30 Days to a Habit Change - Day 12

I love my spreadsheet and I've only used it once.  LOL.

I color-coded athletes by how much attention they need.  Green for ones that are somewhat on autopilot for a week or so, yellow for those about to race or questioning a weird pain, and red for those I need to know something about right now.

What's nice is I can open up the spreadsheet and see who's in the red.  I take care of them first, then move on to the yellow.

Kai and I went on a nice nature walk yesterday.  Just us and the woods.  I was instructed that he was to lead, except when scary animals spooked him.  It was very relaxing.  No constantly checking emails or twitter to see if I had missed something to do with coaching.

I love the whole minimalism theme that is getting popular lately, but it also worries me a bit.  If it really is a symptom of Americans getting fed up with "too much" everything and wanting to slow down, that's cool.  At the same time, it could (and might already be) dramatically shift people's spending habits and cause the whole economy to hit the skids.  I don't think change is bad, but it causes the least amount of pain when it's gradual, not abrupt.  You have to give people time to phase out, change jobs, and change habits instead of going homeless.

Just like how 911 caused a lot of people to re-evaluate how they prioritize family time, maybe the oversaturation of cars and "cheap crap from China" has hit the tipping point and is causing us to want to do without.  My real dream?  I wish towns were much more interconnected by bikes and it was safer to ride them.  That's all.  I think that leads to all kinds of benefits on its own.

30 Days to a Habit Change - Day 11

Ah, good old spreadsheets.  Can't beat 'em.

Being a coach is tough.  You have to workout so you're on top of things, but then you also have to take time out to help your clients.  It really wouldn't be bad if that's your only job.  But, most of us are parents and work part or full-time as well.

No matter how good and/or fancy the coaching software is, there's still some gaps.  I'd like software that sends you a painful electrical shock when a client either hasn't paid or his/her log is getting stale.  That's what I need.

I use workoutlog.com and it's great.  But I still need some features.  I threw together a google docs spreadsheet to help out.  I'm thinking it will do great.  For each athlete, I can create fields of info that matter to me.  Many things that I think are important don't show up as readily in coaching software as I'd like.  Time to build my own to assist in the coaching.

Should of thought of this months ago!

On the tasks note, it's working ok.  Got an email yesterday that I have a dentist appt.  Tossed it onto the calendar and I'm pretty sure I'll check it enough times between now and then that I won't miss it.

30 Days to a Habit Change - Day 10

A nice trick is to leave your desk as clean as possible.  That makes it more inviting to start working again.  One great way to do this is close all your windows as you log off.  Ok, gotta go to bed!

30 days to a habit change - Day 10

Ungh! This is tough!

There's seriously not enough hours in the day to do what needs to be done.  And I feel like there isn't that much to do!  Time just flies by too fast, I suppose.

I used the calendar (which I keep updated with the todo list) to send a sponsor a whole bunch of dates where I can show up at stuff.  I'd love to go to an event where I'm a spokesperson for a product I use.  When I use something and it works, I truly want everybody else to give it a try.

The calendar thing is actually working out pretty well.  Speaking of, I better get to checking it and knocking out a few items on my list.

OUT.

30 days to a habit change - day 9

Back on the wagon!  The Ironbaby threw a kink in things, but that's better than fine.  I had the time of my life!

If you missed the comment from the previous habit change post, here's an important link:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/oct/10/change-your-life-habit-28-day-rule
The article states that the number of days to create a habit is not a hard and fast rule.  It can take shorter or longer, depends on the task, and depends on the person.  And you can skip days.  Weird.

Now that the Ironbaby is over, I'm working on creating some great habits.  These are mostly about setting aside the proper amount of time to get things done.  

I can say for sure that the habit of eating truly healthy (a modified paleo diet) is 100% ingrained.  I ate some junky food the few days following the Ironbaby, but it was hardly any and I found it gross.  

My checking my tasks and updating my calendar habits haven't quite taken hold yet, but they are starting to gain traction.  Constant improvement is the only goal.

That reminds me, I have always PR'd all four of my Ironmans.  Not so difficult when you start at 17 hours.  :)