What do you use to manage your 30-day trials?

[Bruce Achterberg]

Hey guys,

Short version:

I'm yet to post the 30 day trials I'm doing for January 2008, but suffice to say that all 4 of them revolve around improving my health/physical body.

What I'm interested in, however, is what you (ie. Steve + the other people participating in the 30 day trials) use to manage your trials. Ie. What documents do you use, if any?

Long version:

To be a bit more specific, do you just use a paper calendar and cross it off as you go? Do you use certain software? Do you just wing it and remember what day you started on and what day you will finish? Do you keep any logs, and if so, what type of data do you record and what format do you use?

If you'd like to, I'd really appreciate it if you could share some specific details (ie. maybe posting a sample of whatever it is you use). It's obvious that different trials will have different requirements (eg. Steve's raw foodist trial must require a lot of data logging/maintenance when you compare it to, say, giving up drinking coffee), but I think a lot of the ideas from specific implementations of whatever system you use will be universally applicable.

I've personally tried creating little calendars for trials I've done in the past, but I largely found I didn't need them. I'm able to retain my commitment just fine if I make sure I covered any important things I need to factor in before I start the trial.

I also use to rate my performance on a scale of 1-10, but then I realised that with 30 day trials, either you met your requirement for a day, or you didn't, so a rating isn't required.

That said, I do see that there could be certain benefits to using logs, possibly recording info, etc (benefits such as accountability, useful records that you can use later, etc), and so long as it doesn't take excessive amounts of time to maintain, I'm open to trying out some ideas and I'm particularly interested in hearing what other people do (especially Steve, since Steve is crazy efficient and tends to have really good systems).

I could have sworn Steve said something about using a calendar and crossing days off in his blog, but I think I might have confused it with some other ideas/articles (specifically, this post and this article). I've searched through the other blog posts Steve made on the topic of 30 day trials (including the comments), but I didn't find anything other then someone mentioning that they use a calendar (an idea I've already tried myself).

Thanks to all who share their ideas! I'll be sure to share any I manage to come up with.

[Bruce Achterberg]

It's a long story, but suffice to say that I originally had the above post in another thread, but I've since made that post into it's own thread to keep the thread it was originally in on-topic.

Kaspian and Tobias have already responded to this post in another thread (thanks, guys!). I quoted both of their posts below.

___________________________________

Kaspian said:

Bruce,

I've been using a spreadsheet with the days of the week in the first column and days of the month in the second column. Each goal has its own column after that. For goals that can be measured with a simple, "Yes, I did it," or "No, I didn't," 1 is yes, and 0 is no. At the bottom of the column, I can tally the number of yeses at the end of the month. Some of the goals I set were time-based—things like, "Do 4 hours of yard work per week." For that kind of goal, I recorded the number of hours spent per day rounded to the nearest quarter-hour.

Tobias Zimpel said:

I just put together a notes template on my PDA, that has 30 "bubbles" on top that I mark off every day:

xx-xooo
ooooooo
ooo...

I think you get the idea. Under that, there is a detailed description on what I want to do, what I consider a success, the benefits of reaching my goals, and maybe some additional reward that I put up if the "natural" benefits of success are not enough to motivate me.

However, a friend of mine uses Click Here to Rename Your Seinfeldian Chain | smarterfitter.com to visualize his success and motivate himself to follow through on it. It follows basically the same principle, but is more visually appealing that a .txt on a 3-inch display :-)

[wulph]

When I did a 30-day Vegan trial, I simply kept my target date in mind with a perceived reward: "On June Xth, I'm going to Fuddrucker's for the most delicious greasy hamburger ever."

Although I'm back on an omnivorous diet now, I continued with the Vegan diet for a couple additional weeks, and I still haven't claimed my "victory burger."

When I did 30 days of going to the gym daily, I started on the first day of a month, so it was easy to remember. I didn't keep any logs of my progress.

On my current trial, consistently getting up at 5:00 am, shower/shave/make the bed right away each morning, and write in a daily journal for at least 15 minutes, I again started at the beginning of a month, plus I'll have journal logs of each success and stumble.

Hope this helps!

[greyman]

Originally Posted by Bruce Achterberg

I've personally tried creating little calendars for trials I've done in the past, but I largely found I didn't need them. I'm able to retain my commitment just fine if I make sure I covered any important things I need to factor in before I start the trial.

This is my experience as well. I just keep the actual day number in my head, and that's it. The minimalist's approach. ;-)

What is your experience with the 30-day limit? I found out that in some cases 30 days is not enough. Sometimes, I can withdraw from some bad habit for months, and still not rid myself off of them.

[seeker5]

Originally Posted by Bruce Achterberg

Hey guys,

Short version:

I'm yet to post the 30 day trials I'm doing for January 2008, but suffice to say that all 4 of them revolve around improving my health/physical body.

What I'm interested in, however, is what you (ie. Steve + the other people participating in the 30 day trials) use to manage your trials. Ie. What documents do you use, if any?

I keep it simple.

I write on the erasable whitepad on my fridge this: 30 day trial: 1/29.

The first number of 1/29 (the "1") refers to what day I'm in it, the "29" refers how many days are left.

On the calendar that I have on the wall, I write a little number in each day to count off the days until the last day of the trial. That way if I get confused about what day I'm on or whether I've updated that day or not, I can look it up. The calendar is just used as reference, no other writing on it.

[Bruce Achterberg]

Thanks for all the responses so far, guys.

It's great to see some specific ideas, but what I'm really enjoying is the pattern that is emerging. It seems that what is more important then the specific method is the fact that all of these methods promote accountability and, in some way, have an in-direct motivational effect, either by completing what you set out to do each day or by marking it off or making some sort of log about it.

That said, the specific ideas help bring this abstract concept down into reality where it can be put into practice, so please, do keep the ideas coming.

Originally Posted by greyman

What is your experience with the 30-day limit? I found out that in some cases 30 days is not enough. Sometimes, I can withdraw from some bad habit for months, and still not rid myself off of them.

It largely took me a while to understand how to use the 30-day trial in the first place. I honestly haven't done many trials, but Steve's most recent post about it brought them back into my awareness, and somehow, over the year, all the important concepts I needed to know had just "clicked", and I knew how to use the 30-day trial more intelligently then I have before. I've seen this effect before, and it seems to be an association thing your brain does. I seem to be particularly good at it (partly because of how I see/interpret the world), since I can generalise concepts to a very abstract level and apply them to seemingly unrelated ideas very easily (so basically all of my experience is useful, regardless of what it is), but I digress.

Suffice to say my previous attempts at 30-day trials pretty much failed because I didn't go into them with the right mindset or with enough knowledge of "how" I should be going about them (in terms of what the 30-day trial sets out to accomplish) in general. I was using the trial idea as a way to change habits, and while that is a often a side effect, it's not how one should approach it (IMO).

For example, earlier in 2007 I tried to become an early riser. Not only did I try to do this in an unrealistic, unsustainable way, but I also approached the 30-day trial the wrong way, trying to form a permanent habit instead of giving myself the ability to choose whether I want to continue or not at the end of the 30 days. I also put too much effort into "process", trying to maintain a complicated rating system that I later discovered didn't even make sense in the context of the 30-day trial.

Fast forward to the present, and I'm trying that trial once again. This time, though, I'm much better equipped, with a year of decent, conscious personal development behind me instead of the 1 year of random, relatively lost seeking/wandering I had been doing the year before. I also have a much better idea of what to expect, where I can make improvements, and how I should be framing this trial.

I had initially planned to take on four 30-day trials this month, but I didn't have much time to prepare, and I'm seeing that this one trial -- changing my sleep habits/patterns -- is enough to deal with without having to deal with other things. I figure it's better to be fully prepared for this trial and make sure I reach the end with it then it is to try to juggle too many balls at once, only to end up dropping them all.

Once I get more into the swing of things, I may take on some other trials in Feb or perhaps even half way through this month, but right now I'm kind of zombie-like from sleep deprivation, and I'm also sore from training, so I'm just taking it easy.

Sorry for the rambling, but I thought it was only fair to explain my situation since so many people have contributed to this thread already.

Do note, even though I may only be taking on one 30-day trial this month, your ideas are still appreciated and I will certainly put them to use, either directly or indirectly for this current trial or trials I do in the future.

[wulph]

I'm glad to hear you're putting together some concepts that will make your personal growth more effective.

I like to think of 30-day trials like this: "I can do just about anything for a month." The whole key to the thing working for me is that the entire commitment ends after the 30 days. At which point I can make a new decision going forward. This seems congruent with your finding that setting out with a permanent change in mind is ineffective.

I also like to "bite off" only as much as i can "chew," i.e. do one trial at a time, even if there are several areas I wish to improve. Similar to your juggling analogy.

Don't fret about "only" taking on one trial; keep in mind that within a year, you'll have an opportunity to experience 12 new habits! And whether you decide to continue each, your choice will be made from a level of experience rather than speculation.

Cheers!

[Miro]

I second the "one trial at a time approuch".

I've successfully managed to run every morning for 2.5 months last year, using the seinfeldian chain at Daily Sports | smarterfitter.com until an illness sent me off track.

Now I'm pretty intrigued by the idea of combining habits and rewards at Featured Windows Download: Motivate Yourself with Point Motivator, haven't tried it yet though.

I'm intending to start a raw trial soon after learning from Steve's experience in january.

I'm pretty impressed with fitday.com as a tracking tool, although unfortunately it seems like I can't order their PC version with a German credit card, they only accept US or Canadian...

Alex

[stellabeam]

1. I draw 30 squares freehand in coloured pencil.

2. Write my challenge in affirmation style on top eg " I work out for a minimum of 1 hour each day, for 30 consecutive days"

3. Stick it on the fridge.

4. Put a large red X in at the end of each day.

I like this method because it is satisfying drawing in the X.
Also when they start accumulating I get a sence of achievment.

[ricky]

I am at the stage where I just have to mentally say to myself "from today I am going to do such and such for so long..." and that's enough to get me started and keep me going. I just write down my starting date for reference.

When I was new to all this I would write down my goal on a 3x5" card and keep it with me and read it through out the day. I would also set my watch to beep every hour. This way every time the watch beeped, I would either read my card, or remind myself of my goal. Worked quite effectively.

Also, on another note. When you're starting out, it's better to start with just one thing. As your confidence and your discipline grows, you can actually do many different trials in different areas of your life, at the same time, quite easily.