New Goals

I was never one for new year's resolutions. In my opinion, they are unnecessary, pointless things that usually end up broken anyway. Quitting smoking is a wonderful example. Though neither of my parents smoke, I have a few aunts and uncles that do. They have quit smoking countless times. Or, I should say, have attempted to do so. To this day, they are still smoking.

Nevertheless, in a recent evaluation of my life-style I have come to the conclusion that there are a few things I would like to see changed. Improved. I recognize that the best thing to do to improve, is to set goals. So it is now that I have to resort to these things I always dreaded, these resolutions. I do hope that my resolutions will not end up as abandoned and forgotten as so many others I have seen, and to that end I will try to keep track of them in a logbook of some form. Now, here is my list of goals (I avoid the name resolutions):

• Exercise daily. I cycle a good 7 kilometers to school and back every day, so I am content with my leg muscles. I would, however, like some more muscle (and strength) in the chest, arms, and belly. To that end I will do some push-ups, pull-ups and crunches each morning. Something like fifteen minutes is the goal.
  
• Shorten my time in the shower. I do enjoy a good hot shower. A lot. So much, in fact, that I sometimes shower for half an hour. This takes a lot of my time in the morning, which I will henceforth need for my exercises. Another bonus is the energy saving environmental effect. And possibly an increase in sleep time, which is another one of my hobbies. So ten minutes tops in the shower.
  
• Go to bed earlier. I am truly a creature of the night (like batman, yes?). I have no problem at all staying up until 2 am or later. On weekdays, this cuts in my sleep time (Particularly tonight, because daylight savings time is going in effect here), and in weekends, I end up sleeping through most of the morning. I'd like to move my waking cycle more in sync with the cycle of the sun. Henceforth, midnight is the time I will go to bed, except when there are movies I want to see. Similarly, 9 am or earlier is the time I would like to rise. This gives me about 8 hours of sleep (I need some time to fall asleep) which is more than enough (If i recall correctly seven hours is recommended for people my age).
  
• Drink more water. To measure the amount of soda I drink each day, I took a fresh glass for each drink, and left these glasses on my desk for one day. The result is a rather large amount of glasses sitting on my desk right now. In response, I have decided to drink more water. I will take a full half liter bottle with me to school, and have an empty one around dinner time. When thirsty, drink water instead of soda.
• Spend more time learning Japanese. I want to learn this language for some time now, but progress is disappointing. Well, not anymore: I will set aside half an hour minimum each day for Japanese, specifically the half hour immediately after dinner.
  

These rules will all be followed during weekdays. On weekends, most of these rules are somewhat relaxed. There will still always be exceptions (like parties or other special occasions) where I allow myself to deviate from these rules. I'm talking mostly about my ordinary, daily life.
The rules will all go into effect immediately, and by that I mean next morning (I should say this morning, as it is already 3:28 am). I'm going to rigorously log how much these rules have been followed, in a file on my PC and perhaps also in this blog.

So there you have it. Wish me luck