This month I made my 30 day challenge be “Don’t respond to email after 10 p.m.” I’ve done very well overall on this challenge, and I like the results a lot. I’ll probably try to keep up this behavior.
Now I need to pick my next challenge. I read through the 350+ suggestions and comments that people wrote, and put together a poll. Please vote below for the one thing you think I should try to do for 30 days.
Loading ...I can’t promise that I’ll do each item, but looking back over the last year, I have had good success at doing the things from the first 30 day challenge poll.
{ 163 comments… read them below or add one }
The bible. Or maybe “The Message” which is a modern retranslation that seems a lot easier to read.
Learn German
Spend as little as possible.
Having taken up the guitar two years ago at age 31, I can say it is one of the most rewarding things I’ve done in my life.
I think I initially suggested that you write a novel/book, but I think the “draw something” everyday is a more interesting idea. I’d be interested to see what you drew each day.
You could read the Bible because someone called Bishop
Voted for Cloud Only, it would be interesting to see how you can live off the cloud, of course, I guess for that you will have to use the Google Chrome OS, so I can see another aspect of the Chrome OS in action too..
The people think absent God in your Life… hehehe
You make it so hard to choose Matt. There’s just too many I would pick but because I’m all for being kind and carrying out good deeds I chose it over any others. I do also notice you say you can’t do them all but I guess you could try starting out with top voted then following on until you get to the end of the list. Good luck with whatever you choose and keep us all updated.
I went for “Try to be an ideal husband” due to it will tick
No complaining (not how often you good lady hears you complain)
)
Be thankful for something each day (dude your married be thankful every day for that alone)
Have as much fun as possible (
Do an act of kindness or good deed every day ( wash the dishes, cook a meal, finish work early etc etc )
of course you may do all this already ….
Dave
I still think you should do a vegetarian month leaving out dairy.
My option just got 4 votes for now booo
I voted for a picture a day…then you could post them to the blog too. They would all have to be very different.
i have done my poll but you can go with the option “spend time to sing” because your voice is really good, and we need one webmaster song from webmaster MATT CUTT
Dan he could draw a part of something for each 30 days and by the end have a full masterpiece to show us all.
Keith the cloud one definitely is something I would like to see. Been interested in this since I first laid eyes on a juicy headline about it.
Portuguese!!! to learn Portuguese in 30 days…. wow!!!!
You should learn to play the guitar. The reason being that you could combine a few of the above things in the poll into one. You could do the following just by learning to play the guitar:
Do an act of kindness or good deed: by playing guitar you could calm someone down or cheer them up (especially if played badly it could be amusing.
Start a fitness program: I’m sure playing a guitar enthusiastically will burn at least some calories.
Learn as much of a language as possible: are chords a different language?
Try to be an idea husband: You would be playing to your wife, maybe even singing to her! Sweet serenades of love <3.
Have as much fun as possible: Guitar playing is hella-fun.
Meditate 10-15 minutes a day: Playing guitar is relaxing.
Learn how to sing: singing whilst playing guitar is awesome, can also be paired with the fitness part. Singing and playing guitar is hard and uses up more energy than just one or the other.
Try one new thing every day: A new song or playing technique?
I chose take a picture everyday… It would be interesting to see the world through the eyes of Matt Cutts.
Ticked the 50 pages option. I remember you said your wife does that and is happy with it. Guess this would apart from reading would give you more quality time to spend with her.
Dave, liked your ” (dude your married be thankful every day for that alone)” comment
Rakesh Tulsiani
Oh man, please try “Meditate 10-15 minutes a day” – you might find yourself fulfilling some of the other challenges naturally after a month of meditating…
-No complaining
-Try to be an ideal husband
-Do an act of kindness or good deed every day
-etc…
I wish you could record a vlog about your 30 day challenge…
Matt, I voted for Read the Bible. I know it’s not PC but it changed my life in a good way more than any other thing I’ve ever done.
I went for do an act of kindness every day, but can I stipulate that it must not be work-related? Otherwise it would be too easy!
I prefer you to try something that we can actually see the results, that is if you post em; I choose ‘draw something new everyday’ and although it’s currently only at 3% of the total am hoping this one is chosen.
I voted for doing one new thing every day. I personally do this, and it makes life much more interesting.
Voted for taking a picture everyday option, it would be interesting see what Matt finds interesting enough in his daily life to capture and share with readers like us.
I went for the Cloud only option – hopefully if it wins you reviewing them would be handy as you’d surely need something else other than Google – you are going to need a few other services ..
You should “Try to be an ideal husband” everyday of your life, this shouldn’t be a 30 challenge but a on going effort.
Take a picture every day – and POST IT
Attempt polyphasic sleep
I want to see someone else try it to know if I should
Matt, I voted for “Do an act of kindness or good deed every day” that would be great choice among all.
FWIW – The Book of Mormon isn’t belived to be in leiu of the Bible, it is complimentary to the Bible, like the Old Testament vs. the New Testament.
More info if you’d like The Book of Mormon at Mormon.org
David
For your next 30-day challenge, you must complete thirty 30-day challenges, each in one day, for the next thirty days. Ready, go!
You mean your married to someone other than Google? Who knew you were married…to a girl????
I like the left handed one…..but your rear quarters might smell for the first few days till you get the hang of wiping lefty!
I think I’ll vote for the one nice thing….ever seen the movie “Pay it Forward”
Matt getting in shape will allow you to accomplish a lot more in the next 30 days. And believe me if you do P90X or Insanity you will have all the energy to do the rest of the list and then some. Or it will kill you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;o)
I second @Gary-adam comment. I found ‘The Message’ very interesting and much easier to understand.
Save novel-writing for November – it’s NaNoWriMo! http://www.nanowrimo.org/
I forced myself to use the mouse with the left hand, and after a couple of years I was better than ordinary people for stuff like drag n drop or text selection. The only thing that I can’t compete in is Quake Live; I have to switch back to right handed because of reaction time.
It is so natural now that I don’t even think about which hand to use the mouse anymore. Hasn’t helped me write with the other hand or anything but I do wonder what it does to my left/right brain situation?
Matt, I love your works, survey or videos ,but please, please, put Turkish translate choice
Please!!
Have lunch with a random non-high-level Google employee everyday (or at least every weekday/workday).
Matt….!
I would love too see you write a book. I’m sure in your time at Google you have seen/heard/witnessed enough to keep the geeks among us interested, and for the rest of the crowd, if the title character was given a catchy enough name & sexy persona, I suggest: Page Rakè (A sexy french, female, statistician; involved in a federal conspiracy to promote Amazon & Wikipedia to the head of SERPs
) you could easily sell 1,000,000 copies.
Anyway, hopefully I have your attention. I would be really love to pick your brain over a few issues shortly.
Rgds
Rich McPharlin
Zen Net Solutions
+1 for the Book of Mormon. Especially if you read it with the Bible. They compliment each other very nicely.
If i were you i would have as much fun as possible because you never know what could happen tomorrow and it may be too late to enjoy life.
Meditation for 10 to 15 minutes a day would be great. Taking a picture a day would be cool.
Read Quran once in a life time please!
I really think you shouldn’t do challenges which are about one only thing a day like taking a photo or reading 50 pages. You should do something that’s part of your way of living in that month. I voted for the ‘ideal husband’ option, but this is something you should do all the time. I like the Cloud-only computing too.
Just pick a challenge with the most potential to elevate you the next level. Nobody knows you as well as you do. So letting other people to decide – I don’t get it.
Learn to play vintage guitar of course
Learn how to sing, definitely. You won’t regret it:
* It’s fun
* It teaches you how to control your voice
* It’s very calming, especially if you tend to get annoyed by The Little Things
Also, here’s a warning about polyphasic sleep. I used to do that a few years ago, and I ended up with two severe attacks of sleep paralysis when I woke up (Read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis); it’s extremely stressful and can be very bad to your health.
I voted for “learn to sing!”
If there was a “don’t do it” button I’ve have used that for “write a book.” As a singer and an author, I can tell you that singing is extremely enjoyable and relaxing, whereas writing a book…not so much
Both are rewarding, though.
Take a picture of something you are thankful for each day and post it.
You had me at “Take a picture every day” Matt.
I take pictures myself and just for my own enjoyment I don’t even put them on the web…sometimes I put them on my Facebook. I must tell you it is a very rewarding experience when you take a beautiful picture that you like yourself. Also since we geeks spend too much time in-front of computer, that gives us a chance to get away from our computer and get out.
If you end up taking pictures, please share a few of them with us btw. Thanks
Hi,
Congratulations! for your challenge,
I was thinking to plan my own challenge,
Just it will be weekly insted of monthly
kind regards
Have as much fun as possible matt because work will always continue but fun is with limited age…
Good Luck
Regards
Imran Khan
I voted for meditation, it will keep you relaxed.
Matt, I voted for going vegetarian. I would rather you go veggie 30 days running, doing it only on weekends is no big deal IMO. The greatest show of concern towards animals is going vegetarian. Best wishes.
Dear Matts,
There are a lot of stuff to do in a day. But did you ever think about how much life is become busier day by day and are how much you feel comfortable with your spiritual, mental and physical level? . We have a lot of thing to do and these thing will never come to end so what about the day of Judgement? Everyone has to die and in life after death has to defend what he does in this world’s life. In short I gave my vote for Read the Bible (or Qur’an, or Book of Mormon). I am a Muslim and want’s to invite you to read Quran as Science claims it most authenticated book from which Science learns a lot so please try to read it. In last I want to request you to just ask GOD, Please give me will to read it.
Thanks.
GOD bless you
How about for the next 30 days eating only healthy food?
I agree with Justin Long and Christine. I believe it will help you learning some tips of professional image capturing….
Matt, what if there is a challenge of testing “Android vs Apple I-phone 4g” …. ? i am buying my android cell next week, after having some cash in pocket
Matt,
I really like the way you choose your 30-day challenges but do you choose these challenges to test yourself or just for excitement.
Also I want to share a 30-day challenge that you can do in future if you like..
Try avoiding the blog who follow the most…
Thanks,
Rajeesh..
Guitar is a nice thing to learn, it is going to coming handy when you take your little family outdoors, camping, beach etc….
You’ve inspired me to do a 30 day challenge, too. I suggested you write a book because I’m biased and I think everyone should do it at least once. But I’m going to choose one of the other suggestions in your list. Hope you don’t mind. I’ll post the effort on my blog and we can compare notes someday. Mash
As my original suggestion of giving up plastic didn’t make the shortlist, I voted for vegetarianism. But what’s all this nonsense about weekdays only?
Going with “Cloud Only”. It fits well with the previous challenge of switching to Linux, as it means your work will be OS independant
Welll i will say if ur from an other religion please at least read Quran once in your life.
Hi Matt,
I manage a retirement village and I asked Fred if he has ever surfed the web. Todd he said: “I am 84 and probably only have 6 years left to live if I am lucky”. I responded: “well come up to the community hall and I will show you” – his eyes lit up!
So my vote is “Have as much fun as possible” (4%, 38 Votes)
because only then did I realise how much time we have left to live!
Re Singing please don’t take lessons from Danny Sullivan
reading the bible (or other ‘holy’ books) would probably be the least informative, educational or novel thing to do. Been there done that and i’m guessing people are just voting for it out of religious reasons
I like the cloud idea. There are a lot of great things about it but we always have our apps on the computer we can revert to without thinking. It’d be interesting to see the downsides when you HAVE to access the cloud as your only computing choice.
Hi Matt,
I voted for taking a picture everyday.
Perhaps you could post them for us all to see? You could create a story or something!
All the best
Gary Bird
Dude, dont read the bible for 30 days. Life’s too short for fiction.
And learning the guitar in 30 days….. Took me 12 years and Im still not as good as I wanna be.
Do something selfless: Be an ideal husband (good luck with that!) or do a random act of kindness each day.
Another idea: write in your journal each day for 30 days!
going left handed would probably be easy because your job is typing and doesn’t require much single armed movements. i say you rule that one out now.
I have decided I will do for 30 days, with Matt, whatever wins peoples’ vote. I love the list I have my fingers crossed that “Cloud only” doesn’t win. It isn’t really a challenge, kinda boring and frustrating, that’s what it is
Anyone else up for the 30 day challenge? I think it’s fun and brings in some discipline.
Best Vote:Go left-handed instead of right!Great Challenge!
I chose Get my finances your order, If that is a actual thing you need to do it’s best to approach it as a bandaid and get it done as quickly as possible
Create one spam blog per day and see how many you can get to the top of Google by the end of the month.
Matt,
I voted for “write a book.” Skip the novel, write about webspam. I’d be happy to publish it for you though I suspect you could get a nice deal from O’Reilly. Unless it sucks:-)
Morris
These are of widely differing difficulty!
Take a picture every day versus write a novel
Be thankful for something versus learn to play the guitar
Go for vegetarian. All 30 days. For: your health, animals and environment.
make a SEO program, with video, software, ebook and sell it for… free:D
No email/Internet or cell phone activity
(except as required for job, life or death etc)
re-Learning how to communicate face to face will strengthen your communication skills.
Matt,
I went with the vegetarian option. Not only will it be a good challenge, but you’ll actually get healthier, which in turn makes you a better husband and dad.
Anyway, just my opinion!!
I’m a photographer, so I went for ‘a picture a day’ – I normally don’t get into those myself, but last year, when we visited San Jose and the bay area I set myself a goal of ‘one photo I’m comfortable putting online per day’ – I’m fairly fussy about these things, and it did force me to enjoy every day, even the ones where I was stuck working on the car, or we had a big night the night before and normally would have just wasted the day bumming around at home… I’m going to do something similar on our 5 week trip around California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona in August too…
I also would have ticked ‘do some sort of exercise program’ as I’m currently trying to get back into shape.. I’ve already lost the weight I just put on through laziness over the last 10 years, now I want to get back the fitness I had during uni…
The drawing challenge is a good one for increasing your overall creativity and its the one I would recommend for everyone to try at some point.
If Vegetarian/Vegan win – I suggest at least being a weekday Veg. The best explanation I can give is summed up well in this quick 4min TED talk: Graham Hill: Why I’m a weekday vegetarian (Garham is the founder of TreeHugger.com)
“Do an act of kindness or good deed every day”
You know if you were a Boy Scout then you would already be doing your good turn daily…. =)
That’s a pretty good list. Tought call on which is the best.
I voted for Read 50 pages a day, That’s something that i try to do and I make sure that it’s something i am not familiar with. Not only do you gain a better perspective but you also learn new skills
Hi, Matt:
There are a lot of good suggestions here so that it is not easy to choose.
I myself suggest you do the following as the following can make you think differently.
Spend as little money as possible
Do an act of kindness or good deed every day (in fact you should do it quite often)
No complaining (in fact you should do it every day, not only one month)
Go left-handed instead of right
As a novelist, I don’t suggest you to write a novel if you don’t have this Genius(I don’t believe you have this genius), I spend about 15 years on my first memoir—My tears wont fall—memoir of A Chinese migrant worker. I am born to write and I still spend that time for a memoir and I may spend more time on that. How can you write a novel in one month! This challenge will only let you know you are not genius in writing.
Also May I suggest you
Try to be an ideal husband
always, not for only one month.
and May I suggest you give more love and attention…to your wife both at her pre-period time and period time as I am always weird at this time and I believe she has the same situation?
Most importantly, may I suggest you to give a gift to some good commenter here as they deserve a gift from you for the suggestion? I pay for good suggestion though my payment is one copy of my book or some help…
You need learn Art of War or Historical Records as they are gold in China cultural history and they can help you to be a good leader if you want to be a good leader, not only an engineer.
I voted for take a picture every day being a fan of photography, the challenging part will be to take a good picture every day
May be, the time is over for books. update with, 50 pages in ebook
Read Quran (30 chapters in total).. a chapter a day will do
Voted for reading the Book of Mormon/Bible/Qur’an. I think that in today’s society we forget about religion and I think it would be nice for you to read the Book of Mormon
I also like the cloud only idea!
Well I did vote for you to have as much fun as possible each day…If that means reading your email after 10, then so be it!
I think Meditation option is better for you as it will help you to be calm and relax, which will increase your working capability.
Do most of the easiest ones. That way, you could actually enjoy them.
I’d like to add a new challenge to a future list.
Create and tell one new joke each day (via video).
You could even let us all vote on which of the 30 jokes is best.
Read the Holy Qur’an !
I voted. Reading the bible is my choice. Bible is a holy book and you can learn a lot from there starting from history, science, and up to the future. Good luck Matt
Nothing compares to Meditation; quieting your mind will help you in all areas of life.
The education challenges are good I think. Like learning a new language or new words, and playing guitar, bit of culture and education.
I think reading a short story everyday would be a good idea. Because i gain lots of knowledge reading your blog everyday.
I voted for “Try to be an ideal husband”. It may be a difficult one to action but I think spending 30 days doing that will be the best use of your time. Not only will it benefit your wife, but you will then benefit as a consequence. Plus your kids will benefit too (if you have any). And the benefits will last a lifetime. Are you sold yet?
I recommend this book for a new perspective on romance. It’s a small book (128 pages) so you could get through it quickly. Just to be clear, I’m not suggesting you spend the month reading about being an ideal husband but I think this book will give you some great pointers for how to do that.
Run: This is a healthy way to relieve stress and increase awareness (also trim off those computer calories)
Day 1-10: Run 1 mile daily
Day 11-20: Run 2 miles daily
Day 21 -30: Run 3 Miles daily
Read the Bible in 30 days. That would be a tough one to finish.
Polyphasic sleep!
Steve Pavlina has extensive articles on the subject and it would be interesting to observe your experiences as well.
I think that you should try reading the Book Of Mormon. I am from Utah so you know that I have read it, along with the rest of the state. If you like bloody wars you’ll love it; this book is surprisingly full of gory details about wars that were supposed to have happened.
Give it a look,
Brian M. Connole
Wow, the vote results really show how much people care about doing good deeds! I should applaud on this, however doing good deeds are never easy especially if you have to do it 30 days straight. I’m just being human that’s all
Good Luck
I voted for have as much fun as possible- in that vein, I think that you should learn to make balloon animals! Not only will it be fun for you, but you can bring huge smiles to everyone else around you, especially, but not limited to people under 4′ tall!! Just a thought
If you want, I’d be happy to send you some balloons and a pump to get you started! (Free, I don’t sell products like that), then you can watch my videos on YouTube (channel sandiballoon) to learn how to do it. (If you don’t want to learn from me, there’s lots of other people who teach balloons on youtube for free tooo….)
PS thanks for being such a great resource!
You could probably do two of them at once by combining “spend as little as possible” with “getting your finances in order”. The first would help most people with the latter as well
Matt, have you started something ?
Well, i have picked my tasks for the month of July. I will test Google apps as i have experienced some of the top applications crashing. Like Google Webmaster Tools, for its “Links to your site” section. I have added a post on my blog with a post on Links to your Site, crashed. Me and many other friends have been discussing it in Google Webmaster Central as well, but till now we had no luck in knowing the exact cause.
Hey Matt –
I think you should do P90X . It has been a life transforming experience and improve my quality of life. I would be honored to be your P90X Coach (I was awarded Top Coach of The Year for 2009 by Beachbody).
Its the best $119.85 you will ever spend. And for the price you get my coaching which is both free and priceless.
Also, when you are doing your research where to buy it you might find some interesting spamdexing going on. P90X is a heavily counterfeited item and these pirate sites are moving from adwords to organic serps by building massive amounts of forum profile links and using garbage tools like scrapebox, SEO uke or xrumer.
Make sure you take care of #1, that being you. You’ll love the program. And you will be an improved man. I suggest you do it together with your wife, it makes it a lot more fun. My wife kicked but and was a real inspiration when i was dragging!
Hope you end up trying the vegetarian/vegan diet, even if it is just on weekdays or just even on Mondays.
I think you’ll surprise yourself with the options available to you!
Voted for the “Do an act of kindness or good deed every day”.
I think in this day and age we all need to show kindness to one another and also perform a good deed every now and then – without boasting about it. I believe that it is good however if it is shown on a platform such as this which has such a wide audience.
Good Luck Matt.
Have to say I voted for the – Do an act of kindness or good deed every day. I may even try this one myself and would love to see or hear of the actual acts/deeds and maybe even from/about the people/organizations/animals/places you’ve been kind to or did a good deed for.
It would make really interesting reading to hear the other side of the story and maybe make your 30 days about 30 other individuals, (one a day), instead of just your own sole, (should that be souls), achievement. Maybe even let us see what you consider an act of kindness or a good deed and how phenomenal, world changing or insignificant they may be. Very comment worthy, I think.
RJi…
Attempt polyphasic sleep….Which genius picked this? I’ve often thought about trying this as I was half way there with they way I was working when I was younger anyway.
If not this month, then has to be next!
Just so I can read about someone else going through the transition period.
Go Matt!
Have as much fun as possible!
Complaining is a self-poisoning method. How easier life would be without complaining…
BTW, great blog
I love Melissa’s idea (from the YA Bookshelf blog) of reading The Hunger Games series in 30 days! GO FOR IT!
I find a good book very enlightening. Try out the Book of Mormon…gives a whole different perspective on the teachings of Christ, not to mention some great wars! And even if this option isn’t chosen I think you should still give it a shot. Good luck!
For a really hard one try to avoid using any google products/programs for a month.
I know I couldn’t.
Went for the good deed, for example you should be involved with Charities or donate your time to a worthy cause..
Hi Matt,
Due to potential voter fraud, you may want to conduct a REPO-LL. As you can see from the results, my choice (“Read a short story”) finished dead last with a 22 votes total from short-form literary fans. And yet. And yet … that selfsame category won 2% of the total 2,806 votes:
“Read a short story every day (2%, 22 Votes)”
I did the math in my head and came up with: 22 / 2806 = 0.007840342124019960000
Then, using Google calculator (via Chrome): 22 / 2806 = 0.00784034212
While somewhat dismayed that Google calculator only solved the complex equation to 11 decimal places, I found, no matter how I sliced and diced the data set, that only 1% of the voters voted for “Read a short story.”
Naturally my next thought was votes for fiction must count more than votes for other more prosaic categories than prose.
In any case, given that most polls yield results accurate to +/-3% with, say, a 95% confidence interval based on sample size, I urge you NOT to correct the results. Too many pundits will use the statistical data to scientifically proclaim the death of the short story. We’re quite happy with 2% of the vote and more than twice the deserved share of voice.
As penance for the miscalculation, you can always surprise your readers by choosing the least popular course of action, filing a minority report, and taking the road less traveled.
Sometimes the best stuff is The Stuff Left Behind.
Wow I love your first suggestion … sign up my husband for the “perfect hubbie for 30 days” program. On behalf, on your lovely wife, I vote for that one.
Find the answer to stopping the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico!
Be Thankful for something each day, in our day and times it can be tough so make a point of it!
Book of Mormon for real
No internet 30 days clear head I know I would never make it how lost would the web look seem different?
Thanks
Try something new everyday! very rewarding!
One that isn’t on your list that would be top of mine is spend some time with the family. Failing that, spend as little money as possible sound like a great challenge, one I fail at.
Arrrr… Change your blog theme)) No, I am seriously… no kidding…
With such theme there is nothing suspicions that your website on the 8th place and Ma.tt’s on the first))))) Have you seen his new design?))
Hi Matt,
About 2 months ago I read about your 30 day no sugar challenge, and for some reason unknown to me, I really connected with the concept, the idea of a self challenge. At the time, I had “fallen off the wagon” from my household’s otherwise very healthy eating, and was sneaking handfuls of red vines each day (like 10-20) along with volunteering to go to the grocery store as frequently as possible so I could grab a couple of donuts while there, (even though they are usually stale!). I have always felt that my strong sugar cravings control me. The more I have, the more I want. So I decided to do the same challenge, cutting out honey and all forms of sugar (except for fruit). It was hard the first week, but then it got easier, and I am now on day 39, and I plan to continue indefinitely, although for now we’ll say for another 90 days. I feel so proud of myself! I just wanted to say thank you and let you know how I was inspired by you.
Spend as little money as possible. This will also look good for Google which is making tons of money. We think you guys are all millionaires that work there.
I have went through the suggestion and i find some appealing ones. But I have something different for you to do. I was Wondering that can you spent at least of 45 to 75 minutes in your lavatory, reading books based on paranormal activities, strange but true facts, UFO’s, ghost horror, haunted houses etc. You can carry this at any time of the day but i would suggest night time for this activity. I would also like to known what you feel about this.
Thank You Sir,
Regards,
Amitraj.
As everyone know you are Software Engineer in Google so i think you have a very heavy work load and music make people relax so i suggest you to learn singing.
..
Now everyone knows matt cutts as a singer
You missed out “Write a blog every day” We enjoy your blogs and would love to hear more, I bet you 100 bucks that if you had that one as an option it would have came first
All the best,
Mattso
Matt, The number one item that caught my eye, was being an ideal husband. Even though it’s not a material item; happiness forever with the spouse sounds like a genius idea.
Take a picture every day.
Later, publish the photos at this blog (gallery) or elsewhere @ net.
Hey Matt,
I love the list. Personally I think not complaining should be the challenge. You’d be surprised how much we (parenthetically speaking) complain about on a regular basis – even if you’re a positive thinker. By focusing on the positive and ignoring the negative, you’ll have better days and better outcomes.
Do an act of kindness or good deed every day
Do an act of kindness or good deed every day and of-course improve Google Everyday.
I think you should try to learn guitar. It will actually suit your personality as you look and sound like a fun loving happy type of person to me.
On another note you can also learn how to sing and participate in the next American idol competition. Believe me you sing well or not alot of Googlers will vote you and you can make it to the finals.
Cheers
Syed
Hi,
Add one more option “visiting Google Hyderabad, India” in your next challenge. Hyderabad SEO’s feel happy if you do it. I am sure your blog will get hundreds of back links.
Matt should use Chinese Baidu (or Japanese Baidu) search engine(s) for 30 days. Are there any relevant websites out there other than the ones shown by the first page of Google’s SERP? Try Baidu for 30 days. Then, you’ll be able to appreciate Google more and understand what the people in China are missing (or discovered).
You should treat your wife like a queen for 30 days. That will definitely make you and your wife a happier person.
Life expectancy = 73 years 1 month = 26,700 days = 640,800 hours = 38,448,000 minutes = 2,306,880,000 seconds. 1/3 spent sleeping. 1/7 spent Googling. Life is too precious to be petty.
I think that ‘How to play the guitar’ is a Great basis or topic of discussion.
I have always wanted to learn the guitar, took a couple semesters in high school and I loved it!! I had a really bad accident and I severed the tendons in my left hand(the important one on the guitar) and so I recently gave my Fender acoustic to a friend in need….
..he thanks me profusely alot now with almost tears in his eyes telling me I changed his Life…
He is One of THE GREATEST players I have ever heard…so I guess I did the right thing, right?..
Hi Matt,
Learn as much of a language as possible…Hindi please…
You should make a commitment to read the bible every day it will give your worldly wisdom and insight into the actions of 2/3rds of the planet who believe in it in one form or another. Don’t learn the guitar but rather the piano. If you play the piano, read the bible and make money you’ll be “potentially” a well rounded person.
Love you, Steve.
I might try the polyphasic sleep program – although i don’t know how I’ll get away with it at work. Plus I’m not sure that you can snap out of it after 30 days. Maybe I’ll just take a nap every now and again
Matt, it’s clear that you should pick three this month:
* Start a fitness program like P90X or similar (P90X is pretty advanced by the way)
* Meditate 10-15 minutes a day
* No complaining
Read the Quran,
All Prophets (including Jesus) were sent by the one and only god, Allah. They all belong to the same message. Jesus is one of them and is mentioned in the Quran.
- life is not eternal
- do not forget your destiny and work for it
- life is just a bridge
- Research for Quran Scientific Miracles
- it would only matter if you believe during your life time.
I chose read the Holy Bible. There is really no other book like it. There are over 2000 prophecies in this book and over 1500 have come to pass with precise detail. Mathematically and statistically this is an impossibility. Start with the book of John or the New Testament. If you live by the Word of God in the Holy Bible then you will be truly blessed by the Father.
22But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness,
23Gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence). Against such things there is no law [[f]that can bring a charge].
24And those who belong to Christ Jesus (the Messiah) have crucified the flesh (the godless human nature) with its passions and appetites and desires.-Galatians 5:22-24
Here is an excellent resource as to why the Bible is so important and why it’s true:
http://www.markcahill.org/
Ravi Zacharias has an excellent resource CD “Foundations of Apologetics” too.
Visit 50 museums in 30 days!
Take your time for art!
Play Starcraft 2 and finish it on Brutal – I know you will like it
…
Please read Quran
and do let us what you learned from it
Try learning to play the bass guitar Matt. Ive played it for over 40 years and its the bottom end of the band that holds the whole song together. Very rewarding instrument. If you are so inclined and want it a more difficult challenge play a 5 string bass guitar as i’ve done the last 20 years..lots of lovely low thump bottom notes just make the song sooo nice sounding.
For an even bigger challenge relating to your poll try learning the bass guitar and once mastered well enough play it left handed instead of right. To do that properly you would have to change all strings over with the big string on top so they would have to be reversed in other words, although I know a few left handed bass players who actualy play on a right handed bass guitar..for a normal bass player that’s playing with the strings reversed around in the wrong order…now that’s a challenge let me tell you..loll
Good luck and I hope you try the bass. A normal right handed 4 string to start would be best.
Regards,
Giff
learn a new word every day,
or check the multiple meanings of a randomly chosen word every day.
I suggest meditating for 15 minutes per day and then learning to totally get rid of your worries by re-focusing your attention on what is happening right now every time you worry.
I did this last year and it took me about 6 weeks to get rid of about 80% of my worries. It’s a really simple technique that took me from being typically stressed person last year to having almost no worries this year.
Join me!
my vote is to read the Book of Mormon
It’s funny to see (when I clicked on vote results) that top 2 items are
1. Read Bible, Qur’an or Mormon book followed after
2. Do a Act of kindness <–which is what I voted for and thought that most people would also vote for this.
Many say finding God or happiness is just finding yourself and figuring out how to see good and bad with-in ourselves and other people that we get in touch with.
Okay ::Turning off the Philosophical Mode:: now, the other hard part is trying to be vegetarian for one month? that'll be super hard. I've been vegetarian all of my life and have seen so many friends struggle through "Not eating meat right now" phase. Your skin will get time to adjust to new kind of food along with your stomach also. Try it with cpl of days a week and slowly increase to see if you can do it.
Nothing to add to your list because your list is just fine.
I said have as much fun as possible, but think you already are doing that with climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro! Sounds like a blast to me!
Matt way to challenge and stretch yourself!
I hope you choose to read the Book of Mormon.
It is a powerful witness of the love that Jesus Christ has for is children, and filled with examples of how we can better our lives.
It has changed my life and can do the same for you to the degree that you apply the principals found in it
Here is one of my favorite verses:
And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” Ether 12:27
If you email me I will gladly send you a copy to read for your challenge, or otherwise.
Best wishes whichever challenge you decide
Doug
Hi Matt,
Wow wat an Idea sir jee…
even I gonna follow this.
What I want to suggest is not in the list though (precisely). might be possible, you already know that or did that already.
You should learn to cook (new dishes if you already know how to cook). it will help your wife aswell… and she might reward you with something really outstanding huh..
Try it and what ever you choose to do this month, do share with us your experiences.
Love,
Neil
Do an act of kindness or good deed every day !
Amazing thought this is. We all make efforts to make our life better. Let’s do something to make this world a better place.
@Neil – Nice thought ..Matt does share his experiences with us.
Hi Matt,
I voted “use cloud only”, but if I really think about it, I hardly ever use offline apps in general day to day work. So if you can avoid PS3 and PC gaming, then I guess this could be done without too much hassle, I would miss photoshop and notepad++ though…
I really like the whole idea of getting the “world” to help you decide, or atleast that you take the time to read the comments that the world has to make in order to come up with a short list. Much Respect.
On another note, I have been watching some of the videos you did some time back on SEO and Search in general and have referred them to some of my clients to give them a better understanding of the web. Must just say thanks for the effort and manner of bringing things across.
And on another, are you finding Priority Inbox to be useful? or do your own filters and labels work well enough for you.
cheers
nathan