I'm an Italian web developer and (almost) entrepreneur based in London.
Those of you who are close to me know that I got into a kind of monthly resolutions challenge this year. I’ve been doing this for 6 months now so I wanna take you through my progress.
Instead of having a big new year’s resolution, which I inevitably failed to achieve year after year, I decided to break down my goals into small and more manageable monthly bits. The base line is: Stick with one and only one goal for a month, after which chances are it will become a habit, enabling you to move on to the next thing.
This is a quite clever way of approaching resolutions, as it puts almost no pressure on you and can lead to good life-changing habits.
Here are my resolutions so far:
I’m quite happy with the results, even if I’ve not been 100% diligent. Some resolutions have worked better than others. But I can say this is the first time in my life I’ve been able to change my habits so effectively.
This involves identifying 3 must-do tasks for the day and writing them down on a piece of paper to carry in your wallet all day long. They don’t need to be big things. Just think of them as small steps towards your long-term goals (eg: call that guy to help you out on you project, call the bank to set up a merchant account, and so on).
It’s a lot easier to achieve goals when you plan them in advance, otherwise you risk having a confused day and being constantly pulled away from your priorities by all sorts of events.
I stuck with this habit for 2 solid months and then lost it a bit, definitely one of the most challenging habits of all to form. I’ll probably try to write down the MITs for a day the night before and see if it gets any easier.
You can read more about this topic here:
» Purpose your day: most important tasks
The best results have come from getting up early. I had wanted to do this for a long time because there are so many things I want to do and always too little time. Also, I didn’t want to sacrifice the lovely evenings I usually spend with my girlfriend or playing guitar.
To begin, I decided to wake up at exactly the same time every morning. Then I bought a bodyclock and started waking up 15 minutes earlier every week, finally settling for 6:30am.
I’m now constantly getting up at 6:30 during the week and can easily work for an hour and a half on projects of mine before going to work.
It’s amazing how powerful a productivity booster this is. I’ve established a morning routine (wake up/shower/breakfast/work) that makes me feel proud of my day even before it has even really begun!
If you’re interested in becoming a early riser, read:
» How to become an early riser
» 10 Benefits of rising early and how to do it
Plain and simple: Eat at least 1 piece of fruit for breakfast and 1 serving of vegetables for dinner. Every day. If you manage to buy fruit and salad while at the grocery store, that’s pretty easy to achieve. I love apples and bananas for breakfast, and la bai cai (hot and sour cabbage) plus rice for dinner.
If you want to eat healthily and love Asian food, I suggest you read Why the Chinese don’t count calories
I don’t like coffee, and I realized that the 3-to-4 cups of coffee I used to drink a day were only useful for keeping me awake. I didn’t enjoy them.
And I thought, why do I feel sleepy in the first place? Am I eating well enough? Am I getting enough sleep?
Programmer culture seems to worship coffee to an extent that I do not really understand. In a world in which technology and progress should make our life easier and less stressful, we always worry about performing at a faster pace. Giving up coffee is just a reflection of my inner pace change. Take it easy and enjoy the journey.
If interested in giving up coffee:
» How to give up coffee.
I’m in my underpants in front of the mirror, staring at my pale body. I’m not fat, but let’s be honest, I’m definitely not fit. All these 10 years of programming are really starting to show, and the fact that my heart pumps hard whenever I walk for more than 10 minutes should be a clear warning.
So to start off nice and easy I just bought a bike and got rid of my monthly underground pass. That’s feasible, as my workplace is only 3 miles away from my house, making it a perfect morning ride to work. A nice added benefit is that I’ll cover the investment in 3 months and start saving money after that.
As some of you may know, I used to be a guitar player. I was in a successful little rock band, and at some point of my life I was almost tempted to keep doing that for a living. I Well, now with being involved in software develpment, is should pretty clear that I gave up.
It’s a shame I’m not playing on a regular basis, though, because it’s a very engaging and exciting hobby.
After 10 years of complete inactivity, my previous band members decided to organize “the farewell gig we never had”, so I’m kind of forced to play every day and sharpen my skills again!
Ten songs a day keep the programmer away!
Here’s the website of my former band: http://www.rambass.com (guess which one is me), I’ll be playing in Italy on July 31.
If you want to learn to play guitar, take a look at these awesome lessons: http://www.justinguitar.com
I’m not a very strong-willed person, but these monthly resolutions are really shaping new habits I’m very proud of. If you feel there’s something you’d like to change about yourself, try this method, and I guarantee your goals will be a lot easier to achieve.
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