eating what I've written in my diet
This is also going pretty well, I've as written in the last post of mine, being able to get just about all that I need, just substituting one item on the food list with another. Although during the weekend I again for the 5th time in a row went down, and ended with one more lousy weekend, well then I still managed to get a lot of food, and my weight progress seems to be going fine.

Make a habit of turning off the computer at 20:30
Well let's just jump right out in it, so here's the list:
18-09-2007 23:07
20-09-2007 20:36
21-09-2007 20:25
22-09-2007 04:52
23-09-2007 01:10
24-09-2007 02:59
25-09-2007 22:30
As you can see this is quite unacceptable, I've allowed myself of a +5 min. lateness in many things, or even +10 min., but not more then I atleast end up in bed at 23:00, after I turn off the computer there goes about 45-60 minutes before I'm in bed, so the absolute latest acceptable time, would be 22:15, and then I should be pretty quick with my evening habits.
So 20-sep and 21-sep are acceptable, if you compare to the time I got up in the morning you'd see some dependence given that 18. - and 20. sep. was off days.
I still expect this should go better, after all it should be the easiest of tasks on my list. I really don't hope that gives a measure of my willpower.

So all in all a pretty usual week compared to the others, 2 subjects are going well, 2 aren't at all, and 1 is half/half, as you can see this wasn't the super week I personally had hoped for that would make everything as I'd like them to be, but I'm positive if I just keep on hanging in there, then it'll get better.

Regards OBO

[ONEbyONE]

It's time for the weekly update.

Reading more continually
Still no progress here. Due to failure in progress in this subject I'm certainly due to take a "break" in other subjects just so I can kick my self until I start with this. Or to say it in other ways, I'll probably have to isolate myself, meaning dropping gym, and a part of the diet, for some time, most likely 3 weeks or so.

Make a habit of getting up when the alarm clock goes off
First statistics for this week:
26-sep 06:01
27-sep 06:02
28-sep 10:20
29-sep 10:05
30-sep 06:50
01-okt 06:50
02-okt 08:25

As you can see a clear progress. The days where I got up at about 10 am was the days where I was home for the weekend. So there's still some room for improvement here at my colleague (the place where I stay when I'm studying), and a lot of room for improvement at home.

Get a habit of going to the gym, and following the program I have.
Well as I think I wrote, I didn't got myself together and went to the gym when I was home, but I'm still in good control here where I study, I think only once or twice I've missed the training over here. So it's going fine. The sad part however, as just mentioned, is that I probably will have a 3 weeks brake. As I've known for a long time now, if you aren't satisfied with one part of your life then the other parts of your life will take damage. However I've a plan of how I'll maintain at least a bit for my training. Hopefully it won't remove any focus.

Make a habit of eating what I've written in my diet
This is going great, although yesterday was very bad, due to insects here in my colleague, so I wasn't able to eat anything in a long time. I didn't get that much food yesterday, but today I have eaten everything except one meal that I'll eat when I turn off the computer. Unfortunately I'll have to cut back on my weight gain due to the stop in training since I want my body to focus as much as possible on building muscles. So I'll probably eat just about my energy balance level.

Make a habit of turning off the computer at 20:30
Well this was going fine until yesterday, and if one of my friends hadn't started writing at msn, and I got reminded that I had two logs to update (the other one being my training log) I would have turned the computer off at 20:37. Btw. here are some statistics:
26-09-2007 20:35
27-09-2007 20:30
28-09-2007 20:40
29-09-2007 21:09
30-09-2007
01-10-2007 23:00

As most of you guys have written already the progress seems to go well, unfortunately #1, the reading part, are probably going to set me about 3 weeks back. Things like these makes me very sad, but at least I know I'm progressing which makes it all worth, hopefully my speed in my speed in progress will also progress, or to say it a bit simpler, I'll hopefully accelerate in progressing speed a bit more. Or a lot.

Regards OBO

[ONEbyONE]

So last week was pretty good, well this week was horribly.

Reading more continually
No progress

Make a habit of getting up when the alarm clock goes off
I had this, but I have gone to bed so late lately and it's has become pretty cold, so it seems like I've to train this again a bit. I haven't even registered the times I have got up, but it's has been very bad indeed.

Get a habit of going to the gym, and following the program I have.
Well this went pretty well, but now the next couple of weeks, as already mentioned, this will not improve.

Make a habit of eating what I've written in my diet
This has also not gone that great the last week. So no update on this one.

Make a habit of turning off the computer at 20:30
Well this has been going awful as well, so really bummer I guess.

So a horrible week, but a week just as well as any other week that requires to be updated, unfortunately I haven't been able to register times due to the tiredness I have felt, but I do know this has been one lousy week.

Regards OBO

[ONEbyONE]

Compared to what I've shown you guys you would probably say this week was fenominal, compared to others it was probably about average. I guess.

Reading more continually
Some progress. No comments though as of yet.

Make a habit of getting up when the alarm clock goes off
Switching on and off, but progress.

Make a habit of eating what I've written in my diet
Going fine, though no progress, soon it won't be up here anymore I hope.

Make a habit of turning off the computer at 20:30
Progress

So an average week, if my lowest standard wasn't so bad I'd probably be pretty joyful now, but as I can read back through my log this can be all the oposite next week, so I'm not going to get into any kind of happy mood due to some progress at the moment.

Goodnight folks

Regards OBO

[ONEbyONE]

So another week have passed. I'd wish that time didn't go this fast. Well here's my update for this week:

Reading more continually
It's still very hard, but a little progress at least.

Make a habit of getting up when the alarm clock goes off
It seems like I'm in a period where I need more sleep, I've got up late lately. At least it's in the vacation, but I'm really not satisfied, maybe I should go earlier in bed, though I usually get those 8 hours of sleep. There's no statistics atm. due to that computer not being on the internet.

Make a habit of eating what I've written in my diet
I can only say what I said last:
Going fine, though no progress, soon it won't be up here anymore I hope.

Make a habit of turning off the computer at 20:30
Still getting better though it seems like in some way I really don't respect my own wishes.

There's progress, but I think it's to slow atm., but I do the best I can, and I'll probably just have to keep trying.

Thanks for reading.

Regards OBO

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Keep your motivation up. You can accomplish all of your goals!

[ONEbyONE]

Thank you for your motivation comment {aspiring_to_clarity}

This won't be an update, I'm actually progressing pretty well at the moment, but I haven't had the possibility to go online and make an update lately. I will soon be back together with you guys.

Cheers ^^ from OBO

[ONEbyONE]

Hey all. Long time have passed, and it's hard for me to believe that I started this log back in august. In a way it seems like a long time ago, and in another it doesn't, pretty much depending on which way I look at it. One thing I know for sure, however, is that I've come a long way since I started.

I've had some considerations, and I'm not going to share what I've actually thought, just what I'm going to do now. Doing the next several days I'm going to try a new approach of training continuity. Ten days to be precise. (If I can count so far with precision )

However I'm not going to go through the usual stuff, that I usually post about, in stead of I'm going to do EVEN smaller tasks. Though many.
Here's the list:

Maximum 15 minutes pr. unplanned break, in five minutes intervals
Well I think I've mentioned this several times, so why not one more, I'm simply not good at "stop" doing things eventhough they at some point stops making sence.
As an example if I'm waiting for my anti virus program to end (5 minutes), then I'll might go on the internet, for hours, just to realize suddenly that I've wasted a lot of time.
So I'll try to set my alarm on the cell phone to 5 minutes for each time I take a break, and if it rings the third time, I'll just have to shut down all applications, of course unless it's actually something important which really isn't very plausible. (Though I usually have a tendency of finding good reasons at the spot, you know, like when you have a hard time getting up in the morning. )

(10 - number of fail days 0)

I'll take a break from magazines and news papers
Well I've actually done this for quit some time now, and it's simply because I really don't find what newspapers have to say interesting, because it's often some journalist who wants to make me aware of all the bad that is happening in the world, and it's like I see this label everytime I see a newpaper "things that will make you sad, irrelevant sport, not funny cartoons", so for me, newspaper doesn't bring any positive. I guess a lot of you might disagree on this one.
About magazines, well when I get impatient, like with the anti virus example in the last section, then I'll usually start doing something to get occupied, and if it's anything that I can get "locked" in, then I'll usually use to much of my time by doing this. This includes computer games, surfing the internet (especially forums, though many other "non-forum" are also pretty bad), and the finally magazines.

(10 - number of fail days 0)

I'll take a break from the internet in generel (with the exception of my logs which I've a planned period of time for, and for the homepages that is required for my studies)
Well by now this should be pretty obvious why this one is here

(10 - number of fail days 0)

I'll take a break from computer games
And also this one should be pretty obvious.

(10 - number of fail days 0)

I'll not spend more time on making my plan than actually following it
Well I wrote quite a lot to this one, but it's just like I couldn't express myself very good, maybe I actually don't know what I mean by this one, but anyway to say it short, I'll only make plans in the periods I've planned for making plans .

(10 - number of fail days 0)

I'll follow my plan
Usually when I'm finished with my plan, then I tend to have a relief, like I've done something important for myself, and it was that, though I actually had just placed my self at ground zero (finishing the plan) and then it happens I don't get far because I don't follow the plan.

(10 - number of fail days 0)

I'll not plan what is unnecessary
I do all of this because I've some goals I want to achieve. I've ordered my goals in a lot of ranks, where lower ranked goals are needed for higher ranked goals, as an example:
You need to eat well, to gain weight, you need to gain weight, and train to gain muscle mass, for most people. I need to gain muscle mass to become more handsome (in my own optic of course), and more self confident (which is an issue I won't write about here, before I get to that goal).
Now for the reason of the goal, sometimes I tend to plan a lot of useless stuff, which really doesn't help me achieve any of the higher ranked goals, but it seems productive while I'm making my plans.
You could compare it to what I'm doing now actually, if I don't follow up with updates doing the next ten days, all this will be a "false productivity" or a plan of unnecessary things. So are all these things actually necessary at all? Probably a lot of these aren't, since I'll keep on doing some of them after the ten day period, this is most of all to get some continuity.

(10 - number of fail days 0)

Don't use to much money by the cell phone
This I won't give an explenation, and I think it'll pretty much complete it self.

(10 - number of fail days 0)

All of these are inspiration from the internet. For some reason I often read what other people writes on the internet in a desperate hope of randomly finding something that will give me the "AHA" feeling, and will reveal how I actually was lucky that I didn't follow my plans, because of something, or how to actually take a short cut through all my plans to achieve the two highest ranked goals. This is a waste of time, and though I believe in the sentence, that "If you want to be sure something gets done, you'll have to do it yourself" then I still find myself trying to get the "answer" by randommingly throwing a rod in the water. So when this 10 days trial are over, I really hope I'll stop trying to look for the "answer" by luck, and in stead of by hard work and honesty, second I hope I'll have some more continuity in what I do, so it'll be more of a habit for me to follow my plans.

Last if you wonder what about my other goals I'll for short notice that those that where going great are going a little worse, those that where going bad are going a lot better, and those that was in between are going a bit worse. So they're pretty much at some kind of average I guess you could say.


Regards OBO

[ONEbyONE]

So I planned to start early to keep my motivation up. Though I got disturbed in my sleep last night because of someone who decided to party out door, so I got up late, means I had to chance some of my plans. But it's okay, it's the continuity I'm after right now.

Maximum 15 minutes pr. unplanned break, in five minutes intervals
I have followed this so far, without any problems.

(9 - number of fail days 0)

I'll take a break from magazines and news papers
This hasn't been a problem either, mainly because it's weekend, so I really haven't been temped either, but I'm sure it'll go fine anyhow.

(9 - number of fail days 0)

I'll take a break from the internet in generel (with the exception of my logs which I've a planned period of time for, and for the homepages that is required for my studies)
As I've stated I've a bad habit of visiting some particular forums, that I find amusing for a short period of time, and then keep staying there for a long period of time. I was close to do the same yesterday, just when I had to turn my computer off, but then I quickly thought of all the effort I had put into this, and closed the computer ASAP.

(9 - number of fail days 0)

I'll take a break from computer games
Well, this is going fine to.

(9 - number of fail days 0)

I'll not spend more time on making my plan than actually following it
And I haven't, AFAIK, though you might plan things uncontionesly, that I don't know.

(9 - number of fail days 0)

I'll follow my plan
I did that last evening, and I'm doing it now, though the day are far from over, I'm sure it'll be fine.

(9 - number of fail days 0)

I'll not plan what is unnecessary
I'm pretty sure, that what I'm doing now is a good practise, though I of course can't be sure, I'll take it for something necessary.

(9 - number of fail days 0)

Don't use to much money by the cell phone
And I haven't, beside it's mostly in the kind of situation where a friend writes me a message, what I'd like to be able to, is to answer him once, and then it should be the end of the sms messaging. In stead of I've pretty often experienced that it ended with something like 5 messages, that I'm sure could be done in 1.

(9 - number of fail days 0)

As you probably have noticed, I'm a bit concerned if this actually is something necessary. Though I haven't had much succes, I know that shooting randomly in the air, hoping to shoot a star down, is pretty much the same as giving up. My main argument of course are the continuity I whould get from this exercise, but if you look at what I'm actually doing, that is "not" doing something, so I could just as well, for every part, except the "follow my plan part" sit on a chair all day doing nothing. So the "follow my plan" part are simply the most important part, and I'm a bit worry that it's to "big" for me to handle. I mean to be honest, I had a hard time following my last 5 parts, and all of them are included in "follow my plan", but let's see, I hope that updating every day will make the difference. Maybe I should update several times a day, if I feel the need for it, I guess I'll. Though it'll only be fore the 10 days, otherwise this homepage will probably end up to be "just another forum issue" which I don't want.

Have a good day.

Regards OBO

[ONEbyONE]

Well it went pretty much as I had expected, so for a quick update.

Maximum 15 minutes pr. unplanned break, in five minutes intervals
It was very hard to close everything the last time the clock rang, but it didn't go to bad.

(8 - number of fail days 0)

I'll take a break from magazines and news papers
Still no challenge since there hasn't been anything challenging me on this one.

(8 - number of fail days 0)

I'll take a break from the internet in generel (with the exception of my logs which I've a planned period of time for, and for the homepages that is required for my studies)
Well this has also went pretty well, though I feel the abs. I guess one or two failed days might not be as bad again?

(8 - number of fail days 0)

I'll take a break from computer games
This has also gone well.

(8 - number of fail days 0)

I'll not spend more time on making my plan than actually following it
Which I haven't, though I didn't follow my plan that much yesterday.

(8 - number of fail days 0)

I'll follow my plan
This didn't went so well, as I pretty much expected it was to big, but I'll let it be here for the next 8 days

(9 - number of fail days 1)

I'll not plan what is unnecessary
Which I still don't think I have done during the last couple of days.

(8 - number of fail days 0)

Don't use to much money by the cell phone
And I haven't, though I got a chock when I checked the saldo and compared to what I'd expected. Maybe I've got the prices wrong, but I actually fear that I sometimes forget to set the "lock" on, so it might make a random call for hours or something similar, I know I once experienced that it was on 50 minutes, just because I had forgotten to put the "lock" on in the train, but the silencer was on though, haha.

(8 - number of fail days 0)

Well let's see how well it goes tomorrow. Cheers.

Regards OBO

[ONEbyONE]

So it has got a bit late, and this day didn't turn out exactly what I hoped it would, oh well, let's get going.

Maximum 15 minutes pr. unplanned break, in five minutes intervals
Well I had the whole day planned, but I was just to tired when I got back home, just after I eat I couldn't resist the temptation of the internet, and I guess I sat there something like 1½ hour.

(8 - number of fail days 1)

I'll take a break from magazines and news papers
Kein problem.

(7 - number of fail days 0)

I'll take a break from the internet in generel (with the exception of my logs which I've a planned period of time for, and for the homepages that is required for my studies)
As mentioned this didn't went that well.

(8 - number of fail days 1)

I'll take a break from computer games
Well I've had one failed day actually, I'll better note it, though it somehow got lost in the time interval between early sunday and late monday.

(8 - number of fail days 1)

I'll not spend more time on making my plan than actually following it
And I don't think I've done that.

(7 - number of fail days 0)

I'll follow my plan
Which I once again wasn't able to (though almost!)

(9 - number of fail days 2)

I'll not plan what is unnecessary
And I don't think I have done this either.

(7 - number of fail days 0)

Don't use to much money by the cell phone
Which I haven't done.

(7 - number of fail days 0)

So if I compare with where I was before I started this I can see that I struggle the places I'd expect, and the places that were going fine before are still going fine. So I'll just have to get a grip I think.

Regards OBO

[eblight]

I wish you well with your goals. You're only young so if you are changing habits make them the sort of habits that will benefit you all your life. You have asked for feedback so here are some ideas. When you eat, for example just eat and stay focused on the food, and enjoying it. Eat slowly and don't have other distractions around you like reading at the same time or watching TV. The same goes for your other activities. Even if you only do them for a short time stay focused on just that one activity. Keep your goals within reach and if you don't always live up to your own expectations avoid beating yourself up about that. You have lots of time to change and it seems that you have wonderful aspirations. Don't forget to have fun.

[ONEbyONE]

Hi eblight, it's nice to see a message in the log, and I must say that your message gave my day some momentum, and I thank you for that. I was rather down when I logged on this morning to make an early report in the hope that it'd boost my day, but after I read what you wrote I felt I could do without. It did turn out to be a very good day, though I wasn't as fast as I hoped in the many subjects, and though I had to skip some things for more important things, I'd say that this day was very good.

Maximum 15 minutes pr. unplanned break, in five minutes intervals
Well did went well, and was pretty easy, I really didn't need to many breaks today.

(7 - number of fail days 1)

I'll take a break from magazines and news papers
No problem, no temptation today.

(6 - number of fail days 0)

I'll take a break from the internet in generel (with the exception of my logs which I've a planned period of time for, and for the homepages that is required for my studies)
This one did also go rather well, beside for the early morning, though I'm not going to count that in this time, since I think it'd give a false view.

(7 - number of fail days 1)

I'll take a break from computer games
No problems atm.

(7 - number of fail days 1)

I'll not spend more time on making my plan than actually following it
And I haven't, it did go rather well today, and I did also get one point I didn't expect, see below.

(6 - number of fail days 0)

I'll follow my plan
Which I did, not to perfection (heh - nothing I go for anyway, I always plan with a long margin for failing.) but to satisfaction.

(8 - number of fail days 2)

I'll not plan what is unnecessary
Which I haven't. Now I'm even more certain about this thing I'm doing atm., which will not be for much longer though, but I'm getting even better results than I hoped for, though I'd say the weekend did set me back.

(6 - number of fail days 0)

Don't use to much money by the cell phone
Which I haven't.

(6 - number of fail days 0)

So all in all it's going much greater than I thought by looking here, maybe I'm just that type of person who has a bad mood, eventhough I didn't knew this if it's the case, maybe it's just the winther here at the nothern hemisphere.

Regards OBO

[ONEbyONE]

So eventhough it hasn't been planned, it isn't a chock for me that I'm going to be awake for a long time tonight, because I already knew this wedensday. This is due to an assignment that I didn't got finished tuesday, and it has to be done for tomorrow, so I'll have to make the last on to it, and make it acceptable by my own standards, and of course the standard of the course that I follow. So I'm a bit tired while I write this.

Maximum 15 minutes pr. unplanned break, in five minutes intervals
Well not much to take a break from, though it got a close call once, I'd say it's done to acceptance.

(6 - number of fail days 1)

I'll take a break from magazines and news papers
Which I have done, I was also lucky today, from tomorrow and forward this one will be much much harder, and realistic seen, I expect at least one failed day. Though let's see, because on the other hand, I could just as well not do this if I was certain of this.

(5 - number of fail days 0)

I'll take a break from the internet in generel (with the exception of my logs which I've a planned period of time for, and for the homepages that is required for my studies)
Ohh, I couldn't resist, the urge, the urge!!! Bah

Funny how I find lots of rational arguments why not to do, and I only find it as a kind of lust to do, and still the lust most often wins over the will in my case, hopefully with time I'll get have a stronger psyche.

(7 - number of fail days 2)

I'll take a break from computer games
No temptation, no problem. Only when it's possible to do, the lust shows of doing shows, hmm maybe it has something to do with some kind of impatience that arise when I'm stimulated by the substance that stores in the brain, while one sits at a computer. Maybe I'm just making some random guess with no clue of how wrong I am, well never the less I hope that eventhough my conscience don't know how to fix a problem, then maybe my subconscience will. Hmm all of this should actually be in the epilouge, I'll better get moving.

(6 - number of fail days 1)

I'll not spend more time on making my plan than actually following it
Which I haven't.

(5 - number of fail days 0)

I'll follow my plan
Which I did today, though not exactly, but inside a range of uncertainity that I can accept.

(7 - number of fail days 2)

I'll not plan what is unnecessary
Which I haven't, or atleats I don't think I've. More or less we all make some small plans all the time that we didn't think about just a couple of days ago would be something important, nevertheless I don't think any of those kind of plans I've made have been in vain so far.

(5 - number of fail days 0)

Don't use to much money by the cell phone
Which I haven't, by my own standards of course.

(5 - number of fail days 0)

First of all I'd like to note that I can't believe that #3 and #6 are equal atm., in some sence, though nothing that I rational can argument for, then I do believe that #3 is one of the strongest reason why #6 fails. (Where #6 been I'll follow my plan, and #3 been that I'll drastically limit my use of the internet). I think that my next step will be, if following my original plan still gives me trouble after this, will be to try steve's approach and give a whole *freaking* (sorry for the bad langauge) month "away" for try to get rid of this nasty habit. Now considering what I mentioned under subject #4 (taking a break from comp. games) then I'll try to work a bit on what I think is going on, because generally I'm a very patient person, who can sit still for a long time, and I'm able to control and stop floods of thoughts by will, but this doesn't seem to apply when I get exposed to computers, so I'll try to control my imapatience in front of the computer, by just sitting and waiting for the slow internet to work, hehe.

This has been written without grammer correction, and with only a little of logical building in the context, so it'll maybe be hard to read, for that I'm sorry, but I'll have to get going now, thanks for your support. Cheers.

Regards OBO

[ONEbyONE]

So a lot of time have passed. Although I'd planned to make one more update during the weekend, but I didn't made it in time, so you'll get a little time jump(?) now.

Maximum 15 minutes pr. unplanned break, in five minutes intervals
Well this didn't go that well during the weekend, though for the first day it went well, so:

(5 - number of fail days 3)

I'll take a break from magazines and news papers
Which I did all days except one, where there were some old magazines I found, and I couldn't resist reading those. To bad, but atleast it's just one time.

(3 - number of fail days 1)

I'll take a break from the internet in generel (with the exception of my logs which I've a planned period of time for, and for the homepages that is required for my studies)
This one was hard, but I think I managed pretty well most of the time.

(5 - number of fail days 3)

I'll take a break from computer games
Which I did every day except one (which also was the magazine day, heh a pretty lousy day I guess, though I even didn't notice.

(4 - number of fail days 2)

I'll not spend more time on making my plan than actually following it
Which I haven't.

(2 - number of fail days 0)

I'll follow my plan
Which I did some of the time, but not most, but still with a pretty decent amount of succes.

(5 - number of fail days 3)

I'll not plan what is unnecessary
Which I still think I haven't.

(2 - number of fail days 0)

Don't use to much money by the cell phone
Which I haven't, though I've noticed that the saldo service seems to cost money too, and it's actually the thing that seems to have costed most money. Still there's something I really can't figure out, money that comes in, like I'd have made a phone call, which I pretty much never do, and haven't done for a long time now, maybe it's about time to get independant of the cell phone.

(2 - number of fail days 0)

This was just a quick update to say, all in all, it's going fine. I'll now get some reading done, and I wish you the best.

Regards OBO

[ONEbyONE]

So it seems like I forgot all about my log yesterday, though I was sure I'd made some updates, well how embarrasing.

So as mentioned before, from today I'll follow Steve's article where you write down everything you do in the day to get some overview of my progress, and where I'm to slow.

Maximum 15 minutes pr. unplanned break, in five minutes intervals
Well that went quite well yesterday, to satisfaction that is.

(4 - number of fail days 3)

I'll take a break from magazines and news papers
Which I did.

(2 - number of fail days 1)

I'll take a break from the internet in generel (with the exception of my logs which I've a planned period of time for, and for the homepages that is required for my studies)
And I did also do this.

(4 - number of fail days 3)

I'll take a break from computer games
Which I have done.

(3 - number of fail days 2)

I'll not spend more time on making my plan than actually following it
And I haven't.

(1 - number of fail days 0)

I'll follow my plan
Which I did to satisfaction yesterday, though I didn't get so much reading done which was kind of a bummer. I don't know why it's always so hard to get started, but when I start it goes as easy as when the king cuts the black knights arm of in Monthy Python's "Search of the Holy Grail".

(4 - number of fail days 3)

I'll not plan what is unnecessary
Which I don't think I have.

(1 - number of fail days 0)

Don't use to much money by the cell phone
And I haven't. I'm aiming at 240 kr. pr. year, which is about 40 dollars in the 1:6 correlation.

(1 - number of fail days 0)

So today is the last day of my log for logging continuity. I think that so far it has went well, though maybe another time it'd be better to take even less days and then maybe prolong the time during the logging if I've succes, since I feel that the achieveness has got up in the last days of the log, which I'd hoped would have been on the same, relative high, level every day.

So after tomorrow I'll start with the weekly log again, looking like this:

Reading more continually

Make a habit of getting up when the alarm clock goes off

Get a habit of going to the gym, and following the program I have.

Make a habit of eating what I've written in my diet

Make a habit of turning off the computer at 20:30

Regards OBO

[VacMan]

ONEbyONE,

Glad your updating this!

Seems like your focusing on the fail days, maybe I'm being too detail oriented, but maybe you could frame your days in:

Success 3 out of 4 days.

Instead of Fail days 1 out of 4.

Just a thought

[ONEbyONE]

Hi VacMan, thank you for your post .

The counting system I'm using when I update how my progress are going is a bit random, since it's just how I thought I'd make it, but maybe I should also write the number of succes days . Since the number of succes days will be 10 minus the number of failue days hehe .

As for now this will be the last day of my effort for more continuity (logging every day), and I must say that the last two days went extremely well, though the ending of yesterday got a bit, what do you say, messy. I had a project I'd to finish, which took way more time than it should. On the other hand I did pretty much do all I wanted to do.

Maximum 15 minutes pr. unplanned break, in five minutes intervals
No problem here.
The major problem with this one, is, that it doesn't tell how much more than 15 minutes of "wasted" time, that there was in the fail days. I know one, or two of the days that really went horrible. I'm talking about hours here, where I sat at the computer, just wasting time. Though I must say that the number of succes days have really improved compared to just some months ago, and since I did also have a rather high succes the last couple of days with staying away from activities where I can't control myself, well then I do believe that days like I just described won't be nearly as often anymore. (Phew long sentence, I guess I could use an english grammar course.)
(number of succes days 7 - number of fail days 3)

I'll take a break from magazines and news papers
Which wasn't so hard. I hope I'll be able to manage this as well in the future.

(number of succes days 9 - number of fail days 1)

I'll take a break from the internet in generel (with the exception of my logs which I've a planned period of time for, and for the homepages that is required for my studies)
Which I did, though it was really though to do it for two days in a row, I somehow feel that maybe now I've got that momentum I needed to continue with this.

(number of succes days 7 - number of fail days 3)

I'll take a break from computer games
Which I did, though there are some games I keep thinking about, that I've played recently, and I've a hard time getting out of my heard. I've been wondering, a bit, about a way of letting a "happy" thought go so when I maybe some day play the game, it isn't because I can't control myself, but rather because it's something I want, and it doesn't ruin anything that I also want. Well I guess it's always hard when your lust for something are working against the things you really want.

(number of succes days 8 - number of fail days 2)

I'll not spend more time on making my plan than actually following it
Which I haven't done.

(number of succes days 10 - number of fail days 0)

I'll follow my plan
Which I did almost to perfectum yesterday. When I say perfect now, I don't mean perfect like it couldn't be any better, I mean perfect because I was inside pretty much every error bound in duration of my activities. So to say I didn't end up using 2 hours on eating something, or I didn't took forever at some routines, it went pretty smooth all the way, until the last project, but at that time I'd done most of the things I'd planned for the day, and it's something I'm very happy about. Probably the best day in years, "laughing out loud" I do hope I'll continue this "winning" streak.

(number of succes days 7 - number of fail days 3)

I'll not plan what is unnecessary
I think I got a lot out of this, especially the last couple of days went very well!

(number of succes days 10 - number of fail days 0)

Don't use to much money by the cell phone
Which I haven't done.

(number of succes days 10 - number of fail days 0)

So from now on I'll start updating once a week again. I'll go back to the previous loggings, but now I think I'll have much more succes in these. I'll update every saturday.

Thanks for reading.

I wish you all the best.

Regards OBO

[ONEbyONE]

I haven't had very much time lately, mostly due to that I have wasted a lot of fridays in the last couple of weeks, and I've over scheduled saturday and sunday, so I'm just quick in for noting this.

[elastigirl]

keep moving forward

[ONEbyONE]

Thanks for you post elastigirl :-).

So today I got up very late, though I didn't have any meetings or anything, it kind of pushed the whole day, and for some reason, then everytime I've tried to "push" my day, it's always failed. I don't know if any of you guys have some advice for what to do when you get less hours in the day than what you expect? I do try to prioritize, but it just doesn't seem to help much, except I get the most important things done.

Reading more continually
Well in the 2 weeks I didn't update it was going forward, but now it has gone a bit backward, I hope it won't be for long before I'm back on track here.

Make a habit of getting up when the alarm clock goes off
This hasn't gone well the last couple of weeks, I guess it's because of the winter darkness, though I try to set my alarm to the same time every day, and I excersize getting up, it's just like I never hear the alarm. From tomorrow though I'll have an even louder alarm, I hope that if I do wake up I'll be able to get up also.

Get a habit of going to the gym, and following the program I have.
Well I haven't gone for some time now, though I'm positive I'll be able to when I get my training buddy back, we have both been in a hurry lately.

Make a habit of eating what I've written in my diet
Which I think is going well. Or sort of well at least, not ready for the next step, but it has come a long way.

Make a habit of turning off the computer at 20:30
Which I have done the last couple of days, except today, though in the weeks before this one, I usually sat up late, because of work that had to be done, and I couldn't take me together to make the work during the day where I had set time for it.

So all in all it isn't better than last time, actually worse, but I'm sure that the next week will be much better, I guess I needed to update in here, it really keeps my motivated since in my daily life I can really easily loose the big picture, where this log helps a lot.

Regards OBO