Daily check-in thread for September 30, 2007

I had looked on the 1st of the month, thinking I'd do this. Didn't realize it started late. First time back. Maybe if there is an October Challenge, the forum can be created on the 1st?

I asked for an October forum to be created earlier on the week; but no one
else has commented or acted on that. Sent Leo a P.M. on Wednesday,
but no response . I'm leaning towards to look for another venue
to participate in, which is more involved and responsive!

-steve

Put in contact lenses every day: I had no time to put them in Friday and Saturday (it would be useless to have them in only for 30 minutes, depending on what I have to do for the day this would be the case) but today, I wear them again.
Deducting my holidays and days where it wasn't feasible to put them in, I'm at 9-for-13 in September. I will log my usage further on.

Concerning the forum: to me, it is pretty clear that the forum isn't as motivating to report as the email was, not just for me, but as it seems for many others as well. The daily email was a reminder and an easy way to respond, but it took too much time for Leo to compile the mail.
Maybe, we could find a new way to do is. A combination of both worlds could be to have the challenge forum with a thread for every day and a daily mail which directs the challengers to the current thread. It wouldn't be much more work for Leo (it could even be automated if wanted) and possibly would motivate the people to report their progress. What do you think about it?

I asked for an October forum to be created earlier on the week; but no one
else has commented or acted on that. Sent Leo a P.M. on Wednesday,
but no response . I'm leaning towards to look for another venue
to participate in, which is more involved and responsive!

-steve

-"sbell22"

Steve,

I think the real problem is that the moderators don't seem to have the power to create new fora. If they could, then the responsibility wouldn't rest solely on Leo's shoulders.

Rebecca

Much better than my July challenge! I didn't do one for August.

And the cool thing is, it really paid off in that I have a one-class adjuncting gig lined up for next semester!

I didn't know there was a daily email reminder/response system before,
but that sounds like a better approach - assuming someone wants to do it.

Enabling some of the moderator(s) to be able to create threads, would also
solve the problem. I know participation in this month's challenge lagged as
a result of the forum starting days late; it should be fixed if it's going to
continue!

-steve

Hi all,
Success for me last night - got to bed on time. Congrats to all who made it to the end of the month!
I agree with the suggestion that we be allowed to start our own threads - so as to keep up with the monthly challenges. I know Leo's got a lot on his plate and it's hard to keep up with everything. But this is really helpful to those of us who do the challenges. If we could start our own challenges each month, we'd take a piece off Leo's plate and I think those of us who like the challenges would keep things moving along - it would probably run itself. How about it Leo?

reading done, i am also concerned about the oct forum
still not sure what the goal is starting tommorrow- want it to be meaningful

I put on the final push today and finished my project. Everything I own is now
thoroughly minimalized, organized, and systematized - not sure I'll know what
to do with myself now:) Congrat's to everyone who got something positive
out of the Sept. challenge. Onwards & upwards!!

-steve

I come into this day at {24 of 29 for September}.

Promises:

#1 Fitness: Hip-Opening Series 1, yoga practice

#2 Get out: Go on birthday cruise for my sister-in-law's birthday.

#3 Organize/Productivity: Today is reduce-the-feed-backlog day. Devote my energies to bringing it down to 0 (e.g., around 180 or less from 284 where I am now.

-"orcmid"

#1 is complete.

#2 is complete. We had a great time and I learned about cheap Alaskan Cruises if you order now (long lead time pays). We came home, found a cruise, and I put in a request. I've been talking about wanting to do this for years. Now I get to commit myself. It will be a wonderful 6 days away with Vicki at the end of next April (the day after her birthday.)

#3 My feeds are at 306 and I spent the time (an official day off from my projects) getting FolderShare working with my licensed MSN Music. It is all working and now Vicki can listen to all of the music that I had acquired while MSN Music was in business. (It is all on my laptop too, now.) I am declaring victory here.

I ended with {25 of 30 for September}.

I agree that if Leo had a backup, we could keep the months and the threads going. I think anyone can start the thread for a new day, but not a folder. Also, I think there is a capacity problem where the folders have to be deleted fairly soon after that month is completed.

Concerning the forum: A combination of both worlds could be to have the challenge forum with a thread for every day and a daily mail which directs the challengers to the current thread. It wouldn't be much more work for Leo (it could even be automated if wanted) and possibly would motivate the people to report their progress. What do you think about it?

-"Mat"

I get the equivalent of that by putting in my promises the night before (starting that day's thread if needed) and using the automatic responses about new posts to remind me to follow up. I also tend to post a progress message as a way to restore myself to my promise and make sure I have the rest of it time blocks on my calendar.

I know something more personal works for others, even a phone call, but that kind of close coaching doesn't scale if we require Leo to respond to us individually.

I only check my e-mail once or twice a day, although my skype and Windows Live Messenger channels are open (although I think I am shown as busy or away automatically). I am satisfied for myself. If more aggressive reminders of some sort are provided, I would like a way to opt out because the current level is good enough.

At the first of September, when we didn't start right away, I started updating a single blog page. It wasn't quite so satisfying, but it did work at having my daily promises and their achievement "out there." (See
http://orcmid.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!33894F6489994BA7!466.entry)

Concerning the forum: A combination of both worlds could be to have the challenge forum with a thread for every day and a daily mail which directs the challengers to the current thread. It wouldn't be much more work for Leo (it could even be automated if wanted) and possibly would motivate the people to report their progress. What do you think about it?

-"Mat"

I get the equivalent of that by putting in my promises the night before (starting that day's thread if needed) and using the automatic responses about new posts to remind me to follow up. I also tend to post a progress message as a way to restore myself to my promise and make sure I have the rest of it time blocks on my calendar.

I know something more personal works for others, even a phone call, but that kind of close coaching doesn't scale if we require Leo to respond to us individually.

I only check my e-mail once or twice a day, although my skype and Windows Live Messenger channels are open (although I think I am shown as busy or away automatically). I am satisfied for myself. If more aggressive reminders of some sort are provided, I would like a way to opt out because the current level is good enough.

At the first of September, when we didn't start right away, I started updating a single blog page. It wasn't quite so satisfying, but it did work at having my daily promises and their achievement "out there." (See
http://orcmid.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!33894F6489994BA7!466.entry)

-"orcmid"

Thank you for your tips - I'll think about posting a message every day in the thread (for getting the automatic generated mail) and later editing the posting with my progress.

I would say the problem with the older challenges' forums isn't space but that you lose the overview when there are too many forums. Therefore when the challenge is done, the forum gets moved to the "Past forums" section. This is something a moderator (if allowed to) can do with very few clicks.

I think the problem with the September Challenge wasn't only that it started late, but also that Leo didn't do a post to the blog about it, which draws in a lot of people and gives it energy. I half-heartedly joined in for Sept., but mostly took a break this time after quite a few months in a row of doing the Challenge.

Also, the way that Leo initially handled the Challenge, through daily emails with everyone's updates, was very motivating. But, no one can keep that up and the forums were added to the site right after that.

I did my routine as planned for Sunday except that I didn't do the last thing until around 7:30PM. So, I'd say I did not do my "morning" routine today.

All in all, a very good month and my routine is pretty well implanted. In October the focus will be the evening routine.

I had this insight, probably not a good one because it is not something about my own behavior.

So, this possible insight is that what was missing in September from the start is that Leo is not playing the Challenge game with us. And something about consistent support and participation might be appropriate for Leo. (I imagine Leo has better ideas.) I think that may be very useful to Leo in a number of ways.

That's my pontification on the matter. I will now return to a webmeeting I'm in right now.