I'm trying something new this month, something that I (for the short while that I held to it) was able to use to great effect in college: a few 30 day challenges.

The basic idea is that you print out a calendar or two (I have four), label it with whatever goal you have, and mark off each day that you accomplished that goal. For college, I used it when I had to knock through a bunch of papers for my prospectus. And it seems that they're already working well.

One of my goals is "Only ~45 minutes of television per day"¹. Used to I would come in from work, cook supper, and then watch episodes of some television show² until I had to clean up and go to bed. Yesterday, I watched "The Snowman" and then got to read my "Dive Into HTML5" (that I bought way back when) and do some programming that I've been putting off. And that was really rewarding. So I have high hopes for this month.

Oh, and the other three were "No fast food for a month", "At least one chore a day"³, and "In bed by midnight".

1. I decided that if an episode was slightly longer, like most finales are, I would finish it and still count it as meeting my goal. ↩

2. Doctor Who series 5-7. ↩

3. I would let my chores pile up until I would snap midweek and go on a chore-fest. Doing the dishes was the one thing I would always tackle each night. ↩