self-help bug

I’ve found my path to riches and stardom. I came up with something, and I’ve been doing it all week, and since it’s working out so nicely so far I’m sharing it with all of you so that you can all be thrilled and enhanced and all that wonderful stuff.

It’s easy. Hell, it’s probably not even my own idea. Fifty-seven other people have probably already written books about it, but I didn’t read that stuff, so I’m calling it my own idea for the moment.

I call it:

The Three Tasks

Every night this week as I’m driving home (with my hour-long trip I have lots of thinking time), I think of three tasks that I want to accomplish in the evening, and after I’ve done the Three Tasks I can do whatever I want to for the rest of the night.

Here’s how it broke down:

Monday
1. Spend 30 minutes on the treadmill.
2. Do a load of laundry.
3. Pay bills (includes balancing checkbook).

I did all three. It actually took me a long time to do the bills, but it was the last task and so I pushed through it and then I was done. Rock.

Tuesday
1. 30 minutes on the treadmill (sense a theme?).
2. Enter the day’s receipts in my checkbook.
3. Fold/hang up all the clothes on my desk.

#2 and #3 seem really small, I know, but they’re big deals to me. I am horrible with my checkbook – atrocious. I rarely carry cash, so I use my check card everywhere, and I save all the receipts, but then I rely on calling my bank to find out how much money I have and only enter all the receipts once a month, which is bad. And my desk is a really bad gathering place for the clothes I try on in the morning and leave on my bed. I get too lazy to hang them up so at night I just chuck them on the desk and leave them there forever. So, I did all three, again.

Wednesday
1. 30 minutes on the treadmill.
2. Enter daily receipts in checkbook.
3. Put all my loose CDs in the proper cases.

Bing, bang, boom. I rock so much that I actually did 35 minutes on the treadmill, lifted weights, and did sit-ups in addition to everything else.

Thursday
1. Treadmill x 30 minutes.
2. Write check for car payment, and enter daily receipts.
3. Gather up all the old magazines in my room and take them to the trash.

Again I did 35 on the treadmill, weights (different muscles this time), and ab work.

So here’s my plan. Some form of exercise will always be the first task. I’ll very gradually increase the “official” length of that task each week, and if I do more, bonus for me. That’s the “health” task.

When entering daily receipts in my checkbook becomes a daily habit, then I’m going to come up with a new task to put in its place. The second task is kind of like “errands and external organization.”

The third task rocks, because it’s causing my very messy abode to become gradually cleaner. This is the “internal organization” task, for lack of a better title.

It’s breeding excellent karma. I’m finding myself doing other things that I tend to put off, because my three tasks are out of the way pretty quickly and then I find myself with free time to use in other productive ways. I feel healthier inside and out, which is good, and I feel better about my money, or lack thereof, which is also good.

I know it sounds so simple that other people will probably think it’s ridiculous, but since I have a tendency to let little things grow until they are insurmountable, breaking it down like this is (so far) working really well for me.

Just you wait – it won’t be long until I’m hawking this shit in infomercials.

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