101 in 1001
When I first read about 101 Things in 1001 Days (http://www.triplux.com/dayzero/), I was mildly intrigued. Never one for goal chasing, I found 101 in 1001 an interesting project but nothing I wanted any part of. And then, something happened.
Last year, I completed all the exercises in "31 Days to Fix Your Finances" - a personal (finance) development exercise penned by Trent of my favorite personal finance blog The Simple Dollar. In the process I devised a few goals, which I wrote down and then mostly forgot about. Somehow, despite my not being attentive, much of what I had marked as a short term goal -like taking a vacation with my mother -magically got done. That's when I decided to look a little closer at 101 Things.
101 Things (notice they're not called goals, they're "preset tasks")? What kinds of "Things"? After reading a number of the lists, my sense of intrigue turned into something like mild obsession and, some months later, I now have my very own, much contemplated and many times revised 101 in 1001.
Posting the list here is my official coming out. I don't know the end date yet, because I can't figure out how to -er, figure it out. But I'll post it when I get it.
Also, a few items are marked private. Sorry, folks. They are, indeed, private. Though I can tell you some of them involve people I know. Surprises are planned. I'll leave it at that.
101 Things in 1001 Days
101 Goals in 1001 Days
Finances/”Bumblefund”
1. Save 2K in travel savings account (0/2000)
2. Build 3 month emergency fund (2500/5184)
3. Save to repair Finn Comforts (0/$150)
4. Keep to a budget for 4 consecutive months
5. Save $300 to buy holiday gifts in 2009 (0/300)
Craft/Create
1. When I think about doing something art/crafty/writing, act immediately, twenty times (0/20)
2. Start a yarn/craft journal/binder and/or join raverly.com
3. Knit/crochet or otherwise craft a homemade gift for everyone in my family and David’s (0/10)
4. Crochet a skirt
5. Learn how to knit two socks at once
6. Complete quilt begun at Stitchhouse Boston
7. Sew one quilt, start to finish, by myself
8. Learn how to darn socks
9. Re-create my baby and middle school photo albums and return baby album to my mother if she wants it
10. Scan my favorite photos from childhood albums and store
11. Pick free fruit from a local orchard
12. Bake a pie crust from scratch
13. Repair “Jersey” cloth picture I made for David
14. “Put up” farm stand tomatoes with David
15. Grow herbs in window box or small pots at front of apartment
16. Grow a tiny bush in a pot
17. Decorate apartment -walls, window dressings, etc.
18. Frame my two favorite paintings (0/2)
19. private
20. private
21. Make my own hair conditioner
22. Make my own laundry detergent
23. Complete three artist assignments from Miranda July’s “Learning to Love you More” (http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com/)
Community/Connection
1. Plan two travel-vacations with my mother (0/2)
2. Take canoe trip in Concord, MA with David (www.canoeconcord.com)
3. Host a clothing swap
4. Attend a plant swap
5. Co-host a dinner party with David
6. Surprise David with 10 small gifts at random (0/10)
7. Write a letter to my favorite restaurants to ask them to switch to reusable chopsticks
8. Compliment one stranger each week for 26 weeks (0/26)
9. Call my brother once a month for 12 months (0/12)
10. Find a few fun games to play with my father
11. Record a day of my life in photos and invite my family to view
12. Fill out organ donor card
13. Get a pedicure with David
14. private
15. private
16. Attend a sing-a-long at the Coolidge Corner Theater
17. Join the Time Trade Circle time bank (ww.timetradecircle.org)
18. Volunteer to cook with Community Servings (www.servings.org)
Read/Write
1. Post on library blog 1x per week for 3 months (0/12)
2. Be active on all three books
A. Complete 3rd or final draft of “Confessions”
B. Complete 2nd drafts of gp text
C. Complete “crappy first draft” rw quote book
D. Shop “Confessions” to agents & publishers
3. Memorize my five favorite poems
4. Submit my favorite haiku for publication
5. Visit every branch of the BPL and blog visits (0/27)
6. Write 20 handwritten letters (0/20)
7. Write two zines (select from to-do list)
8. Read 10 personal development books and journal my thoughts (0/10)
9. Attend a free blogging event at MIT
Health/Adventure
1. Get crowns for teeth (0/2)
2. Bike to work at 3x per week for three months (0/36)
3. Complete the 30 mile Hub on Wheels ride (hubonwheels.kintera.org)
4. Enroll in and take Mass Bike street-riding safety class
5. Learn to ice skate backward
6. Visit Greater Boston parks in the DCR Park Passport program (www.mass.gov/dcr/passport) (0/15)
7. Take 5 MBTA buses to the end of the line just to see where they go (0/5)
8. Go western line dancing with my mother
9. Plan a bike ride with my father (rent bikes)
10. Meditate for five minutes a day for 15 days (0/15)
11. Go 40 days without dairy
12. Give up cookies for one month
13. Go to bed at 10:30 for two consecutive weeks
14. Take probiotics and B vitamins every day for three months
15. Visit the MOMA
16. Clean litter box every 2 days for four months
17. Learn how to dance Thriller
18. Complete a Shere Hite questionnaire and mail
19. private
20. private
Work/Organize/Improve
1. Process my notes as soon as I leave a meeting
2. Identify a project management method that works for me
3. Practice uni-tasking
4. Put small, attractive bins in bathrooms at work to recycle toilet paper rolls
5. Leave for work 15 minutes early for two consecutive weeks
6. Sign up for paperback swap
7. Recover from the Great Laundry Theft of 2000-something and purchase pants (0/5)
8. Prepare for National Poetry Month 2 months in advance
9. Install a clothesline
10. Organize and clean all the cabinets and closets in my apartment
11. Remove 5 unused items from my apartment every month
12. Use coupons 10 times (0/10)
13. Obtain a small washboard, preferably from Freecycle or at yard sale
14. Listen to all of my CDs in alphabetical order
15. Read 25 pages of every book on my shelf that I haven’t completed and, if I find I’m not interested, remove the book from my collection
16. Purge comics by giving away or selling any I don’t intend to read again
17. Find a suitable home for every item I own
18. Learn to identify 10 new trees (0/10)
19. Make a list of all the albums I’d like to own; purchase/Freecycle 8 (0/8)
20. Compile list of 10 skillshare classes I’d like to teach
21. Record all the passwords in my life and find a way to keep safe
22. For every incomplete item, donate $5 to a charity that I usually don’t donate to
Last year, I completed all the exercises in "31 Days to Fix Your Finances" - a personal (finance) development exercise penned by Trent of my favorite personal finance blog The Simple Dollar. In the process I devised a few goals, which I wrote down and then mostly forgot about. Somehow, despite my not being attentive, much of what I had marked as a short term goal -like taking a vacation with my mother -magically got done. That's when I decided to look a little closer at 101 Things.
101 Things (notice they're not called goals, they're "preset tasks")? What kinds of "Things"? After reading a number of the lists, my sense of intrigue turned into something like mild obsession and, some months later, I now have my very own, much contemplated and many times revised 101 in 1001.
Posting the list here is my official coming out. I don't know the end date yet, because I can't figure out how to -er, figure it out. But I'll post it when I get it.
Also, a few items are marked private. Sorry, folks. They are, indeed, private. Though I can tell you some of them involve people I know. Surprises are planned. I'll leave it at that.
101 Things in 1001 Days
101 Goals in 1001 Days
Finances/”Bumblefund”
1. Save 2K in travel savings account (0/2000)
2. Build 3 month emergency fund (2500/5184)
3. Save to repair Finn Comforts (0/$150)
4. Keep to a budget for 4 consecutive months
5. Save $300 to buy holiday gifts in 2009 (0/300)
Craft/Create
1. When I think about doing something art/crafty/writing, act immediately, twenty times (0/20)
2. Start a yarn/craft journal/binder and/or join raverly.com
3. Knit/crochet or otherwise craft a homemade gift for everyone in my family and David’s (0/10)
4. Crochet a skirt
5. Learn how to knit two socks at once
6. Complete quilt begun at Stitchhouse Boston
7. Sew one quilt, start to finish, by myself
8. Learn how to darn socks
9. Re-create my baby and middle school photo albums and return baby album to my mother if she wants it
10. Scan my favorite photos from childhood albums and store
11. Pick free fruit from a local orchard
12. Bake a pie crust from scratch
13. Repair “Jersey” cloth picture I made for David
14. “Put up” farm stand tomatoes with David
15. Grow herbs in window box or small pots at front of apartment
16. Grow a tiny bush in a pot
17. Decorate apartment -walls, window dressings, etc.
18. Frame my two favorite paintings (0/2)
19. private
20. private
21. Make my own hair conditioner
22. Make my own laundry detergent
23. Complete three artist assignments from Miranda July’s “Learning to Love you More” (http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com/)
Community/Connection
1. Plan two travel-vacations with my mother (0/2)
2. Take canoe trip in Concord, MA with David (www.canoeconcord.com)
3. Host a clothing swap
4. Attend a plant swap
5. Co-host a dinner party with David
6. Surprise David with 10 small gifts at random (0/10)
7. Write a letter to my favorite restaurants to ask them to switch to reusable chopsticks
8. Compliment one stranger each week for 26 weeks (0/26)
9. Call my brother once a month for 12 months (0/12)
10. Find a few fun games to play with my father
11. Record a day of my life in photos and invite my family to view
12. Fill out organ donor card
13. Get a pedicure with David
14. private
15. private
16. Attend a sing-a-long at the Coolidge Corner Theater
17. Join the Time Trade Circle time bank (ww.timetradecircle.org)
18. Volunteer to cook with Community Servings (www.servings.org)
Read/Write
1. Post on library blog 1x per week for 3 months (0/12)
2. Be active on all three books
A. Complete 3rd or final draft of “Confessions”
B. Complete 2nd drafts of gp text
C. Complete “crappy first draft” rw quote book
D. Shop “Confessions” to agents & publishers
3. Memorize my five favorite poems
4. Submit my favorite haiku for publication
5. Visit every branch of the BPL and blog visits (0/27)
6. Write 20 handwritten letters (0/20)
7. Write two zines (select from to-do list)
8. Read 10 personal development books and journal my thoughts (0/10)
9. Attend a free blogging event at MIT
Health/Adventure
1. Get crowns for teeth (0/2)
2. Bike to work at 3x per week for three months (0/36)
3. Complete the 30 mile Hub on Wheels ride (hubonwheels.kintera.org)
4. Enroll in and take Mass Bike street-riding safety class
5. Learn to ice skate backward
6. Visit Greater Boston parks in the DCR Park Passport program (www.mass.gov/dcr/passport) (0/15)
7. Take 5 MBTA buses to the end of the line just to see where they go (0/5)
8. Go western line dancing with my mother
9. Plan a bike ride with my father (rent bikes)
10. Meditate for five minutes a day for 15 days (0/15)
11. Go 40 days without dairy
12. Give up cookies for one month
13. Go to bed at 10:30 for two consecutive weeks
14. Take probiotics and B vitamins every day for three months
15. Visit the MOMA
16. Clean litter box every 2 days for four months
17. Learn how to dance Thriller
18. Complete a Shere Hite questionnaire and mail
19. private
20. private
Work/Organize/Improve
1. Process my notes as soon as I leave a meeting
2. Identify a project management method that works for me
3. Practice uni-tasking
4. Put small, attractive bins in bathrooms at work to recycle toilet paper rolls
5. Leave for work 15 minutes early for two consecutive weeks
6. Sign up for paperback swap
7. Recover from the Great Laundry Theft of 2000-something and purchase pants (0/5)
8. Prepare for National Poetry Month 2 months in advance
9. Install a clothesline
10. Organize and clean all the cabinets and closets in my apartment
11. Remove 5 unused items from my apartment every month
12. Use coupons 10 times (0/10)
13. Obtain a small washboard, preferably from Freecycle or at yard sale
14. Listen to all of my CDs in alphabetical order
15. Read 25 pages of every book on my shelf that I haven’t completed and, if I find I’m not interested, remove the book from my collection
16. Purge comics by giving away or selling any I don’t intend to read again
17. Find a suitable home for every item I own
18. Learn to identify 10 new trees (0/10)
19. Make a list of all the albums I’d like to own; purchase/Freecycle 8 (0/8)
20. Compile list of 10 skillshare classes I’d like to teach
21. Record all the passwords in my life and find a way to keep safe
22. For every incomplete item, donate $5 to a charity that I usually don’t donate to