La Problema:
I’m a stat checker. I’ve always been that way as a sport’s fan but it got worse at Livemercial when checking analytics and rankings. I’m so afraid of being disconnected that on bad days I’ll check analytics, indexing and rankings 6 times an hour. It’s also usually a sign that my life is not in balance. Also, I’m eating every couple hours or so and my calorie count is skying over 2k a day.
When the stats aren’t enough I start clicking on and checking social media profiles every quarter hour, looking for the next high to validate my work. Welcome to the downside of having the space to yourself.
We decided to go ahead and work on Project 02.
It’s a thought leader / review blog. It’s why I haven’t been writing on here or BakedFinn. I hadn’t touched it for 6 months and it only got a fraction of the work I put on it building it, breaking it, and repairing it back in 2011. This time around I broke it again. How: I redid the link architecture without doing 301 permanent redirects from the old links from the old ones to the new ones so now search engines are sending users to dead pages. Normally this is a suicidal idea but giving the gray / black hat tactics we did when testing Project 02 out, it’s a shotgun approach to removing all those tactics. And, I get my URLs back to where I wanted them (I should have spoke up 2 years ago about it)
Also…we get to test Google’s Author Rank and Publisher Rank.
Instead of writing with Pen names, we’re using our own names which means we get to use Google Author rank on the site and the pages – the new difference maker in blogs & google.
Which means my stat checking habit has returned in force.
I check 4 times a day to see how much of the site has been reindexed in Google. At this point, nearly 50% in 2 weeks. It should take about 8 weeks in total – it’s a trust thing. I know this. Logically, I know this, but I check indexing and I check analytics and I get nervous when it’s not going as fast as I would like it. If this was someone else’s I’d be as cool as the other side of the pillow, but since it is me I’m being a whiner.
La Solución: Amos Lee & the 30-Day challenges
At the risk of driving Bella crazy, I’m pulling out my go-to tunes: Amos Lee. Someone who definitely sounds like he’s gone through similar ebbs and flows. It’s keeping me calm. Also, the squeeze baseball Bella’s mother got me for Christmas is getting a workout as are the two MLB baseballs her mother got for me as well.
Remembering other non-writing activities are investments.
When I get in these glitches I start to tell myself that the 40 minutes I could have spent writing a blog post here or on bakedfinn was a blog review I could have finished on Project 02. I also yell that the two hours at the gym was another 1500 world that could have been written – opportunity cost. But the reality is that if I don’t balance my activities and interests to maintain health I’ll have neither the posts or the health and things will spiral into that which I fear.
I’m also not:
- going to the gym
- writing about sam cooke and otis redding
- losing weight
- seeing / keeping in contact with my family friends
Something’s got to give.
Why 30 day Challenges.
It started with me hating what I saw on my social media profiles and RSS reader. I started cleaning house. I’m still not ruthless enough yet but I’m getting there. My RSS reader is now filled with inspirational and interesting things: live music, festivals, photography, fitness, health, zen, art, design, feng shui, food recipes. I only have a couple New Media thought leaders in there.
Investment habits and the challenge for February.
One of the common themes among them is small activities that can turn into fruitful habits. Leo Babauta of ZenHabits discusses Investment Habits. Tim Ferriss talks often about productivity habits that keep people from being bogged down with trying to solve everything immediately instead of prioritizing solutions.
Tim Ferriss vs. Leo Babuata
Tim Ferriss vs. Leo Babauta on Goals from Leo Babauta.
Matt Cutts talks about 30 day challenges and what he’s learned. This month, he disconnected from internet and email and learned that in the end, if it’s that important someone will tell him – something I’ve been telling myself for 6 months but had trouble believing.
I don’t let go very well, at all.
So these challenges are extra difficult for me. I have to consciously remind myself of my end goals every day before I get out of bed. It’s a constant struggle. You’d think it’d get easier as I got older but that isn’t always the case. So small challenges and turning them into habits sounds like a fruitful thing to me. It will help me balance out projects with the rest of my life. I hope.
February 2012 challenge.
To use myfitnesspal to track my calories every day. Turn it into a game. The goal: under 1800 calories a day. Double score if I keep them under 1700 so I can get to losing a lbs or so a week on just a healthy diet.
Is this a good idea?
What do you think?
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