After reading Willpower, I decided to implement a system, kind of based on something Ben Franklin outlined in his autobiography.

I haven’t done away with my to-do list (it’s too engrained) but I have started a new notebook to keep track of the good habits I want to keep up with.  In the book, I learned that the simple act of recording various habits makes people more self-aware and virtuous, and that recording also helps people develop a larger “pool” of willpower to draw from.

I have a notebook that has a line for each day of the year, and I devised a code where I’d record if I did a certain habit or activity.  For example:

  • B=Blog
  • M=Music practice
  • D=Draw
  • J=Journal
  • TJ=Therapy Journal
  • NJ=Nature Journal
  • X=Exercise
  • R=Read (for fun)
  • W=Write

And so on.  I’m six days into it so far; I like it. There are blank pages inside the journal, where I record how many words I write in a day.  I’m not forcing myself to hit any particular target (especially since I am rewriting right now!) but just the act of recording the numbers seems to make me work harder.

In my head I call this the “Book of Virtues,” but that is pretty pompous sounding.  More like “Book of Self-Discipline,” maybe?