January-June 2017 Self-Improvement Projects

Every month I do a PDP – a personal development project. These PDPs are either theme or project-based and I must do something specific every single day to further that project or theme.

Here’s what I’ve done so far this year:

January: Circadian rhythm fasting. Fast for 13-16 hours starting after dinner each day. Try to have dinner as close to sundown as possible.

February: Continue fasting and complete a Whole 30 – eating only real fruits, veggies, and meats for 30 days straight. No sugar, dairy, grains, additives, or desserts.

March: Read for at least an hour every day

April: Writing a valuable blog post every single day, either on cooklikechuck.com, cagrimmett.com, Medium, or the Praxis blog.

May: (Still in progress) I began May by deciding to launch LeonardRead.org, but then I pivoted because I decided that it would be better to build the website later this year when FEE has completed their digitization of LER’s journals. I didn’t know that was a work in progress until talking to someone there. So then my self-improvement this month became a series of mishmash items:

This Microblog project

Staying off of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit. I’ve been posting to Facebook and Twitter via Buffer, but I’ve successfully kept myself logged out of the services so I don’t fall down the rabbit hole of mindlessly surfing. I removed those apps from my phone and I keep WasteNoTime installed in my browser to keep me in check. It has been great so far. I’ve spent more time reading real books instead of surfing.

Going through 10 Days to Faster Reading. Currently two days in.

June: (planned) I’m planning on developing drawing skills in June. My textbook will be Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. I have all of the tools I need, and I plan to draw every day in June. I’ll keep a log of my progress and post it here.