30 Day Productivity Challenge

30 Day Productivity Challenge

Hi! This is something new I’m trying, and I’m posting it here to keep myself accountable. A friend of mine recently challenged herself to enter monk mode until October 2020, and this motivated me to do a productivity challenge of my own. However, I know myself well enough to admit that I probably can’t commit to something as intense as my friend’s challenge upfront. Instead, I’ll challenge myself to a 30 day productivity challenge and see how I feel afterwards.

These are the terms that I’m setting for myself for the next 30 days. As I get used to the challenge I may ramp up and revise the terms to be stricter, but I’d rather set the bar lower and overachieve rather than set it too high and fail. (edit: Haha! I actually had to make the terms less strict because they were driving me crazy.) 

Duration

I will be starting this challenge from tomorrow, Monday, March 9 until Friday, April 9. I’ll use today to set my goals, set up productivity apps, and clean my workspace so I can hit the ground running tomorrow. After this month, I’ll review how it went and see if I want to continue. 

Habits I Will Enforce

My bad habits have completely overpowered the good ones I struggled so hard to form. I’m going to use this experiment to give me the grit I need to overcome my bad habits and get back on track. 

  • I will be asleep by 11:00 pm and up by 7:00 am. On weekends, I can get up at 8 am. (edit: since I’m now working from home, I’ve changed this policy to be up by 8:00 am. I’ve also been less strict about going to sleep exactly at 11:00 pm since I’m most productive during the night.)
  • In order to check or use my phone I must be off my bed.
  • The first things I do when I wake up will be to brush my teeth and wash my face.
  • The first things I do when I come home from work will be to wash my hands, take out my contacts, brush my teeth, wash my face, and do skincare.
  • Anytime a to-do item pops up I will write it into my phone notes or on Trello, so I won’t forget it. 
  • I’ll be writing brief summaries every day to track my progress and hold myself accountable. 

Goals

These are the things that I plan to use 90% of my outside-of-work time on. I enjoy doing a lot of things on this list, but never end up doing them because I’m wasting time elsewhere.

  1. Regularly update this blog with new articles with finance career, test-taking, and productivity articles (1-2 per week). 
  2. Hustle. I’ve had the entrepreneur itch for a long time now and I’m dying to scratch it. I’ll set up an online store for a niche and see what comes out of it. Any income that comes out of it will be reinvested into the business. 
  3. Sell my clothes online and document the experience. 
  4. Get better at the ukulele and guitar.
  5. Exercise. All my life, I’ve never really exercised and I get out of breath very easily. I’ll start with a simple 5-10 minute cardio workout everyday and work up to at least 30 minutes a day of exercise. (Spoiler alert: this goal is not going well.)
  6. Listen to more audiobooks and podcasts and post summaries and reviews of each one on this blog.
  7. Managing my investments better and looking for strong dividend stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds to buy into.
  8. Study for the CFA exam. The CFA stands for Chartered Financial Analyst exam and is intended for investment management professionals. See their website here if you’re interested in learning more. 

Banned Time Sinks

A time sink is something that consumes your time and provides very little benefit. Many time sinks are out of habit and at some point done for the sake of doing something and not because you enjoy it anymore. It’s different for everyone, but examples of time sinks could be reading manga, binging shows, checking email, and browsing social media. 

  1. Manga has to go. I’ve challenged myself to be productive many times and set daily limits on how much manga I read. I always pass the time limit, so it’s got to go entirely. I’ll be using the Freedom app to block all manga websites, no exceptions. 
  2. YouTube will be limited to the following content creators, or others (with discretion) that have similar content. I can watch other videos on Youtube, but only up to 30 minutes a day. (Edit: this is not going well. I average closer to 2-3 hours of unproductive Youtube a day.)
    • Bestdressed. (Everyday life)
    • Matt D’Avella (Minimalism, Productivity)
    • Graham Stephen (Real Estate Investing, Personal Finance)
    • Andrei Jikh (Investing, Personal Finance)
    • Living to DIY With Rachel Metz (DIY)
    • Haegreendal (Everyday life)
    • Unfortunately for this month, samoyed channels (MilkyBoki, mochamilk, and mayapolarbear) are banned. Dog rescue videos are also banned. While these videos are very enjoyable, I spend too much time watching them. 

Socializing

If you’re doing a monk mode challenge like my friend, monk mode encourages you to socialize less and use that time to become more productive. However, given that I rarely socialize and I’m not doing a strict version of monk mode, I will be tweaking this part to better apply to me:

  • I will try to go out at least once a week for social activities (including work outings, conferences, meeting up with friends, or group study sessions)
  • In order to try and preserve weekend productivity, I will try to socialize during the work week (as work allows) rather than the weekends

And Finally, Tips I’ll Use to Stay Productive

These are some of the tips I picked up from a book called Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Keratzy. The authors of this book worked at Google and invented the design sprint process used there today. Here are some of the tips from their book, and my own takeaways, that I will use to help stay productive:

  • Complete small achievements first and build up to larger tasks
  • Being honest to yourself and know where you might fail, so you can set up barriers to help prevent that
  • If you have a distracting thought that pops up while you’re working, write it down and forget about it. Come back to the distraction later when you’re finished with the task at hand.
  • Make your bed a place only for sleeping, and your desk a place for working 
  • Use your favorite music to help you push through mundane chores and tasks
  • Know your biggest time-wasters and use productivity apps to help you manage them
  • Take frequent but short breaks, try meditating to clear your head and refresh your mind
  • Try to leave yourself an easy task for tomorrow so you can start the day with something simple.

Final Thoughts

Frankly, I’m worried. By nature I’m a creature of comfort and this is definitely encouraging me to step outside of my comfort zone. While I do keep up with my goals somewhat regularly, I’ve never committed to anything in writing before. Still, I’m going to look at this less as a success or failure project and instead document daily how I feel and what I’ve gained from this experience.

How I Did