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101 Things in 1001 Days

I missed this meme the first time around, but now that I’m trying to whip my life back into shape I figured I should give it a shot. The plan is to list 101 things to do in the next 1001 days, which takes me until November 19, 2009. For symbolic purposes I’m going to aim for November 9, 2009 instead, my 34th birthday. Things I no longer want to do are in italics, things completed are struck out.

Totals: 43 complete, 18 abandoned, 40 outstanding.

The List:

Career (4-3-3)

  • Finish my MBA applications
  • Get out of MBA
  • Get a great job that suits me
  • Enter into a permanent or extended arrangement volunteering (i.e., not just a one-time thing) (ideas: teaching teens/college students about personal finance?)
  • Subscribe to a good newspaper or business magazine and read it regularly
  • Update Prof. McIlkenny on what happened post-MBA
  • Get USENIX and SAGE memberships
  • Finish deeply reading Seven Habits, teach it to Candice to make sure I know it, and do what it says including a mission statement
  • Finish deeply reading Getting Things Done, teach it to Candice, and organize myself using its principles for a month
  • Print personal business cards

Well-being (4-4-12)

  • Try rock-climbing
  • Buy a curling broom
  • Join a curling rink for regular league play
  • Follow a workout schedule (gym or home) for a month
  • Go kayaking
  • Reach a 32″ waist or 160 lbs (when I started, 36″, 200; Sep 22 2007:,34″, 185)
  • Do ten pullups
  • Get my eyes checked
  • Restart my Zen practice
  • Do a yoga class
  • Get benefits set up for Candice and I
  • Eat a steak and see what happens
  • One week. No pop.
  • Pamper myself at a spa
  • Eat homemade lunches at work for a week
  • Ride my bike to work every day for a week
  • Ride my bike to work with snow on the ground
  • Take a multivitamin every day for a month – restarted Mon Jul 30 2007
  • Floss every day for a month
  • Get up early (6 am?) every day for a week (6:30 AM, school)

Home, Family (6-2-9)

  • Cook dinner for two every night for two weeks
  • Bake a loaf of bread
  • Move to Toronto
  • Get rid of all the detritus (parts, papers) from the spare room
  • Set up a blog for Dad
  • Eat at the dining room table, instead of the couch, for a full week
  • Set up backups for all of our computers
  • Rip all of my CDs
  • Set up better lighting in the kitchen
  • Build a cable management thingy under the desk
  • Buy a labelmaker and GTD-ize my folders (Not so big on GTD now.)
  • Buy a sturdy filing cabinet
  • Take old clothes to St Vincent de Paul
  • Get Candice’s wedding dress boxed up
  • Make sushi
  • No clothes on the bedroom floor for two weeks.
  • Get Internet and VoIP phone going in Toronto

Finance (1-0-7)

  • Cash my forgotten college GIC
  • Fill out Sun Life paperwork from Mitel
  • Restart my automatic RRSP purchases
  • Arrange automatic house-down-payment savings
  • Talk to the bank about student loans
  • Look into car insurance, renter’s insurance, roadside assistance
  • Write a will
  • Coinstar all of my change

Hobbies and Things (5-2-11)

  • Practice flute at least two hours a week for a month
  • Play at a local Irish music session
  • Sell the motorcycles – Shadow’s gone!
  • Buy another bike
  • Get my full M license
  • Cancel my cellphone and find a prepaid plan
  • Buy a laptop so I don’t have to use my work computer for everything
  • Carry my camera around town, and take 100 pictures in a week
  • Go shooting on a range
  • Learn some origami
  • Spend my Rideau Centre gift card
  • Drive a Jeep
  • Buy a different car
  • Take Candice up in a small plane
  • Sell the NeXTstation (Gave it away to a local collector)
  • Port my contacts and calendar to the Palm
  • Move to Firefox 2
  • Take French courses

Local and Entertainment (4-0-15)

  • See Ron Mueck at the National Gallery
  • Go up the CN Tower
  • Take the Parliament Hill touristy tour
  • Visit the ROM
  • Visit the Ontario Science Centre
  • Ride the O-Train!
  • Eat at some cult’s vegetarian restaurant
  • Go see the NAC Orchestra play
  • Go see a modern string quartet piece
  • See ten local bands play
  • Go to a Jays game
  • See the Raptors play
  • See Toronto FC play
  • Go to the zoo
  • Go out to dinner with Tim and Toby
  • Get soaked in a downpour
  • Stroll around the old parts of an old cemetery
  • Go out to a nightclub ten times
  • Go up in a hot air balloon

Travel (1-0-8)

  • Visit Ireland
  • Ride or drive up North for a week(end)
  • Show Candice around Toronto
  • Take Candice up to the observation deck atop Mount Royal
  • Go to Niagara Falls
  • Go to Manitoulin Island
  • Visit Nova Scotia, other than Kingston
  • Drive the Cabot Trail
  • Visit NYC

Rich

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4 responses to “101 Things in 1001 Days”

  1. Looks like a great list – I’ve been contemplating doing it myself, but for whatever reason it seems like so much to accomplish in such a short period of time!

  2. Suggestion that I got from my dental hygienist: Floss in front of the TV. I.e. There’s usually a time when you flake out for half an hour or so, and that’s the time to floss. If you try to build it into your morning or evening ablutions, it will be easy to get rushed and forget.

    It worked a charm for me. Until I no longer had a TV. 8^/

  3. gcrumb: Yeah, I bet Candice would just love that.

    I do have a secret weapon for flossing, though: cleanpaste!

    (About which I should post a glowing review sometime. It’s awesome stuff — it’s sort of yarny and foamy and very minty, so it’s sort of like crossing a floss with a toothpaste-impregnated long thin sponge.)