If you have been following along for the last few months, you will have heard about the different experiments that I have been trying to make my life better. It is time for a recap of my recent ones to see how I am getting on with life and the benefits of stepping out of my comfort zone.
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I will admit, I completely dropped the ball on my experiments around December. Maybe it was the stress of Christmas, or maybe I was just plain exhausted, I ended up forgetting to start or finish whatever I had planned for the week. Plus, I was still trying to keep the previous experiments going too. I didn’t want to slip into bad habits and undo all of my hard work with the first 10 experiments. So, for this recap, we have the five experiments that I actually completed. There was supposed to be ten but I will do those other five another time.
1K words a day for a month
In a bid to get my novel finished, I decided to spend some time cracking on with the word count. I had hoped that by sitting and cracking out 1,000 words a day, I would finally get it finished and I could get it submitted to my publisher. During the course of the month, I had to edit my history book and get it sent back to my publisher so it could be sent to the printers. By the end of the month, I had fallen short of the intended word count but did have the history book available for pre-order.
How has it been?
I will admit, I have been back and forth with the word count thing. There are days I am completely inspired and my husband has to rip the laptop from my hands to get me to sleep. What I have found is that I do need to step away from the novel from time to time, otherwise I get bored with it and completely lose focus. I have found that even stepping away from it for a day or two can make a big difference to the creative process. Is it finished yet? Of course it isn’t! But stay tuned because it is nearly ready to be submitted to a publisher.
Only drink water for a week
Because of my checks on my blood and ditching the coke, I decided to drink nothing but water. While I was doing this experiment, I ended up with really bad restless legs because of the lack of electrolytes and salts in my body. As far as experiments go, this was a simple enough one. All I had to do was keep my sippy cup filled with water and work away at it during the day.
How has it been?
I was surprised by how well this one worked. I know I am terrible for keeping myself hydrated but I have definitely improved. Now I will drink some water, some hydration salts, some herbal tea, and really mix up the fluids that I take in. I am still avoiding coke like the plague after realising it was responsible for my IBS attacks, and it isn’t uncommon to find me standing in the kitchen and necking a pint of cold water down me. This has been a real success for me and I would definitely recommend everyone try it to get into a good hydration habit.
Witchy tips
The experiments were starting to get a bit serious so I decided to switch things up with some witchy tips. The idea was to bring a bit of spirituality into my day and be more mindful. When I was doing the tips, weird stuff started to happen. Maybe it was just a series of coincidences or serendipity, but it freaked me out a wee bit. Nothing bad happened, in fact it was the opposite. Ok, I didn’t win the lotto of anything like that but there was plenty of little things that happened that made life that little bit sweeter.
How has it been?
I will admit, I dropped the ball with using these tips since I finished the experiment. I kept them going for a while but I ended up forgetting about them. I’m not sure if it was laziness or baby brain kicking in but I completely fell off the wagon. But, because of the weird stuff that happened, and I’m not exhausted from Christmas now, I might start doing them again. As weird as it might seem, the benefits that came with doing them was definitely worth the effort.
No negativity
This was another light-hearted one that was more to do with perspective than avoiding negative situations. I always think of the Captain Jack Sparrow meme, “the problem is not the problem; the problem is your attitude about the problem“. So, rather than be all doom and gloom about life and my problems, I decided to change how I dealt with them and my attitude.
How has it been?
Since doing this experiment, I have noticed a big change in how I handle some stuff. There is a lot of stuff going on in my life (I don’t want to bog everyone down with it) and I found myself handling it a bit better. There has been a bit of a “shit happens” mentality and sometimes I have buried my head in the sand rather than deal with things. But this has made a big difference in how problems are handled.
Micromanaged my money
On the run-up to Christmas, I was determined to get my money sorted going into the new year. This could only mean one thing, micromanaging my money. I will admit, the last quarter of 2018 was not great for me as a businesswoman, my profits had taken a pounding but I was determined to make the best to what I had. It is the unfortunate thing about my line of work, sometimes it is a feast and sometimes it is a famine. But, the plan was to keep track of the spending in the hope that I could discover my weak spots and make my money work better for me.
How has it been?
Since the experiment, I have been trying very hard to keep better track of my money and make better choices when it comes to my spending. I have been looking into coupons and money saving ideas to help stretch my bank balance a bit better. One thing I have noticed is that a lot of the money-saving apps and sites aren’t really money saving sites at all. You have to buy things that you wouldn’t normally buy in order to get a discount. The Americans have it right with their extreme couponing, I wish we had something like this in the UK (or maybe I’m not looking hard enough).
So what do you think of my experiments? Do you have any tips or thoughts that could make this better? Let me know in the comments section.