Terry V

Biggest issue I have with myself is my inability to get up in the morning. Whether it's the weekend or weekday. Whether I have something to do or not. I just lay in bed to the last possible minute. I'm not saying it's causing problems with my marriage but my wife does get frustrated when she has to take care of the morning routine. With a baby coming in January I'm figuring that is something that will force me out of bed but I want to make sure of it because that is an area I do not want to slack in. Now, I'm sure, especially you guys who are all about just doing it, are thinking..."just get the fuck up". Well, I wish it was that easy. Right now, before bed, or any other time I'm all for getting up early. I would love to get up and have an extra hour in the morning to catch up on sports from the night before and get a start on my day while enjoying a nice breakfast. I would love not to walk into work 10-15 minutes late every day...hell, even get here early some days. However, my half asleep personality doesn't agree with that. He would rather sit in bed till the last possible moment and then rush around. So , with that said...any tips? I tried some annoying alarm clock for my phone that required me to scan a UPC to turn it off but it was buggy and didn't always work which sorta defeated the purpose. I try to go to bed early, go to bed later. Set my alarm earlier, set it later. I read all this other crap about getting up right away and sleep cycles but my half asleep self doesn't care. Help!

CD is your best bet but if you really NEED the money than you're stuck paying the fees. The better approach is probably just more self discipline. The idea of a separate bank is a good one as it'll force you to go there to get money out but will also make it more difficult to put some in.

Mint is awesome to automate stuff but it's a bit too detailed for what I want to do. I do it all in google spreadsheet and have been for months. It's easy for me to populate so I don't lose too much without the automation which takes time anyway to categorize everything.

Save money and don't buy books. Honestly though, there are a ton of resources out there that are free including a ton of personal finance blogs. I will teach you to be rich has a website with a ton of info on it. I read his blog before his book came out and I can't imagine much more being in the book. These are the blogs I read daily: http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/ http://www.thesimpledollar.com/ http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/ I actually just started my own too... http://www.productivemoney.com/ Of course, if you're set on books you can probably get them free at the local library too...

I'm generally a pretty happy person so I don't think that's it but it's something to keep in mind. I fit most of the symptoms of ADD but think that I can deal with it myself through more focus and organization. I do agree I need to just get doing it go going though. Working out is one of the few things I do have the motivation to do...they need to make a Fitocracy for non-fitness related goals.

Yeah, I think one of the problems is I have too much to do and it's all floating around in my head. I'm reading GTD and going through the steps to get everything organized. From them I'll prioritize and start crossing stuff off which will hopefully help. I actually do use timers and the biggest time sucks but I still find random places to go visit and since I use the internet for my jobs it's hard to completely block stuff. Yep, I utilize a to do list but it hasn't been working for me so I'm trying to come up with a new system. I also need to give me "work" time and "goof off" time set which I think will help. I'm using today to get motivated for the week and stuff organized and hopefully I'll take off being productive on the rest of the week.

It has some good principles that you can find elsewhere but it puts them together well so I say it's worth it. Part of it relies on you coming up with a self-supporting side business. He makes it sound like it's an easy task when we all know (or at least should) that it's not that easy. I just finished reading it for a second time so that should tell you something though.

They always have someone on the video doing whatever with resistance bands. For the pull up stuff you need to have the band attached to something above you and basically just pull on it.

I had that same problem too. With an older house and fancy door trip it was hard. I actually had to screw in a piece of wood to the trip so the bar would grip on something. Resistance bands are also an option if you can't put the chin-up bar anywhere.

That would seem enough of a reason to me to dump some money on one. I know how bad it sucks to have a sore ass from riding...my bike shorts were pretty worn this year and I pushed through which wasn't a good idea. Also, always fighting through those first couple weeks after the winter is no fun.

I ran through it a few years back to kick off my fitness revolution and liked it. It was hard as hell (you'll be sore for the first few weeks) to start but it's fun to see how you progress as you continue through it. I started not being able to do any pull ups and ended up finishing with being able to do 20+. I've thought about doing it again but the time commitment is huge. An hour a day isn't easy to find every single day for 3 months straight.

Yeah, was just reaffirming the fact that shorts are what you really need and that the embarrassment shouldn't really be there. I would try to find a newer seat, you can probably pick a used one up for a decent price. It seems to be the more uncomfortable they look the more comfortable they actually are.

Good post...especially about the assholes on the road. I frequently have to resist the urge to throw my water bottle at cars that don't think they need to share the road. I rode a few years without clipless pedals and am glad I finally switched, to me they make it a lot easier to ride. I've had my embarrising moments with them from falling over in my driveway to a busy intersection to right in front of 50 other cyclists and landing on a bike worth more than my car while leaving an aid station during a charity ride.

I use the ride as much as I can training plan. It's tough to really bike with a normal work schedule during the week so I typically try to get out for an hour or two as many weeknights as I can then go for a longer ride on the weekend. Throw in intervals and hills if you don't have the time for a longer ride during the week.

What kind of seat do you have? When I started biking a few years back I hated the idea of spandex padded shorts but quickly got used to the idea as they make a huge difference. I don't really get the embarrassment factor of them. With the padding it's not like your junk is as visible as they would be in speedos.

All good stuff. I replied right in line to make it a bit easier. I like the idea of "no more excuses" though. To me, they're realities but when I step back and look they are just lame excuses which I hate. Yeah, I've been trying to get more organization in my life with lists and am actually trying to read getting things done to hopefully come up with an organization system that works. I'm on the same page with priorities, like I said...the biking thing becomes a priority as I forced myself to a deadline with the charity ride I signed up for. I think being able to do that shows I'm not completely lazy and just un-motivated. Perhaps I need to somehow come up with other things to give me reason to be motivated. It's just tough with work as at this point I'm the head IT guy so there's really no where to move up. Budgets suck this year so raises and crap around out of the question too. Sorta kills your motivation. I actually tried this before with some success. The day before, at least for the work day, I'd write down time blocks and what I was going to do between them. They worked well except when I'd have the occasional distraction that would throw me off but I can limit those if I try. It became a bit more difficult when there were larger things to do and I couldn't complete them all in one day. Getting things done, the few chapters I'm into it, has been helping me break tasks up so maybe this will be easier again.

In general, guess I should have specified that..especially on a somewhat fitness centered site. I actually do fairly well at working out as I've been training for a charity bike ride. Something like that I do have motivation to get out there and do. As for the wife thing I agree completely and we do have alone time, she goes to hang out with friends and she's also a teacher so has a decent amount of summer off and she gets home a bit before I do. I guess I did make it sound like we're attached at the hip.

As for late I've been struggling with motivation on most everything. Instead of doing work at work I'm mindlessly browsing the internet even though I know I have work to do. On top of that, my job is rather lax which gives me time to work on other stuff including my side business and new business ventures I want to start (mainly blogs). Instead I just click around online forums all day along with other random websites. When I get home it's much of the same...I typically get home, maybe do some housework, and then sit and watch TV. Half of the time I'm reading stuff on how to be motivated along with other self help topics but I don't really take into account what I read apparently. Just a few notes to give you a better understanding... - I'm in IT and although there are bursts of busyness (when something breaks) most of the other work I have to do doesn't have deadlines. Add that to a rather relaxed work environment and there really isn't an urgency to get work done. - My side business is basically online sales. I do tend to spend time pushing products but I can do more, along with adding more products to my site. I just have no motivation to do so. - I have started 2 blogs on topics that interest me but rarely have the motivation to post in them even though ideas are flowing through my head constantly. - I quickly jump between stuff online. I cant' seem to focus on reading something without the desire to jump and check an online forum or facebook or email or the chive or something else pointless. - I am not a morning person at all so motivation before lunch is at an all time low. - I'm madly in love with my wife and want to spend every minute I can with her which I think is the cause of my lack of motivation in the evening, sitting with her is a priority over everything in my mind (I guess this isn't all bad). - I'm a horrible procrastinator. - I'm busy with work/business/fixing up an old house but make myself seem busier than I am with the procrastination. So I can keep rambling on but I think I've done that enough. I guess I'm just looking for someone that might have had a similar problem and turned it around. Maybe I just want some ideas and then a place to be held accountable for them. Whatever it is, I'm all ears because I know something needs to change.