Tag Archives: 10 point list

How My New Life is Shaping Up

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How have I done so far with my new regime?

Here’s how…

One, do some housework every day.   Yes, another full hopper in the shredder, and the washing up done, even the curry pan.

Two, exercise every day.  I have flexed my hands and gad a nice walk in the rain to and from the car to Phlebotomy. I must get gutters fitted to my ears.

Three, make a good nutritional decision every day.   I had Cuppa Soup and bread and butter for lunch. We have run out of Cheddar and there is no delivery tonight so my decision not to have  a cheese sandwich was an easy one.

Four – stop pressing those internet buttons. Haven’t pressed one today, so far…

Five. Go out and walk every day. To the car and back should be about right. See Number Two. I have also walked to the phone twice to answer nuisance calls.

Six – write a retirement plan – that way it won’t creep up and surprise me. You got me there – I haven’t started that yet.

Seven –  start using shopping lists. It will make online ordering less of an adventure but will be better for us nutritionally. Made a partial list for last night. Waste of time! Delivery cancelled.

Eight – plan my writing for the year. Started the plan. Still some fine tuning to do. Made time to read  an article on haiku, and make notes.

Nine – employ psychology in my struggle with weight loss. Early days yet.

Ten – stop promising Ten Point Lists when you can’t actually think of ten things. I didn’t do one today, so I think we can call that a success.

I’ve thought of another point – write an easy post by duplicating a substantial part of an old one.  I managed that.

Ten Steps to a Better Life

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I’ve decided to make some changes to my life. That way, slowly but surely, it will improve.

One, do some housework every day. I belong to the Quentin Crisp school of housework (“There is no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years the dirt doesn’t get any worse.”) but if we are going to retire to a bungalow I need to sort things out. I just did some shredding. I’m now up to 2008. No need to overdo it.

Two, exercise every day. Even a little bit. Including my hands. Make it into a habit. I’m going to find my weights and residence bands and start leaving them around too. As long as I remember to rearrange them every day Julia will never know I’m not actually using them.

Three, make a good nutritional decision every day. Today’s decision is not to eat biscuits. My willpower on this matter is boosted by the fact that we finished the biscuits on Monday. Tomorrow’s decision to avoid fizzy drinks should be quite easy too.

Four – stop pressing those internet buttons which promise to show you something amazing some American found buried in his back garden. It takes a long time and the only amazing thing is that I fall for it every time.

Five. Go out and walk every day. To the car and back should be about right.

Six – write a retirement plan – that way it won’t creep up and surprise me.

Seven –  start using shopping lists. It will make online ordering less of an adventure but will be better for us nutritionally.

Eight – plan my writing for the year. I have  a few things I want to do but unless I write them down with dates and everything, they won’t get done. This, Julia reminds me is a SMART Plan –  Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. I’ve done it before and it’s worked, I really should do it again. That should also help me stop pressing those alluring internet buttons – it’s nose to the grindstone for 2021.

Nine – employ psychology in my struggle with weight loss. Repeating the mantra “Stop eating or you’re going to die, you fat bastard” will be a start. I don’t see any point paying Noom to do that when I can do it myself.

Ten – stop promising Ten Point Lists when you can’t actually think of ten things.

 

10 Points about Writing Ten Point Lists

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I was looking at an article on generating ideas. When you search for “generating ideas” on Google, two trends emerge.

One is a big business theme about generating major strategic ideas to make millions and/or change the world. That’s probably a bit more than I need, though it has its charms.

How about lacing the new corona virus vaccines with fish DNA so that future generations can live in the sea? You could even breed groups of piscatorialy enhanced people specifically to pick plastic litter from the oceans.

Just a thought. But if it works I expect a Nobel Prize.

The other theme is about generating ideas for writing articles. That wasn’t quite what I was after either, though I did spend a few hours reading various sites and seeing how people reused the same information time after time to generate blog content.

Ten point lists seem to be  a favourite.

So here’s my list –

10 Points about Ways to Writing Ten Point Lists

Make sure you have ten points. People will notice if you only have nine.

Start with number one. Why re-invent the wheel?

Several of the points can be the same thing written in a different way.

Point four. Don’t be afraid to state the obvious.

Steal it off another blog. That’s how they got theirs.

Don’t spend too much time over it, they don’t give Pulitzers for 10 Point Lists.

Make a general comment on the social,aspects of the list as in ‘I think we can all agree that this is particularly relevant in lockdown’. Hide it a little way down the list so people don’t notice you are being lazy.

Point nine. Add emphasis. Or, in other words, say the same thing again (see point 3). (Or point 4).

For a change, why not try a 13 point list for Halloween?

Simple.

For the autumn I will compile a 13 point list about writing 13 point lists for Halloween. I will use the ten point list, and add three more, change the order and if anyone queries it I will say that this is an example about getting the most out of your research. Or recycling my rubbish.

I think I’m getting the hang of this blogging stuff.

person writing on brown printer paper

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