It’s been almost a week since I asked for experiment suggestions, so I thought I’d share some that we’ve come up with. Thanks so much:
- Zero caffeine: Don’t consume any caffeine for a month. I get this suggestion a lot. If I’m going to be strict about it, there are a lot more things that have caffeine than sodas and coffee.
- Week of silence: Don’t say anything for an entire week and blog on the experience each day during the week. I’d never really consider this before, even though I’d heard about silent retreats and of course the vows monks take.
- Waking on demand: Try to wake up without an alarm clock at any given time in the morning. I say it’s possible, but I’ve never actually tested it for any length of time.
- Hangul in a day: Learn the Korean alphabet in one day. This will be useful in Korea. [Update: I didn’t do it in a day, but I did learn the Korean alphabet.]
- Buy 20 books and sell them: I actually got this idea from Seth Godin as a way to learn how to sell books.
- Seven-day fast: Don’t eat anything for a week straight. I’ve never fasted that long, so it’s a good idea for me. Thanks.
- Computer fast: Pre-schedule a week’s worth of blog posts and Twitter updates and then turn the computer off for a week. This will be harder than you think for me.
- Hardwood sleep: Sleep on a hardwood floor for a night. I’m not sure what the point of this one is, but for some reason I still like it.
- One hundred pushups: Train to complete a set of 100 pushups by following the One Hundred Pushups routine. (I quit before finishing last time I tried this.)
- Weight gain: This one’s really vague because I’m not sure what I want to do yet. I just know I’d like to try something to gain a bunch of weight really fast (like over a pound a day for a month) and see how it affects how I feel. [Update: I tried a crazy one: eating a jar of peanut butter each day for a month.]
If you have any more suggestions, let me know. Or choose which one of these you’d like me to try. I make no guarantees on going with the majority, but I’ll definitely take your suggestions into account.
