What's your October Challenge?

Mine will be a reverse habit of sorts, I suppose. I bite my fingernails and have done so for over 20 years. I have decided that I am tired of the way my hands look, and it is time to stop. So this month, I will create the new habit of NOT biting my fingernails.

I am solid on my two accomplishments, #1 Fitness and #2 Getting out (from July).

I am going to start a single new goal in October, along with my old #3 (organization). This goal (#4) will be to blog/web-author/webcast/podcast something each day after being productive. It will be about something I am working on (technical blogging) or something that is happening that I want to share. I am preserving the sequence numbering just in case I need to revisit one of the others with public promises later on.

- Dennis

Two for October:

Exercise 30 minutes 5X per week

and

Declutter 15 minutes 6X per week.

Hello all, just found the site recently, love all the great topics I've seen so far.

I'll give this October Challenge a shot. My challenge will be to live a life of gratitude by setting aside a portion of every day to remind myself of things I should be grateful for.

Hi, this is a great idea. I have done this on my own before but not for habit change just to see if I can do something for 28 days ( I use 4 weeks as a base). I want to work on recording my food intake daily and aim to limit to 1200-1500 calories a day. The main goal is the recording not the calories limit.

There's two. One's daily, and one's multiple times per week:

1. Daily stretching each morning.
2. Stretching every time I go to the gym (which is 2-6x/week, usually 4).

I've actually started doing the former. I was recently inspired by one of these blogs (Zen Habits or Productivity 101, forget which) to wake up a bit earlier. I also recently implemented a "no computer in the morning before work" rule, which I haven't followed completely but I have cut down on the amount of time. Logging on isn't the first thing I do in the morning and I'm usually on and off quickly. This morning I went for a short (15min) run and then stretched but I'm not ready to commit to regular morning runs just yet.

The latter is more of a continuation too, but I don't always remember or want to do it.

Not a habit but a goal based on recent gym activity: Continue to try new things at the gym, getting out of my comfort zone. I know what I can do, like to do and do well but want to challenge myself. It's amazing how hard a class can be even for someone "in shape".

Leo,

First I want to say that thank you for this site. I found it about 4 weeks ago and devoured everything on it. I've been waiting (im)patiently for the calendar page to flip to join in on the October challenge goodness. So here goes...

My October Challenge goal is to be up and out of bed by 6:00am every morning (and post here about it).

I am currently waking up between 6:45 and 7:00am (on weekends sometimes until 8:00). I know 45 minutes doesn't sound like much, but trust me, I am anything but an early riser. and anythign but consistant. 45 minutes x 30 days (left) = 1350 minutes = 22.5 hours. That's like giving myself almost an entire extra day of peace and quiet. Man, just thinking about it in those terms is making me dizzy with possibilities.

Wish me luck!

-PC

Just like the poster above...my goal for the month is to get out of bed each day by 6 AM.
If I can do that- I think a lot of my other goals (stretching and walking each day) will fall into place....

Looking forward to the challenge!

I'm copying pioneercoach - get myself extra time each week by getting up at 6.00 a.m. To be precise, to get up as soon as my alarm rings.

Which means getting to sleep at a reasonable time. So here goes...

A small and simple one for me... floss every day.

My October challenge is to add hours to my available day by waking every morning at 5:00 AM. When that goal is met, my other goals will be more accessible because what I need is the focused energy that comes from a quiet world. Thank you Leo for putting this challenge out there for us. I love your blog and, although I don't think I can emulate all aspects of your life (I'm often overwhelmed with just one little one!), I appreciate your thoughtful analysis and always benefit from a "read."

Much appreciated! Jennifer

I've been prepping for my October challenge for awhile.

It is the one month of no procrastination. I've fallen behind in my classes (I'm an undergrad), and I want to see what effect it has on my academics and overall satisfaction with my efforts if I devote a month's worth of energies to fully applying myself, particularly in academic areas. Each week I'll give myself a score from 1 through 4, 4 being great effort, 1 being poor effort. I'm going for a weekly score of 25.

I'm using 18 out of 20 of Leo's "motivation hacks." I'm pretty excited.

Here's to a great month for everyone!

I created a topic for the habit I want to acquire. How do I check in? Reply to my topic? Was that correct, or should I have just replied to the original topic?

I already have a routine in the evening, more or less, but I want to add in reading. I have 2 basic categories, spiritual reading and other reading. I plan 45 minutes of each. The whole routine will look like this:

Eat supper, make lunch, do dishes - 1 hour
Computer 45 min
Read from Other category 45 min
Short cleaning job 15 min
Read from Spiritual category 45 min
Brush teeth and floss 5 min
Do T'ai Chi Chih 35 min
Examination of Consciousness (look over the day at what was great and not so great) 15 min
Go to bed

This is cutting down significantly on my computer time and I think it will cause me to focus when I'm on it. So it is basically substituting reading for the time I usually squander in the evening. On Tuesday I get home late and will cut T'ai Chi Chih and cleaning as usual as well as the reading from Other. I'm going to do the routine on the weekend as well.

Anita

I am going to try to do yoga with meditation twice a day 6 days a week. For a quiet mind and a strong, balanced body!

The Unit needs someone to take charge in that department. I'll pick it up and see.

I created a topic for the habit I want to acquire. How do I check in? Reply to my topic? Was that correct, or should I have just replied to the original topic?

-"chb"

Chb - everyday, someone will post a check-in thread. See the archives challenges for more info.

I've been prepping for my October challenge for awhile.

It is the one month of no procrastination. I've fallen behind in my classes (I'm an undergrad), and I want to see what effect it has on my academics and overall satisfaction with my efforts if I devote a month's worth of energies to fully applying myself, particularly in academic areas. Each week I'll give myself a score from 1 through 4, 4 being great effort, 1 being poor effort. I'm going for a weekly score of 25.

I'm using 18 out of 20 of Leo's "motivation hacks." I'm pretty excited.

Here's to a great month for everyone!

-"dstalcup"

Dstal, if I may offer you a suggestion from my procrastinating college days... don't try to go back and "make up" all the work you missed. Just start where you are. It's so easy to fall prey to perfectionism and thing that you ccan just sit down and read all the chapters you've missed, do all your missed homework, etc, but in the end trying to do this will put you more behind. Don't look back: grab the next assignment and do it now.

I like the flossing idea, I'll take that one on myself and also to do some sort of physical activity. When not at the gym, running or even pushups and situps will do...

I already have a calendar printed out so that I can mark off the days that I do this.