I can be obsessive. But that’s something I was always aware of enough to stop, think, relax, and come back to earth. So, during this quest of mine I compiled a list of over 40 books to read. They revolved around focus, creativity, memory, and other areas I felt could use some improvement. I kept adding, prioritizing, and re-prioritizing books depending on what I learned day to day. Also mixed into the list are other business books–not only personal development material. This doesn’t include blogs, videos, and other sources of information. I was aware that the long list of books was becoming too obsessive.

On the personal development front, I bought two books that were about focus and attention. I wrote reviews on my endscatterbrain.com site, which I developed to catalog my endeavor on this “focus” branch of my resolutions. There were some very common themes in both books, which got me to pay more attention to some things (no pun intended).

During all of this, and also another resolution of mine, I was also hammering away at a serious household budget. Now seeing the cost of 40+ books made me consider going to the library instead of buying all the books.

Luckily enough one book high up on my priority list was available at the library. It was lucky in two ways. One that I got a book I wanted to read (for free–or better yet got my tax dollar worth), and two that I got to read this one sooner than later. The book is The Accidental Creative, by Todd Henry.

Call me a hypocrite, but I despise written reviews of books that start out like “I haven’t finished the book yet, but…” Because you can’t really review a book you haven’t finished yet or have had a chance to put the ideas into practice yet, right? Right?

Like I wrote on EndScatterbrain, a book can be either great or not depending on where you are with your knowledge and needs of the subject at the moment. Well, I’m half way through The Accidental Creative and already it’s helped tie everything together so well that I now have perfect clarity. And I also have the start of a serious and more focused plan and the desire to DO things that I think will blast me through hurdles (imaginary or not) that I’ve stumbled over for years. The book has hit home so much, that I can’t wait to adopt the lifestyle changes he’s going to suggest in later chapters. If the common themes to the other books provide any clues, I have a strong suspicion of what these lifestyle changes are going to be. Plus he alluded to some, which I know, understand, agree, and are thankfully very doable.

So tonight I decided enough is enough. The other 40 or so books will go unread for now. I’m going to cool down the blog reading and video watching a little too. I know what I need to do. FOCUS. And I need the time I would have spent reading and I need to START DOING.

What’s funny is that the process I started in October, WAS really a big part of the breakthrough in disguise. The books, content, etc. are just support material (tips, tricks, advice). But the support material has reinforced things I know I need to start doing. I love coming up with my own Yogi Berra’isms… So, I already knew what I needed to do, but I had to read about it to realize that I knew what I already knew.

The common themes in all three books is mindfulness, deliberateness, and purposefulness. And to put things into action. What got me to this point, are exactly those things. What’s going to get me far beyond this point, I’m confident, are those same things.

Also, habits and lifestyle choices have profound downstream consequences. For example, staying in your comfort zone and not forcing yourself to try new things can put a damper on creativity. Checking Twitter every five minutes rather than being in the moment (even when on line at the supermarket), has consequences on focus later on in the day. Going about your daily routine without a firm grasp of the day’s purpose can make you feel like you are in a rut, and also keep you from recognizing priorities.

Those are just a few of the things I came to realize and which I have already seen improvement.

I’m going to write a post explaining the above in better detail on EndScatterbrain soon. I’ll explain why I think focus, memory, and creativity are interrelated and what to do to improve those areas. Of course I have to wait some time for me to actually put more of the strategies into practice and see more success before I’d recommend them to anyone. But in a very short time, I have already seen enough improvement that I am confident to go full speed down this path.

One thing’s tried and true enough to declare. You’ll see it in every business book and in every self-help book. And while I always knew it in the back of my mind and applied it so many times, I guess it wasn’t so clear in my mind to apply to personal development as much as I could have. It’s to put things in motion. You can’t get from a to z without taking the first steps. There will be mistakes, failures, learning, re-routes, etc. You will also discover other things you would never have if you were wasting time and energy trying to be perfect at the starting line. I’ve seen this in my own healthy living endeavor and in so many work projects, but yet it escaped me to apply it here (until recently).

Another important thing to note… One of the books was deliberate in stressing that while you are working on improving areas of your life, you should never lose sight of your current strengths. And you should continue to put your current strengths to work. That advice has helped me avoid feeling that identifying and admitting you have areas to improve means you are inferior. Focusing so much on improvement can make you compare only your weaknesses to others. Instead you should see it for what they are–challenges and a pursuit of betterment. It puts things into a very healthy perspective.

1. Join and attend Toastmasters.
• Done. I’ve joined and already have given 2 impromptu “table topics” speeches. They were horrible, but that’s what I’m there to improve!
2. Come up with and follow weekly meal plans.
• I need to get this going. I spent a lot of time trying to find the right apps and programs to help, but I think the good old fashioned way may be best.
3. Set up and adhere to a household budget.
• I gave myself time with this one, which I need. I did start to carefully analyze spending. The next step is to put limits and goals on it.
4. Start up an IRA.
• I at least called Fidelity. I think I need to speak with an accountant or financial planner first.
5. Finish one thing a week.
• This got completely railroaded by being busier volunteering at my church. I really don’t want the entire list to slip. I need to re-prioritize the list and try to squeeze things in during the week rather than only the weekends.
6. Identify and eliminate distractions and replace them with something productive and report.
• I’ve definitely spent a lot of energy and effort in this area. I’ve even launched another blog, EndScatterbrain.com to document it.
7. Develop skills needed for all above.
• Definitely ongoing. Currently, I have a list of almost 40 books to read.

Besides resolutions, I’ve tried 30 day challenges too. First was trying to write stream of conscious entries every day, but I bailed in 4 days. Second was eliminating twitter, google+, etc for 30 days, which I succeeded and learned from. Right now I’m trying 30 days without hitting snooze, which I already failed but am still trying. The REAL goal should have been to pop right out of bed (not just not hitting snooze). I’m trying to get to bed earlier so I can do that easier. I can’t believe simple things can be such hard challenges.

That’s all for now.

I’m reading a book now, Find Your Focus Zone, to deal with my self-diagnosed scatter brain. I’ve been trying to pinpoint the source of my frustration in not being able to accomplish more (personally and professionally). I think the source is a lack of concentration at important (yet not so obvious) times. I’ll get more into the assessment and the book in another post, but the gist I took away so far is that you can program the brain negatively when constantly checking up on things like twitter. A good and fitting quote so far is “the brain influences behavior, AND behavior influences the brain.” Bad habits and behavior can snowball. Also, these distractions can serve as fodder for avoidance and procrastination. Again, more to come in another post.

My next step is to drop Twitter and Google Plus almost entirely. I might check in once a week or so (there are really interesting people I can gain valuable information from). I know for sure I’m not going to miss anything at all by not checking in on them every hour. Same for the message boards. I’m also going to drop/reduce other non-productive habits. The key of course is to be mindful and identify them.

My next 30 day challenge is going to be hard. 30 days without hitting snooze on the alarm clock. Also I’m going to have a set wake-up time each day. Although the current one isn’t quite at 30 days (I’ll keep it up), I’m starting this one {gulp} tomorrow. This means getting to bed at a more set hour, which I’ve been sort of slacking off on.

I’ve written about some of my gripes with Samsung and my Galaxy S 4G phone. Being annoyed by uninstallable bloatware. Being bothered by “enhancements” on top of Android that are incompatible with some apps.

Here is a review and some new ones.

1) The Music Player – Both made for Android headphones and apps like cardio trainer and c25k don’t work with Samsung’s own hacked up version of the Android music player. Why mess with it? Especially since there are no enhancements to offset the disadvantages.
2) Browser – First off, it’s terrible. Double tap to zoom in never ever snaps to text correctly. I never had that problem on the G1 and now never have that problem with the Dolphin browser that I had to download to replace Samsung’s terrible version. Second, the way the bookmarks are set up make it incompatible with apps that need to access them (e.g. for syncing). There are other reasons too…
3) Folder Management – Apps like Dropbox have some trouble that appears something to do with the way folders are managed. Some genius at Samsung decided to mess with Android again and wasn’t forward thinking enough to realize that it might negatively effect apps down the road.

I’m tired of finding limitations to the phone. Then finding out on online forums that the limitations are due to incompatible configurations that Samsung built in to the phone. I’m tired of finding cool apps, only to see in the description a special note that the app doesn’t work well with Samsung devices. If differentiating yourself from other Android phones means being incompatible with apps and hardware, then job well done!

As good as the phone is with some things, I’m annoyed enough to stay away from all things Samsung in the future. When “enhancements” lead to limitations, I say no thank you.

So rather than come up with a list, and say GO!, my one and only resolution is to adhere to one personal development plan, which has several items (which were originally separate resolutions). It sounds like I’m building in an excuse to procrastinate, but really it’s so the plan is more manageable and flexible. And so I don’t feel the need to put everything in motion at once. It will require discipline for sure.

Without further ado, here is my plan:

1. Join and attend Toastmasters.
• Time frame: Join a club by mid-January and attend scheduled meetings thereafter.
• I had this on a “someday” list for over a year. I really want to develop my public speaking skills and verbal communication skills on the whole. I already attended one meeting as a guest. I just need to finalize on a club location (still deciding on several).
2. Come up with and follow weekly meal plans (including my 3 1/2 year old son).
• Time frame: Compile meals starting 1/1/12. Finish and adopt schedule by 2/1/12.
• This will help with shopping and stocking up too, which can use a lot of improvement.
• It will help with sticking to healthy eating habits and squash the “what’s for dinner” daily question. I also want to get my son to eat healthier too, so there will be a sub-plan for him (e.g. introduce a new vegetable a week).
• As an app/convenience/innovation lover, I’m going to try out Food on the Table (or something similar) to help with the management.
• Hopefully it will help save money, but that’s not the primary or even secondary goal.
3. Set up and adhere to a household budget.
• Time frame: Have a clear budget for adherence by 3/1/12.
• I’ve been tinkering with Money and Quicken for years. I have a TON of data, but never took the next step and seriously PLANNED anything financially. Instead they were used for tracking, which is still important.
• Luckily we’re not horrible spenders. I just want to enforce more control and see how flexible we are with the goal of saving much more.
4. Start up an IRA.
• Time frame: Get ball rolling by contacting service providers starting 1/2/12.
• Seems simple, but yet never got done. I’m going to start out small while we polish off the last of our debt (besides home and low interest car). So once debt done, that money will be divided up with some going into an IRA.
5. Finish one thing a week.
• Time frame: 1/1/12 and ongoing.
• There are a TON of unfinished things to do around the house. I’m going to commit to finish one thing a week. Some are very small. GTD practitioners know the mental energy they can suck up (even though they are on my “someday” list).
• Multi-step things can be broken up and “completed” separately (e.g. if I have to buy something and install it can be 2 separate things).
• Like GTD can bring to light, sometimes a barrier is not focusing on the steps involved in a project.
• There will be 52 things on the list. I won’t limit myself to just one thing a week. If I finish 3 things in one week, I can either move up the next scheduled item or take some weeks off.
• In developing the list, I can imagine many things getting doubled/tripled/etc up.
• I’ll try to keep new to-do’s off that list and handle them separately.
6. Identify and eliminate distractions and replace them with something productive and report.
• Time frame: Ongoing. Report on the first of each month.
• I already got a head start on this one. I already committed to quit twitter and other social networks and message boards for 30 days. So far it’s pretty noticeable how much time I completely wasted by scanning twitter constantly (with very little benefit).
• I need to take that and take the next step and replace that time with something enriching. It could be something as simple as brainstorming or meditation. It’s pretty amazing how valuable seemingly idle time can be.
• The reporting part will be through this blog. I just need to be mindful of what’s wasting time and energy. Hopefully identifying, replacing, and writing about it will help adopt some of what I identify and change for the long term.
7. Develop skills needed for all above.
• Time frame: As needed to support above.
• Originally I wanted to read one book a month in pesuit of developing a skill I want to acquire. After further thought, I decided to first focus on the tasks on hand and concentrate on developing/mastering the skills to succeed at them.
• If other needs develop through this entire pursuit,  I will detail it and see how I can work it in.
• Here are some of the items to develop through blog reading, book reading, videos, etc:
• Public speaking, speech, presentations (to support Toastmasters).
• Memory (to support Toastmasters and in general).
• I feel GTD helped with this tremendously, but I want to see if I can see why I forget names, restaurants, etc.
• Mind mapping with project management (to support the 52 items list and in general). I’m already tinkering with XMind and MindJet.
• Budgeting (to support household budgeting).
• Others as they present themselves.
• Similar to the distraction project, I will “report” on the progress on this blog.

Truth be told, I might have attempted these things anyway. But I found the days leading up to this “announcement” extremely valuable in accessing needs, areas of need of growth, and feasibility of getting the things accomplished. I’m already going to adopt periodic assessments, reviews, and goal planning instead of waiting for a new year each year.

Lets see how it goes!

So far so good. So far, I confirmed my suspicion that none of the above were providing me with anything valuable. I get my information from other sources (e.g. blogs through Google Reader), which are probably more reliable anyway.

The time gained really hasn’t been put to any real good use yet. But I do notice that I’m less dependent on my phone. Or more accurately, I don’t need to constantly check my phone. And if I put it down for an hour or more, I’m not compelled to check anything other than for new message icons.

It bothered my wife that my head was always on the phone, and I don’t blame her. This has cut that down tremendously. It was all needless. At least for me anyway.

Now for one of my new year’s resolutions, I’m going to try to identify less obvious time wasters and chop away. And replace that time with more enriching activities.

The task then was to write a stream on consciousness writing for 30 minutes every night. It turned out to be too much of a task. Plus the upside of doing it wasn’t really clear to me even though I chose to do it. I read that it helps with focusing the train of thought and with writing, but perhaps I didn’t really believe it or even know what a success would look or feel like. There are probably a million reasons why I abandoned… Bottom line, it was probably a waste of time.

I wanted to do 30 day challenges at the start of each month. But this next one can’t wait. Or better, I don’t want to wait. It starts right… right…. riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight…………. now.

For the first time ever, I’ve come up with some rock solid new year’s resolutions. I’ll get to them in detail in another post. But one of them will be along the lines of identifying distractions and both eliminating them and substituting something constructive in their place. So this 30 day challenge is part of a test run and/or momentum builder for that resolution.

This 30 day challenge is 30 days without Twitter, Google+, or other social media and message boards. All except Facebook.

The logic is simple. I want to eliminate distractions and time wasters, but not cut out social interaction all together. I find Facebook valuable in keeping connected with people, and I don’t spend/waste a lot of time on there. Twitter, Google+, and the others, however, I find I spend way more time just browsing and not connecting with anything or anyone in any valuable way. It’s more of a boredom filler than anything else.

I do have a few caveats though. If someone DMs (or @’s me) me, I will respond–I set notifications accordingly so I don’t have to go Twitter, etc. to look for those messages. Again, I don’t want to abandon real social connections. I also can’t abandon the usage for my company, which is minimal anyway.

Now that I’ve gotten those distractions out of the way, it’s time to button up and finalize my new year’s resolutions.

What I mean is if I explained to anyone a-z what I have done, cumulatively it’s a lot to digest, confusing, and perhaps intimidating. I would not have succeeded if I had thrown all of the changes I incorporated all at one time. For one it would be frustrating as it’s a lot to think about. Also, I think physiologically things more naturally fall into place the way I phased things in. For example, my body might not have been ready for “phase 5″ things in the beginning.

Still, this might not work for everyone.  Everyone’s fitness levels, body composition, and a million other factors can differ from me. But there should be no debate on the foundation, which is eat very healthy, exercise, and get enough sleep. Also, I never had a real tough time eating too much cake, candy, cookies, chips, etc., which should be at the top of the list for anyone.

There are debates out there about long slow cardio vs. shorter and higher intensity cardio. I actually favor high intensity, but that depends on where you are starting. It’s easy for an in shape fitness guru to push high intensity. Plus considerations on growth hormone and testosterone levels are really next level things that you should not be distracted with in the beginning. You can’t lay that on someone who is very out of shape. That’s not the time for it. There is low hanging fruit to pick off first.

The bottom line is I used long slow cardio in my endeavor and did not sacrifice lean body mass. Actually I’m still deemed overweight by the BMI standards because of my lean muscle mass. I haven’t done a body fat composition test yet, but I would bet anything I’m in a very healthy range.

Ok, so here are the phases. 1, 2, and 3 are fairly basic and should be phased in within a few months. There are really no dependencies other than getting the habits down pat. Phase 4 should come when you are seeing success and ready mentally, but that should not prevent you from incorporating it a few months in even if you are still far from your goal. It’s my opinion that the next level stuff is not effective without everything else being optimized and firing on all cylinders first, so save it.

Phase 1 (get calorie balance under control, start exercising, sleep more) :

• Use MyFitnessPal (or other BMR or calorie tracker) to track calories and set calorie target for weight loss goal per week. I started at a goal of 1.5 pounds per week.
• Do cardio exercise. Long  and slow at this phase. I recommend couch to 5k (c25k).
• Drink more water.
• Take vitamins. I take a multi, fish oil, and some vitamin d.
• Sleep more.

Phase 2 (start making better diet choices):

• Keep with Phase 1 items.
• Consume less sugar (even juices, which are unnaturally concentrated and sweetened).
• Eliminate anything with high fructose corn syrup.
• Reduce salt intake if you are taking in too much (others may not have as I had been).
• Try to eat leaner proteins (chicken, turkey, eggs, higher quality beef).

Phase 3 (really start to eliminate and replace in the diet):

• Keep on with Phase 1 & 2 items.
• Take out something bad and replace it with something with good.
• Eat a lot more fruits and veggies. A lot. Everyday.
• Eliminate all artificial sweeteners.
• Increase cardio. Still stick to long and slow for now.

Phase 4 (up the  optimization):

• Keep on with Phase 1 & 2 & 3 items.
• Eat whole foods as much as possible (e.g. natural peanut butter vs. skippy with artificial ingredients). Really start to look at ingredients of things. If the list is long, avoid it. Peanut butter’s ingredients should be peanuts and nothing else (besides salt if you like it salted).
• Prepare your own food. Look for healthy recipes online and start playing around.
• When buying fruits and veggies, incorporate the rainbow (red, green, orange/yellow, blue/purple, white).
• Eat healthy snacks like nuts.
• Be careful with portion size as nuts are calorie dense.
• Also stick to dry roasted nuts.
• Bring calorie intake to a balance (depending on how close you are to your weight loss goal).
• Start incorporating some resistance training (also depending on how close you are to your weight loss goal).

Phase 5: (Next level):

• Incorporate new things to further optimize, such as:
• Green tea
• garlic
• turmeric
• probiotics
• Increase level of resistance training.
• Cycle in more higher intensity training (e.g. sprinting) and reduce long slow cardio.

STILL! My challenge is to keep the weight off this time around as I had some success the previous 2 years. BUT! So far so good this winter as I’ve carried the healthy living and lifestyle parts past Thanksgiving (where I started to fail before). So far a cold has kept me out of the gym, but I’ll be back there tonight. I will declare this entire thing a success the much longer I stick to it.

Matt, what do you have to say about the bout?
“If I can change…….., you can change…………, everybody can change!”

So my last post I said that the start of a cold would prove the effectiveness of healthy living on my body’s response to the cold that was forming at the time.

I know no matter what you do, there is no way to completely guarantee getting sick. Especially being in a house with 2 others who are sick and one being a 3 year old coughing in your face all day. Rather you can reduce the number of times and minimize the effects.

I felt I had a cold, no doubt about it. But It didn’t slow me down one bit. The “judges” all gave one round to the virus. Last night, I kind of felt worn out a little. I was getting a little nervous. Perhaps the cold was in its death throws, because I woke up this morning feeling good. Not 100%, but good.

Bottom line. I attribute my mild cold on having everything healthy lined up. Hydrated, healthy eating, plenty of rest, etc.