Good Habits … Do I Even Have Any?
Aaron Potts Tagged me with his “Simply Successful Secrets” meme. *Sigh*. Memes. I love reading them, find it hard to do them. This one could be interesting though. Here are the rules.
Compose a new blog post listing the top 5 to 10 things that you do almost every day that help you to be successful. They can be anything at all, but they have to be things that you do at least 4 or 5 times every week. Anything less than that may be a hobby that helps you out, but we are after the real day in and day out habits that help you to be successful.
Successful? Me? Not yet. I will be one day soon, heh.
OK, things I do that help me …
- Read - A lot. I have about four or five books down the side of my bed, most nights I will pick up one at random and read a bit before drifting off. My reading appetite has never been any less than voracious. I firmly believe reading anything helps but of course I read textbooks too. Sometimes because I have to (every few months I am asked to do a technical review or edit of a geek book), mostly because I love learning new stuff. Expand your mind, read a book.
- Blog - When I say “blog” I mean everything involved in blogging. Blogging is both a job and a joy for me. I read my RSS, I post, I answer comments, I write new ones on others’ blogs. Far too many bloggers think it is just about writing, how wrong they are. The best bloggers know the truth.
- Family Time - It’s important those around you get some time. One of the reasons I left my JOB was to see my family more. As I said once or twice before, nobody on their death bed wishes they had spent more time locked up working.
- Communicate Virtually - Locked up in my house as I am I try to hook up with people online every day. I’m sure this is annoying for the people on my buddy list but I need chitchat in my life! Other people, other perspectives, especially people who disagree are SO valuable. Plus it is nice just to make friends and socialise.
- Switch Off - This is soooo important but something I don’t manage to always do. In fact I get into trouble with my wife for not doing this most days. It’s a must though. Do something that relaxes your brain, just have some mindless zero-thought time. My solution is to schedule TV programs that I really enjoy. I watch Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, Life on Mars, My Name Is Earl, Ice Hockey, Mythbusters … all stuff that takes little thought and takes me out of my day to day concerns.
Stuff I should do that I don’t
- Sleep - Get up earlier, go to bed earlier, get good quality sleep. My sleep pattern is shot. Partly because I am so obsessive, partly because I have so much to do, partly because I have contacts in diverse timezones. No excuses, I just need to have a better sleep pattern.
- Exercise - I get no exercise. Visibly. I need to.
- Get out - My daily routine rarely allows me time out of the house. Just plain unhealthy. I need fresh air and daylight.
- Organise - While I used to be very organised now I am so disorganised everything is in chaos. I’m going to get a Moleskine and refresh my memory techniques.
- Me time - Too much of my day is work, I am going to start meditating.
So I think it is fair to say I am a disorganised, flabby, workaholic. Great. I expect others will have much better habits and advice.
I am going to inflict tag with this:
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Posted on March 08th, 2007 by Chris Garrett in Productivity
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Ah yes, sleep. You can never get enough you can’t afford to have too much.
Chris,
Thanks for playing along! I work at home, too, and it recently hit me that even though I get out to exercise regularly, I need to get out and actually interact with other people more often. If nothing else, maybe I’ll start dragging my laptop to Starbucks!
Also, although I haven’t seen very many of the new Battlestar Galactica episodes, Star Trek is a mainstay in our house via Netflix. I hope they come out with a new series - we’re almost out of reruns!
Wow… that list sounds familiar yet there are a fair few things in there that I have to put right.
Books piled up against the bed, sadly all Web, CSS, Dreamweaver, SEO type stuff that I’ve been overdosing on for the last 6 months. Why - Cos I’,m interested and its a means to an end to accomplish working for myself and from home, have a better quality of life (not neccesarily financially richer), and get to spend more time with the kids and missus.
Not had much time for switching off and thanks to DVR’s when I do have the night off I can cram Episodes of the quality scheduled programs in, Life on Mars with 70’s Sam a personal favourite.
Blogging - Well thats a new one to me and like you say participate first and get the hang of it, then maybe I’ll do my own.
@jhay, right now one of my biggest problems is sleep I reckon. My mind is buzzing too much
@Aaron, there is a new Star Trek film coming so who knows
@Mark, “not necessarily financially richer” - I hear ya. My goal is to be able to be comfortable financially but my efforts are driven by the other areas. Hmmm … perhaps a post topic there …