Jeremy Heckt's Blog

Doing Dailies - One Month In

30 days ago I started tracking the habits that I wanted to do every day. I picked a few and wrote them in a note-taking app. Here are the first ones I picked:

  1. Eat a veggie every day
  2. Love, care for, and walk my dog
  3. Write a line of code
  4. Take a photo with my DSLR
  5. Lift weights - 5 reps of a single workout

These may seem small, but if you have read my previous posts then you know that I am following the "two minute rule". The "two minute rule" states that any of your new habits should take no more than two minutes to do - but you are welcome to do more after those two minutes. This simple rule has a powerful impact on me: I do things.

When I started my list I decided to mark three of them as having been done the prior day as a way to make myself feel more productive. A few days later I added more:

  1. Meditate for one minute
  2. Journal - one sentence
  3. Read - one page
  4. Chess - one puzzle

The next day I added "play music for one minute".

A few days later:

  1. Yoga - one minute
  2. Hygiene - wash face

This is where I sat for a week. I kept doing these, every single day. I did skip one dog walk day because of the rain - or that is what I told myself, I was honestly being lazy.

I have since added the following:

  1. Language study - one DuoLingo
  2. Chemistry - learn one mechanism
  3. Writing - write one sentence

Fourteen things. Fourteen things I do every single day. If you had asked me a year ago if I was capable of this I would have said no. I might have said yes - but that because I knew I could but wouldn't. I have proven that I could. I have proven that I can.

It feels good to finally be on a path to becoming who I want to be. It took a long time, but I am finally almost there. But as they say - the last 10% of a project is 90% of the work!