An Experiment in Time, Money, Thoughts and Relationships
Today I am beginning a new habit and wanted to share it with you. Last year I did a few experiments for 30 days. Examples: being generous and not saying no when asked for help for 30 days, no complaining for 30 days, not spending more than $15/day for 30 days, etc. I learned a lot from these experiments and some even become an integral part of my daily habits and I am hopeful that one day they characterize me as a person.
Lately, I have been thinking a lot about my personal resources and how I allocate them throughout the day. Besides the usual time and money I also wanted to track my food/health, my thoughts, the people I meet or relationships I cultivate. In addition to that, I wanted to keep track of my sleep patterns. This has gone up on my list as I have began to cramp more into my day and caught myself, several times this month, making my sleep pay for my daytime activities. Naturally, I do not need more than 5-6 hours of sleep a night. 8 hours of sleep is my version of sleeping in and I almost always feel guilty about it after. So hopefully this is help me study that more closely.
So, for the next 30-days (Starting Nov. 1st) I am going to keep a little log (I plan to use a simple Pages document and Dropbox for the exercise) and study the patterns closely. I am including the log template below if any of you would like to follow along with me and maybe we can do a little Skype chat at the end and compare notes.
Wake up time:
First thought on the mind:
Mood Check:
Pushups #:
Accomplishment #1:
Accomplishment #2:
Accomplishment #3:
Personal Interaction #1:
Personal Interaction #2:
Personal Interaction #3:
Highlight of the day:
Diet notes:
Time spent:
Work -
Cooking/Food -
Learning/Reading/Writing -
Workout -
Love/family/friendship -
Sleep -
Misc -
Money spent:
Bed time:
Mood Check:
Going to bed thinking about:
I am pretty excited to see what I learn about myself. Some of the things I am looking forward to understanding are:
- Does meeting or spending time with certain people make a difference in my mood, thoughts and spending (time & money) habits?
- Does my eating habits affect the quality of my work and sleeping habits? How does it affect my mood and energy levels throughout the day?
- How consistent am I with my habits and how sudden changes affect my overall habits/patterns?
- What changes do I need to make (if any)?
