1. First things first - Post this list online
The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.
Everybody else is doing it so why don't I? No good reason that I can think of. No truck with accusations of plagiarism. Original thinking died out with the dinosaurs - at least that's what everyone keeps telling me.
This will give life some structure, a reason to stop bemoaning my lot, cease putting things off, get some stuff done and stop watching too many reruns of Charmed and Buffy. Young chap needs goals to keep him sane, what!
As far as I can tell it all started here, which sets out the credo thus:
The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on your part).
Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as new year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.
Now that the small print's out of the way, props must go to Jim for drawing my attention to this path in the first place, and to Tory, whose pep talk at New Year got me thinking about where my life was going and encouraged me to do something.
Some of this stuff is simple, personal or mundane, other parts genuinely self-improving or atonement for past inadequacies. Some may well be out of my reach. Some of it's just fun.
Thomas wanted to know what the penalty would be for failing any particular task, seeming keen on the idea of a Chinese burn for each ball I drop. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I choose to view the reality of failure as penalty enough.
Of course, full details of goals attained and works in progress will appear here, as well as providing occasional spin-offs on nb. If anyone feels they can help out, either by making suggestions for cultural exposure or getting involved in the bigger, more practical schemes, please do pipe up.
And by publishing this, I've ticked the first item off the list. Now for the hard bit.
So without further ado, here are the 100 other things I'm going to endeavour to do in the next two years, eight months and 28 days.
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.
Everybody else is doing it so why don't I? No good reason that I can think of. No truck with accusations of plagiarism. Original thinking died out with the dinosaurs - at least that's what everyone keeps telling me.
This will give life some structure, a reason to stop bemoaning my lot, cease putting things off, get some stuff done and stop watching too many reruns of Charmed and Buffy. Young chap needs goals to keep him sane, what!
As far as I can tell it all started here, which sets out the credo thus:
The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on your part).
Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as new year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.
Now that the small print's out of the way, props must go to Jim for drawing my attention to this path in the first place, and to Tory, whose pep talk at New Year got me thinking about where my life was going and encouraged me to do something.
Some of this stuff is simple, personal or mundane, other parts genuinely self-improving or atonement for past inadequacies. Some may well be out of my reach. Some of it's just fun.
Thomas wanted to know what the penalty would be for failing any particular task, seeming keen on the idea of a Chinese burn for each ball I drop. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I choose to view the reality of failure as penalty enough.
Of course, full details of goals attained and works in progress will appear here, as well as providing occasional spin-offs on nb. If anyone feels they can help out, either by making suggestions for cultural exposure or getting involved in the bigger, more practical schemes, please do pipe up.
And by publishing this, I've ticked the first item off the list. Now for the hard bit.
So without further ado, here are the 100 other things I'm going to endeavour to do in the next two years, eight months and 28 days.
- Post this list online
- Change my job - upwards or sideways
- Sit the NCTJ exams
- Read five post-war classic novels (0/5) and five pre-war classic novels (0/5)
- Read five biographies (0/5)
- Brush up my French well enough to have conversations in France
- Visit Paris
- Holiday two places that aren't North America, including at least one country I've never visited
- Buy a whizzy new PC
- Finish compiling my top 100 movies
- Organise my DVDs into some kind of comprehensible system
- Watch all the DVDs I own but haven't watched (0/50)
- Run my current jalking circuit
- Join a club and attend regularly
- Get the kitchen/bathroom/bedroom door done
- Paint the front door
- Learn to drive
- Extend my leasehold
- Pay off my credit card
- Host and cater six dinner parties (0/6)
- Cook a meal entirely sourced from Borough Market
- Watch Newcastle United play, preferably at St James' Park
- Drink a championship-winning beer at the GBBF
- Test my powers of creative writing properly by completing a script or short story
- Babysit for Thomas and Jane at least six times (0/6)
- Add a humanitarian aid charity to my monthly donations
- Sort the garden out to a sustainable standard
- Host a summer party
- Shave at least once a week for three months
- Visit Paul and Tracy on the Godforsaken Rock
- Go to Sowerby Bridge Rushbearing with Laura
- Paint the walls in the back garden
- Have the front of the house painted
- Clear the boxes of junk from the cupboards at home and donate usable stuff to charity shops
- Fire live ammunition
- Count and convert my copper collection into usable cash
- Let someone else benefit from at least 50% of the realised funds
- Host a Coen Brothers movie night
- Upgrade home auditory experience
- Organise my CDs into some kind of comprehensible system
- Complete the '34 years in music' project by 20 May 2006
- Listen patiently to the work of 10 recording artists unfamiliar to me (0/10)
- Write ten chatty letters (0/10)
- Spend an afternoon in each of the British Museum, Science Museum, and Natural History Museum (0/3)
- Learn how to complete a cryptic crossword
- Update nota benny each day for a 31-day month
- Take people for a picnic at Kenwood
- Complete three charity walks (0/3)
- Go to the theatre 20 times (0/20)
- Watch original language works by Kurosawa, Bergman, Fellini, Godard and Herzog (0/5)
- Learn to cook five new dishes (0/5)
- Double the number of lengths I swim in the pool
- Go to the Ice Bar
- Spend a day at an England Test match
- Ride a horse
- Take Andy and Anna for dinner - no kids
- Meet Finlay Glennie
- Meet Signe Barrett
- Try roller-blading or skiing
- Spend an afternoon in Tate Britain
- Go to Poptimism at least once
- Bake a cake and take it to work
- Attend a Daily Show taping in New York
- Buy a new suit
- Switch nota benny and this list to their own domain
- Volunteer for a community project
- Reunite with the old Claude Gibb gang in Newcastle
- Go on a date
- Learn to touchtype
- Give my spare change to the first busker who makes me grin spontaneously
- Go on an official Rainbow Breweries tour
- Get a cat
- Find a specific book (undisclosed)
- Write my will
- Have a proper massage
- Buy my mother flowers on a random occasion
- Win round Emma Bartle again
- Eat at one of London's top restaurants
- Vote in every NUJ ballot for 18 months
- Change my bank
- Attain the blood donation silver award
- Wear my cnn.com t-shirt to work and provide photographic evidence
- Have a letter printed in a national publication
- Redecorate the sitting room and hall
- Make my photographs available for exhibition online
- Visit the Carter Presidential Library
- Help two people (or sets thereof) move house
- Make a list of 101 things that make me happy
- Get Robin to honour his commitment to sit naked astride one of the Trafalgar Square lions
- Collate all my friends'/family's birthdays and wish them happy birthday on the correct day in the next 12 months
- Write to my MP about an important issue
- Climb a mountain
- Do something on a boat
- Visit Parliament
- Bet £20 on 23 red at a casino roulette table
- Make it across the Golden Gate Bridge
- Get a buzz at Vinopolis
- See a band/artist I have never seen live before
- Memorise all 50 US states well enough to recite them backwards
- Go on a walk that takes more than a day to complete
- This space reserved for someone special
posted by Ben at 5:14 PM
6 Comments:
I think that's a fabulous list.
Question -- if I can manage to get to London some time before your 1001 days are up, will you use up one of you museum trips with me? I only got halfway through the BM before exhaustion set in.
Getting over there within 3 years isn't likely, but it's a goal ;> No commitment -- you don't even have to have a meal with me -- but I thought I'd toss it out.
Absolutely, you're on. Glad to be asked. :) It's the fact that I make so little use of London's terrific museums that made me add them to the list. I don't intend to neglect them after crossing them off.
Btw, without giving too much away, which general area of the US are you in?
Oh, it's no secret (I'm sure my info is plastered far and wide at this point). I live in Central Florida, in a little town north of Orlando, and I try to ignore all the Theme Parks as much as possible.
Which means, reciprocally, if you find yourself in this area at some point, and you'd like to see something that doesn't have Mouse Ears or Shamu on it, let me know. I'll take you to GatorLand!
http://www.gatorland.com/
I'd have hazarded a guess at Florida based on what I've seen on your blog (sorry). Haven't been there since I was about 15, and that was Miami and Rodent City. It was my first trip Stateside and why I'm a Dolfan. ;) Closest I've got since is a trip to Savannah last autumn. Oh, and I spend a lot of time there in my head, courtesy of Carl Hiaasen, a man of whom Florida should be proud.
Have you picked the biographies you want to read yet? If not, I've got a suggestion -- Berlin Diary by William Shirer. It's very different from his other tomes. I've read it twice. It's a journalistic transcript of his experiences as a radio reporter in WWII Berlin under the Nazies. Both times I finished the book I had to remind myself who won the war. Very affecting.
Goal 46: try starting here: http://www.biddlecombe.demon.co.uk/puzzles.html
Get yourself a decent book on solving cryptics, and practice frequently. If you made it through your A-levels and have reasonable general knowledge, a complete solution to an easy Times/Guardian/Indie/Telegraph cryptic should be feasible inside 2.75 years.
Post a Comment
<< Home