habithacker: Back on April 1

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Back on April 1

Howdy habithackers. Our official premiere is April 1, so look for us then at habithacker.com where you'll find news, reviews, these daily postings (a bit retooled), and a section that practices what we preach here...the idea that the only reason to hack your habits is to give you more time and energy for creative endeavors. See you then. (If you head to habithacker.com now, you will find some content; most of it will be repeated starting April 1).

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31 days to better habits.

“Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work.” Flaubert, Habithacker genius. We combine the best of Flylady, zen organizing, GTD and others to create habits. We create habits so you have more time to create art (or whatever work you do).

START with these 31 days of habits. If you're feeling extra-ambitious or you're a veteran of flylady and other systems, you can also jump with the daily postings on the righ . Every month these fundamental habits get repeated.

(We're still under construction and testing...so occasional changes are to be expected. Even though we don't formally debut until April 1 (no fooling), please follow along here and at habithacker.com.)

31 Days

Day 1
Get one thing done.
Choose a space to clear and clean. Flylady tells you this should be the kitchen sink. Other organizing gurus suggest nightstands or dining tables. I prefer to clear off my kitchen island; it gives me the biggest boost. Just make sure your special place is small enough and manageable enough to be kept clear every day from now on. On successive days, when you are told to "polish your place" you need only clear this ONE place.
Polish your place.

Day 2
Do your do.
If you work at home, instead of donning sweats this morning, dress just a tiny bit better. If you work outside of the home, add a little something extra to your outfit: a scarf, earrings, a handbag you don't usually use. Before you leave home, or first thing in the morning, repeat Day #1's activity.
Do your do.
Polish your place.

Day 3
Rinse and repeat.
Repeat Day #2 with this important difference: from now on, polish your place twice a day.
Do your do.
Polish your place x 2.

Day 4
You're in for more.
Repeat Day #3 again. And to prepare yourself for what's coming up, buy yourself a timer and a binder or notebook you really like. Steps to date:
Do your do.
Polish your place x 2.

Day 5
Take five.
Repeat Day #4. Also master the art of taking breaks. For every half hour you work, whether it's at a crossword or your business, take at least five minutes to reconnect to your relaxed self by walking around if you've been sitting or, if your job is an active one, sitting down after you've been running around. I like to split hours into elevens: that is, work two 11 minute periods each half hour and take the last 8 minutes for recreation.
Do your do.
Polish your place x 2.
Take five (or 8).

Day 6
The shitspot fix.
Racers take pitstops, slatterns make shitspots--and they happen just as fast. A shitspot is a spot that collects...guess what? Lotsa shit. Once you put down one thing, the pile grows faster and faster. Your shitspot might be on your kitchen counter, a corner of your desk, your dining room table, atop a dresser, whatever. Maybe all these places. Repeat Day #5 and also add this to your routine: spend 11 minutes--no more, clearing what you can from one of your shitspots. Shovel your shitspot.
Do your do.
Polish your place x2.
Take five (or 8).
Shovel your shitspot.

Day 7
Wardrobe hell? Decision heaven.
Repeat Day #6, of course. And add this: before bed, lay out clothes appropriate for tomorrow's activities. You'll be so relieved not to have to think in the morning.
Polish your place x 2.
Do your do.
Take five (or 8).
Shovel your shitspot.
Decide on duds.

Day 8
Keep it straight.
Repeat Day#7. This is beginning to be a little complicated, isn't it? Now it's time to formalize routines in a binder or spiral notebook or dry erase board. Write them down as below or customize them to fit your own life. Let's call this notebook your Brain on Paper (BOP). It will help you run on autopilot and thus free your creative brain for more worthwhile pursuits.

Morning routine:
Polish your place.
Do your do.
Take five (or 8).
Shovel your shitspot.

Evening routine:
Polish your place.
Decide on duds.

Put your Brain on Paper. BOP.

Day 9
Make some signs.
Follow the routines you've made in your BOP. Now create a declutter kit to use for your first personal D-Day (an 11 minute declutter session) which will happen in a few days. Haul out three boxes or bags and label this way:
Dump (this is for stuff to throw away)
Donate (for all stuff that goes to charity or will be given to friends)
Deliver (for things to be put back where they belong)
Obey your BOP.
Design for D-Day.

Day 10
Get out your pen.
After you do your routines for the day, grab a pen and a small piece of paper to make a wallet card for yourself. Use this card to bring yourself back to reality when you are tempted to bring something new into your house.

Do I absolutely love this item?
Do I already have something similar?
If so, is it necessary to have another?
Do I absolutely need this item?
Can I afford it?
Is there some reason other than need that I'm buying it (boredom, stress, etc.)?
Add any other questions that might help you personally to control clutter.

Obey your BOP.
Self-help your wallet.

Day 11
The science of seven.
Everyone's heard that it takes 21 days to make a habit. This idea originally came from a doctor's observation that it took amputees that long to get rid of phantom limb pain...it isn't real science (and neither is my science of seven). On some mornings, the thought of having to do something 21 consecutive times may make you want to give up . So forget about this 21 days business, and instead, focus on the power of seven.

Seven days, just one week. Repeating something every day, each day of the week is good enough. And if you miss a day, don't chuck your habit. Startagain tomorrow. Finish out the rest of the week and know that next week, with its seven days, starts right after this one.

If you've looked ahead to the daily postings, you'll see that we also assign specific tasks to repeat each day of the week. Feel free to customize. Terrible Task Day is just as terrible on a Wednesday as on a Tuesday.
Obey your BOP.
Remember the science of seven.

Day 12
Your first D-Day dwelve.
D-Day? Declutter Day. The best way to keep your house and your mind clear for more lofty pursuits is to have fewer things to care for. Today you begin the first of many D-Days. Grab the boxes you created on Day 9 and run into a room that requires help. As fast as you can for 11 minutes, load up the boxes. Don't overthink. Then, as fast as you can for the next 11 minutes, get the Dump box into the garbage and put away stuff from the Deliver box. The Donate stuff goes directly to your car trunk for delivery on next Thursday's Chasing day. Each and every day, if possible, spend 11 minutes or double decluttering. But every WeDnesday is D-Day.
Obey your BOP.
D-Day.

Day 13
It may be unlucky, but not for you.
That's because all you need do today is the same thing you did yesterday. Follow your BOP, of course, then do a double D-Day, that is: 22 minutes' worth. There you go: you've decluttered for almost an hour. That wasn't so bad now, was it?
Obey your BOP.
Do a double D-Day.

Day 14
Get lithe and lean.
Every time you participate in D-Day your house gets a little leaner. But then, so do you. Much has been made about the correspondence between a cluttered home and the clutter of excess pounds on the body. Statistically, the "leaner" your space, the "leaner" your butt. Keep that in mind every time you're tempted to skip D-Day or buy something you don't need. Add "Do a D-Day" every WeDnesday to your BOP.
Obey your BOP.
Do a D-Day.

Day 15
Add an 11 to get lithe and lean.
Even though D-Days will help you shed excess pounds, you're going to have to up the ante a bit to stay healthy. It won't take much: just 11 minutes a day of exercise to start (or 5 if 11 is too long. Once after a surgery, I started with 3 minutes on a NordicTrack...it eventually became 5, 11, then 30 minutes. But it never would have become 30 had I not started with that 3 minutes.) Get on a treadmill, walk around the block, shop without purchasing, take the stairs, park in the far reaches of the lot. For 11 minutes every day...and once you're in shape, twice a day. Add this to your BOP.
Obey your BOP.
Do a fast Fit11.

Day 16
It pays to be mean.
We all have a place in our homes that becomes our bête noire--a detested space that seems impossible to keep organized. The wonderful term we're using translates from the French for "black beast." My black beast, for instance, is my finished basement...no matter what I do, it reverts to its hell hole status. Your bête noire like mine, may be a whole floor of your house. If you're a more evolved human than I, it might only be a closet or a junk drawer. Today, get mean. Spend 11 minutes beating your black beast. Then schedule weekly beatings on Tuesdays (what you will come to know as Terrible Tuesdays).
Obey your BOP.
Beat your bête noire.

Day 17
Control your cuisine.
First rule: keep only healthy foods and snacks in the house to avoid temptation. Second rule: do not grocery shop without a list. Third rule: Make out simple weekly menu plans every Monday. By simple I mean, for instance, meat once a week, pasta once, fish once, poultry once, salad twice, carryout once. By the way, if you're trying to lose weight, limiting yourself to a salad at dinner twice a week--loaded with great vegetables, tuna or hard-boiled eggs for protein, and a low fat dressing will get your therre. You can eat big portions of these greens.
Obey your BOP
Add Menu Mondays.

Day 18
An hour to half-assed house clean.
There's another thing we're going to put in the BOP for every Monday and that's 3H or half-assed housekeeping hour. If you spend an hour once a week running around your house like a mad idiot doing a fast and lousy job of vacuuming only the middle of your floors, dusting only the most obvious areas, cleaning your company bathrooms and wiping kitchen countertops, your house will start to look incredibly clean. No joke. We'll add the detail cleaning things later. No one's going to look behind your couch. Promise.
Obey your BOP.
3H: Half-assed housecleaning hour.

Day 19
It's YOUR scene.
There's no reason 3H has to be on a Monday. There's no magic to menu planning on a Monday, decluttering on a Wednesday, or beating the bn on a Tuesday. They're written that way here because I find things easier to remember with alliteration (Menu Monday) and catchy phrasing. Please customize. Maybe you can't devote a whole hour once a week to a crappyclean. Then do ten minutes a day six days a week. Whatever works.
Obey your BOP.
Customize your BOP.

Day 20
The good and plenty.
Repeat after me: good enough is plenty good; it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to get done. And other such cliches. They're repeated often because so often we forget.
Obey your BOP.
Good enough is plenty good.

Day 21
How we keep it fun.
Dealing with the detritus is no fun. We can put on good music when we do the dishes or reward ourselves with toys if we've paid our bills on time, but still....the bullshit's still bullshit. And has to be shoveled. But by creating habits that streamline the boring details of life, we can spend more time on creativity and inspiration. Every Sunday we take time to be creative.
Obey your BOP.
Sunday is creative funday.

Day 22
Who are you?
Regina Leeds, in her wonderful zen organizing series of books, has an exercise called Fresh Eyes. Other decluttering writers also have versions of this that go by other names. The idea is to try to see your spaces the way others might see them. Who lives here? An efficient busy person? An overwhelmed creative? Someone you don't want your neighbors to see? Someone you were years ago but aren't anymore? If your spaces don't reflect who you are today, maybe you should change your spaces tomorrow.
Obey your BOP.
Ask: who lives here?

Day 23
Keep your mind free.
xxx Yes, your brain has been working overtime for years. Here's a trick from David Allen's system of Getting Things Done (see recommended books below). Always write down everything you have to do or want to remember. This allows your brain to stop working so hard on the trivialities of life. You ought to be using it for the creative stuff, we thing. From now on, every Friday, empty your brain into your BOP.
Obey your BOP.
Free your mind on Fridays.

Day 24
Perform P4.
I agree with the wisdom of Flylady on this one: the only way to tolerate toilet cleaning is to never let it get dirty. Unless you swish that toilet daily and wipe the toothpaste off the mirror, you're in for a bad day when it's time to clean. Add Pee Poo & Paste Patrol--let's just call it the less vulgar P4--to your daily or every other day routine in your BOP. Right after #1 and #2...comes P4.
Obey your BOP.
Perform P4.

Day 25
Let's take a drive.
Set aside one day a week--and one day only--to get your errands done. We call this Chasing Day. If you're not planning it ahead, after all, you're chasing your tail. Also, one day a week, spend 15 minutes decluttering your drive. As always, customize weekly planning for the day that works for you.
Obey your BOP.
Thursday's Chasing Day.
Saturdays are for Car Clutter.

Day 26
Try tools and tricks.
We've got a sister website that reviews our favorite blogs, products, books, ideas, and all sorts of other tools and tricks. Visit it often and get inspired. www.habithacker.com
Obey your BOP.
Get inspired at www.habithacker.com

Day 27
Magic eleven.
I've been using a timer to give me motivation for twenty-five years. It works to know your time is ticking down. In experimenting with different parcels of time, I've come to the conclusion that 11 really is a magic number. (It is in all the woo-woo arcana, too.) Just like doing things for 15 minutes, you can get four sets of something done in an hour. But you'll also get two sets of 8 minute breaks. Recent research shows you need this. Start setting your timer for 11 minute intervals.
Obey your BOP.
Do an 11.

Day 28
It's never too late.
It's never too late to start. Doing a half-assed job is better than doing nothing. Just five minutes is often all it takes. When all else fails, get just one thing done. "It's never too late" also, of course, applies to your creative work. It's not too late to be a painter, a novelist, a teacher, an actress.
Obey your BOP.
Remember: it's never too late.

Day 29
Draw the line.
In the daily tasks at right, you'll notice that every month we post Days 1-31 plus the habit of the month. Everything below the line is optional--in the sense that you shouldn't tackle it unless you feel you've got a handle on the tasks above the line. Whenever you get overwhelmed, go back to following the Days 1-31 tasks only. Or simply Polish your place and vow to do a little more another day.
Obey your BOP.
Draw the line.

Day 30
Doing the dirty.
Nothing is harder than habithacking laundry. I suggest doing a load every day to make the habit stick. Try this plan: Monday blues (& blacks...darks). Tuesday towels. Wednesday whites. ThuRsday rags, rugs, the rest (stuff that doesn't fit into these other categories). Friday frillies and woolies (hand-washables). Saturday sheets. Make a plan for laundry that works for you and add it to your BOP.
Obey your BOP.
Do the dirty.

Day 31
It's never quite done.
And that's the honest truth. But once you've got a handle on keeping up with the detritus of life--via routines and habits--you accept that it's never quite done and you do a little then call it quits on the mind-numbing household crap to get onto what's important to you: your creative work. Which is also never quite done.
Obey your BOP.
Remember: it's never quite done.

Zones for March

March 1-7: Front porch / entry / dining
March 8-14: Kitchen
March 15-21: Bedroom / clothes closet
March 22-26: Bathrooms / laundry area
March 27-31: Livingrooms / dens / family rooms

February 1-7: Kitchen
February 8-10: Front porch / entry / dining
February 11-18: Bedroom / clothes closet
February 19-22: Bathrooms / laundry area
February 23-28: Livingrooms / dens / family rooms

January 1-3: Front porch / entrance / diningroom
January 4-10: Kitchen
January 11-17: Bedroom / clothes closet
January 18-24: Bathrooms / laundry area
January 25-31: Livingrooms / dens / family rooms

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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Back on April 1

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