We've Moved

The new blog is on LifeofMatt.Net/mattsjourney

It's way cooler.

We've Moved

The new blog is on LifeofMatt.Net/MattsJourney.

It's way cooler.

Todolist for Tommorow

• Write Three P's Post
  
• Finish Setting Up Website (Get Help if Needed)
  
• Publish 500 subscribers post
  
• Sign up for all social networking sites
  

The Sunny Skys(Skies?) of Florida

Today I took the long journey from the snow covered streets of Massachusetts to the warm and sunny skies of florida. I took some videos along the way, and was going to upload some of the highlights. but unfortunately my dad's laptop doesn't like the video software.

If you've been following my planning, you'll know that the original plan for this trip was to begin taking detailed notes on and begin systematically implementing Getting Things Done. In another unfortunate incident, Getting Things Done was left on flight 1003 from Boston to New York.

In attempting to recover the book, I stopped at a help kiosk and asked them what I should do. They asked my flight number, then sent me to a gate on the other end of the airport. At the gate, they told me that the plane had already left, and that I should inquire at the help desk as to what to do. I went back to the help desk, and they recommended that I check the lost in found which was downstairs. My next flight was boarding in about ten minutes, and I would have to go back through security... I declined. I went back to my gate, at which point my parents reminded me that I should get a number to contact the lost and found. I went back to the help kiosk, got the number, and went back to the gate. I then dialed the number, and found that it didn't exist. I went back to the help desk, and she found that one of the numbers was wrong in the number she had given me. I then dialed the number again. I then listened to an audio recording, which told me the email address to which I could send the item description and they would reply if they found it. I have sent the email, and am awaiting a reply.

But I digress...

With Getting Things Done out of the picture, I had to figure out another productive use for the vacation. Luckily, I had included another backup book in my carryon for just such an occasion. That book was "Changing for Good", a book which I think gets way less credit than it deserves in the self help community. It presents a systematic research based way to implement a habit. I decided that I would make this the new focus for the vacation.

With this decided, I used the remainder of the flight to catch up on the sleep which I had missed out on the night before, and flirt with the cute girl to my right.

When I arrived at my grandparents house several hours later, I took my suitcase up to my room and systematically unpacked everything from the suitcase. I knew exactly what I was doing to quickly set up an impromptu organization system while I was here, ensuring that the room doesn't descend into chaos over the five day period that I'll be here. It was at this time that I first got that sense that I might possibly be getting an inkling of what it feels like to "be organized", a phrase which I would have previously considered to be my antithesis. It was a glorious moment indeed.

The two habits which I will be using as models are:

1. Exercising first thing every morning when I wake up.
2. Practicing FACS for an hour every night before I go to bed (I did mention that the FACS cd came, right?)

Directly after I publish this post, I'm going to pop the FACS CD in, and do my nightly practice. Afterwards, I'll hop in bed, read "Changing for Good" for a bit, and go to sleep. In the morning, I'll get up, and head to the workout facility.

And so it goes.
-Matt

Vlog: Organization Update

Weekly Goals

• Sleep
• Get to bed between 11:30 and 12:3o every Night
  
• Create sleep checklist and follow routine every night
  
• Keep sleep diary each morning
  
• Eat no later than 9:30 every night.
• Exercise
• Plan time for exercise every night
  
• Exercise every day
  
• Organization
• Finish Containerizing my Room
• Start Organizing Bathroom
  
• Start systematically going through Getting Things Done again

Once I have organized my room completely, I will also start learning the Facial Action Coding System... this will be the second six month dreamline goal I will have completed... right on time at about the 3 month mark. 

Some short clips from my magic show today

First Vlog: How to Organize a Room

This is my first vlog, and there's a number of things I want to improve for next time.  Unfortunately, it took longer than I thought to get this video uploaded, so I won't be uploading the promised review of Organizing From the Inside Out on my other blog until tommorow.


Analyze and Strategize Worksheets for my Bedroom
Organizing from the Inside Out Amazon.com Link

Organization Update

I've analyzed and strategized for my room... tommorow I finish sorting, and Tuesday I finish everything else.

I also made two templates for myself to save time in the future, one for the analyze stage, one for the strategize stage.  They're in my Organizing From the Inside Out Resource Folder at MediaFire.

According to the book, it should take about 4 hours tommorow for me to completely sort my bedroom... I have a small bedroom, so it may actually be quicker.  I'll let you know how it goes.

-Matt

Daily Priorities Feb 10

All it will take for me to feel productive tommorow is to do an hour and a half of focused work... everything else will just be a bonus.  Becoming productive is really easy when you focus on just the essentials.

You have 207 Days to Change Your Life

-Become More Productive

HAVE TIME FOR YOURSELF

-Become “Over Organized”

NEVER WORRY ABOUT LOSING ANYTHING AGAIN

-Take Advantage of the Unique Opportunity

TRAVEL,FUN, ADVENTURE, EXCITEMENT, and GROWTH

Are you inventing things to do to avoid the important?

ACT NOW.

Task 1: Write Contract 

(1 Hour)

Task 2:Book Appointment with DMV

(30 Minutes)

My Shiny New Business Card

Update

Hey guys,

Feel like I've let you down with the regular updates thing.  I'm gonna try and get back to at least once a week.  

First of all, my updated goal sheet:

Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000168 EndHTML:0000006527 StartFragment:0000000471 EndFragment:0000006510

You have 225 Days to Change Your Life

-Become More Productive

HAVE TIME FOR YOURSELF

-Four hours of focused work 5/7 days for 1 week

-Checklists and 80/20 analysis of all my home tasks

-Checklists and 80/20 analysis of all my school tasks

-Become “Over Organized”

NEVER WORRY ABOUT LOSING ANYTHING AGAIN

-Go 30 days straight without misplacing anything

-”A Place for Everything and Everything in It's Place”

-Absolutely no clutter in any area

-Take Advantage of the Unique Opportunity

TRAVEL, FUN, ADVENTURE, EXCITEMENT, and GROWTH

-Fly to LA to visit sister and friends

-Buy a digital video camera

-Go skydiving

-Learn Microexpressions

Are you inventing things to do to avoid the important?

ACT NOW.

Secondly, what I've been up to:

1. Getting Things done is succesfully implemented for the last few weeks and i've been keeping it up very well, it's super helpful.  I've been constantly rereading it along with four hour work week to make sure I don't start to forget the principles.

2.Been promoting my magic shit, trying to get a decent amount of shows done.

3. Trying to get a better job besides the movie theater.

4.I ordered The Organizing Sourcebook by Kathy Wadhill, and Organizing from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstien, which were as far as I could tell from reviews and questions sent to experts, the top two books for beginning organizers out there.  They should be here in a few days, at which point I'll start implementing them systematically, and keeping you guys updated along the way.

I know, you're thrilled to be able to get an inside look at how I organize ever mundane detail of my life.

Me too!

-Matt

Success on Autopilot: Process Outline

This is the system I've created for changing habits.  It's all coming together nicely now.  I've been using it for myself and it's excelelnt.

For existing change efforts:

1.Determine what stage of change you are in.

For new change efforts:

Precontemplation:

1. Determining Values, Principles, and Beliefs

2.Determining Defense Mechansisms.

Contemplation:

1.Start listing areas of life which are protected by defense mechanisms or contrary to values.

2. Rank the areas on a scale of 1 - 10 ease of change,(1 = super hard, 10 = super easy) and 1 - 10 importance of change (1 = I could care less, 10 = This NEEDS to change).

3. Take the outcome farthest from zero (easiest and most important) and find the new outcome that you desire (eg.  I'm fat -> I'm thin, I smoke -> I no longer want or need cigarettes).

4. Research information about the old and new outcome... what people have made this change already, what are the vital behaviors you need to enact to get the new outcome?

5. Evaluate your own feeligns about the old and new outcome... how do they fit in with your values?  What are the positives and negatives of changing?  What about the positives and negatives to other people?

6. MAke it salient, Begin imagining the result of your old outcome and new outcome.  Watch a movie, read a story, or create an experience for yourself to make the consequenses real.

7. TEll other people about your contemplation.  Enlist someone to support you, be very specific about the support you want at this stage.

Preparation:

1. Commit, set a date in the next two months that you're going to act.  Go public with your commitement.

2.Start Measuring.  Make things visible, figure out what and how frequent your current behaviors are.

3. Determine Triggers, consequences, substitutes, and reinforcers for both new and old behaviors.

4. Determine what sources of influence you want to use, and to what behaviors you want to influence.

5.Create a relapse prevention and warning signs sheet.

6.Determine next actions for sources of influence.

Action:

1. Put plan into effect, use whatever sources of influence you have determined are good... the exact steps have already been laid out based on the work done in the preperation stage.

Maintenance:

1.Continue new behavior.  Keep measuring outcome to see if behavior is haing intended effect.

2. Start weekly review of Relapse Prevention Sheet.  If any warning signs are noticed, enact relapse plan.

3. You are now ready to begin changing the next most important habit.

Termination:

Success is now on autopilot, no further work will ever be needed on this behavior ever again.

Todo January 3rd

You have 235 Days to Change Your Life

-Become more productive- HAVE TIME FOR YOURSELF

-Become more organized- HAVE YOUR SHIT TOGETHER

-Take advantage of the unique opportunity you have!

6 Month Dreamline:

-Fly to LA to visit sisI'll ter and friends

-Buy a digital video camera

-Go skydiving

-Learn Microexpressions

Are you inventing tasks to avoid the important?

ACT NOW.

 

#1 Task:Write Script for Noodle Noggin N' Bean