In this article, I am going to teach you how to make your Gmail inbox the central hub of your Internet experience. Plus give you some more time saving automation tips including:

• Setting goals with Google
• Get Google to send you a to-do list every day like clockwork
• Filter your email like a pro (and labelling)
• How to sign up for services and avoid email spam
• Using easy-to-create scripts that work at any computer to save you tonnes of time
• Centralizing your notes in a place where they’re easy to recall (free!)
• Minimize Facebook/Twitter time and still get what you want in a way that suits you
• Moving your documents digitally into “the cloud”
• Execute simple emails to update Twitter/Facebook
• Upload videos and save notes from anywhere with email access (including your phone)

Setting Goals

Before this month I set goals on paper using the system I raved about in a previous article. I feel paper is equipment heavy and not flexible enough. Google can change appointments without looking messy. In my paper calendar, I’d write a goal, then change my mind and not have enough space to write a new one.

I was using a paper system because I felt I couldn’t handle working online because of distractions so I knew I had to face this challenge. You won’t see “Google Goals” being released any time but you can combine Google’s existing products to take care of all of your needs in a way that is free, flexible and bends to suit you.

For some, moving from paper to digital can make things more complicated but it doesn’t have to be the case. This system involves a bit of work upfront but after a week you will be plain sailing.

The first thing is to decide what goal to set yourself and identify a habit to get you there. If you want to start your own business writing online, you could install the habit of writing 1000 words per day. Now let Google do all the organizing for you.

If you don’t have a Google account yet, sign up for free here and get used to Google Calendar and Google Mail. If you prefer another email service then you can sign up for a Google account, and set Gmail to automatically forward your mail to your main account. You can set it up so all of your email addresses receives and sends email from this account.

Open Google Calendar and create a new calendar called “Routines”. On tomorrows date enter write 50 words. Then the day after than enter write 100 words and so on for the next 20 days increasing by 50 words per day. When you get to day 20 you will be at 1000 words and for the 10 days after that you will be solidifying the habit you’ve created. Enter into the calendar 1000 words per day on these last 10 days. Many days you will find yourself writing over your minimum but as long as you hit the minimum everything will be fine.

Now here’s the brilliant part. Go to the “My Calendars” on the left and click the arrow next to the calendar your habits are on and then click “Notifications”. Check the email box next to “Daily Agenda” near the bottom and click “Save”. From now on, every day you will get a reminder in your email inbox at 5am of what is in your Habits calendar for the day. You can change your calendar appointments any time before that email is sent and it will get updated.

If you want to be reminded that an event is coming up, you can set a reminder. Create a new event or click an old one to edit it and on the right under options, you can add an email reminder to appear at a time before the event determined by you.

If you want to set a new routine in your life I recommend you start on the first of the month. Go to Google Calendar and create an appointment on the first of the next month in your Routines calendar. If you want to get up at 5am, write that in the calendar and select when if it needs to be done at a specific time.

Now click “repeat”, scroll to “daily”. Check “until” and then click the last day of the calendar month. Return to your calendar and it should have a new appointment repeated daily for the next month. Now sync that calendar to Gmail like we did above, and it will remind you every day. Try not to focus on any other major goals during this time to maximise your focus and chance of success.

Gmail is so flexible that you can sync just one calendar or all of them. Here’s my current calendar setup:

To Do List (Blue) – Tasks that I’ve decided are priority for today.
Routines (Red) – Habits I’ve developed and am in the process of developing. eg. Raw food diet, daily exercise, wake at 5am. I create a single event, set it to repeat daily for the next month and if it goes well, the rest of the year.
What else is happening today (Turquoise) – Things that aren’t important enough to get on the To Do List but that I may do when it’s finished.

I mention the colours because in the email I can tell by colour what is most important.

All that’s in my morning inbox is my schedule for the day. The rest is sorted into folders to be processed after my tasks are complete. It might take a while to get to this point of just one email, but there’s no rush. Spam needs to be deleted and emails need to be filed correctly over time as they come in.

You can sometimes leave emails that are marked too. If you see something in ‘Paypal’, you might know it is a receipt for a payment and doesn’t need processing. Here’s what my email inbox looks like most mornings.

(Click to enlarge. It will open in a new window)

We sometimes get email from people who haven’t contacted us before and that’s not sortable, is it? If you want to give your email to someone who you meet on a night out but don’t want it messing up your clean inbox there is a work around. You’d usually write something like JohnSmith@gmail.com. Iif you change it to JohnSmith+3@gmail.com then the email will still get to your inbox. Anything you put after the ‘+’ sign and before the @ will be OK. Then go to Filters in Gmail, set a filter for all email with the words “Johnsmith+3@gmail.com” to go to a label called Socializing.

Sometimes you sign up for sites for access but don’t want any emails from them. They might send spam or pass on your data to someone else who does. Use this technique again to sign up with an email address like “JohnSmith+nottoday@gmail.com” and set a filter for all mail to that address to be deleted.



About Habits

Habits can get you anything you want in life. Success is repeated action in the right direction. It will feel all so natural after just 30 days. It’s June 1st today, and this would be a perfect opportunity as it has exactly 30 days. If you stick to this simple effective technique and let the system work for you, I promise you will find success.

Then, install a habit next month of improving your writing in a little way by 1% each day. A month from now your writing will be 34% better. Little daily changes are big overall changes. You won’t need extreme willpower because there is no time where you really have to push your comfort zone. You start small and build. Brick by brick.

I’ve used this to get paid writing posts. I set the goal of applying for 3 every day and got 4 within 2 weeks. I figured if I applied for 150 positions in a month, someone has to hire me! This system is magical in that failure is not possible. If you change your daily habits you can achieve anything.

I also used this to eat a 100% Raw Food Diet. I never thought I could at the start but now it felt like the most natural thing in the world. That’s the power of 30 days. It taught me a lot about the nature of mind. It tells you something is absolutely impossible and 30 days later you are living that impossible reality. That’s the power of a limiting belief.



Gmail Task List

Gmail has a simple yet great task tool in the left column of Gmail which can be opened to a full screen. When I get the to do list email each morning, I immediately put the list on the task list with the hardest task at the top of the list. This way, I’m always rewarded with an easier task.



Google Labs

Google Labs has great little features to help you in Gmail. Go to Gmail > Settings (top right) > Labs and browse. I use the “Send and Archive” button which allows you to send and archive an email in one click when it’s been sent and also use the “Undo Send” which allows you to undo sending a message up to 20 seconds afterwards. This is a real lifesaver! Other options include the hilarious “Mail Goggles” which makes you solve simple maths problems before you can send an email to make you think twice.



Gmail Shortcuts

Google has installed shortcuts for many of their programs which save you tonnes of time if you use their products daily. You can print off or just browse here:

• Gmail
• Google Docs
• Google Calendar
• Google Reader
• Google Search Shortcuts
• Youtube/Google Video – uses the same as Google Search Shortcuts. Great for finding specific videos

For Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Reader you can view the shortcuts by pressing “?” and then pressing “Esc” to remove it. Gmail Labs also has a feature to allow you to create your own shortcuts.



AutoHotKeys Scripts

Whilst we’re on the subject of shortcuts, let me introduce you to free program AutoHotKeys ( (about / download / quick start tutorial / forums). It’s a free tool which allows you to create keyboard shortcuts to simplify common tasks. It has many uses to save time. Don’t be put off by the way, I’ve never programmed a line of code in my life and found it simple to use.

I use it to do things like:

• pen regularly visited websites
• access my music
• shut down my computer in one second

I’ve set it up so the useless key between ‘Alt Gr ‘and ‘Ctrl’ is set up to minimize all windows and maximize once pressed again. It removes the need for clutter on my desktop as I can just link to them all.

The best thing is that you can download a .exe file of the script you have created and email it to yourself in Gmail (or upload to Google Docs storage) and run it from any Windows machine with email access. The Google Docs storage is 1GB total and 250MB maximum for a single file. It can be found here and is a great replacement for your USB stick.

If you get confused about what the shortcuts are, I’d recommend creating a desktop background with them on so you see them regularly. Also, use each one with a letter that makes sense. You might want to use “Windows Key and D” to open Google Docs. I’ve added the basics of my AutoHotKeys script here which you can use as a basis or add to your own script.



What about Google having all my data?

I don’t feel scared that Google or Facebook will abuse my data to a level that will bother me. The whole uproad about Facebook recently only affected me because I wanted to lower the amount that I used Facebook anyways rather than that I cared about my data. But I realise others are a lot more private than me. If anything absolutely major did come up I’m sure I would find out and there are many alternatives. You could go from

Google’s Picasa –> Flickr
Google Docs –> Zoho
Facebook Video –> Youtube/Vimeo – I’d actually start with Youtube for uploading videos for business OR personal video. Facebook video is terrible.
Facebook Status Updates —> Twitter only

I just like how clean and efficient Google is and expect to use them for a long time.



How to stop wasting time on Twitter/Facebook

There’s a couple of free tools that I use that are fantastic for this. The first one is TweetByMail (free). Staying with the theme of controlling everything from Gmail, it allows me to send emails to update my Twitter. I’ve used Facebook’s SelectiveTwitter application to automatically send my Tweets to Facebook whenever I end them with the hashtag #fb. This way I don’t have to visit the site where we will procrastinate.

The next one is my personal favourite and is called NutShellMail (free)

(Click to enlarge. It will open in a new window)

You can set up NutShellMail to land in your inbox before you wake just like the task list. It gives you a highly customizable email which tells you all about what’s gone on in the last 24 hours on your social networking pages. It works with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace. It helps you to get rid of those annoying messages when someone comments on your wall or likes your status. You might think you will miss out on big social events but people will get hold of you another way.

You can stop Twitter sending you annoying update every time someone follows me through Twitter notification settings.

Since running this site, I like to update my followers on Twitter/Facebook but don’t want to have to log in 3-4 times to send them. This is where SocialOomph (free) comes in. It lets you send updates to Twitter at precise times. I tend to schedule 3 in the morning to publish at something like 9am, midday and 7pm, People still get updates from me and I don’t even have to be there.

Another great feature of SocialOomph if you’re running a business account is that it can send a message to new followers automatically to forward them to your site or tell them about yourself.



Google Docs

I use Google Docs to digitize nearly all text documents. I only have music stored on one computer. Google has mountains of space for my needs on Docs and odds are they have enough for you too. I store things like PDFs and scanned documents in my Skydrive account (free) because it has more space.

The filling system they have is great. You can add a bookmark-like star to important items, put items into folders and use the inbuilt search feature to find old or related articles. I store things like my goals list, ideas for posts and the posts themselves before they’re published. It automatically saves your post as you’re writing it and I’ve never had a situation where I was writing something and I lost it completely because my Internet cut off.

If you’re a fan of GTD (Getting Things Done) or similar systems, you can integrate Google Docs. If you have an “@My Boss” list for things you have to ask your boss about for example, you can create a document called @Boss and bring it up on your smart-phone via Google’s free docs application and update or read it there and then.

Docs also integrates with the book reading system that I recently blogged about.The basic principle is that you take notes on your books, upload these to Google Docs and only keep a few really high quality high books but you can read more here.



Uploading via Email

Sites that you can upload to via email include:

• Facebook Photo/Video
• Flickr Photos
• A WordPress blog where you store notes. You can store notes here whenever you get one via email which is great for those great ideas you get on the move (more on that later).
• Youtube Videos

If you add the email address to your Gmail contacts then you just start typing something like “Facebook upload” and it will come up. You don’t have to memorize the address. To add a contact, click “Contact” on the left in Gmail and above “My Contacts” click the “+” sign next to the little man and enter details.



Automating Reminders

For some things, you want to be reminded when they become available like videos of your latest shows etc – FeedMyInbox (free) is fantastic for this. You simply find the RSS Feed URL of the site you want the updates for and FeedMyInbox will automatically send you a link when the feed is updated. I use this for watching Family Guy (RSS feed link).

If you watch lots of videos on-line, the best quality ones tend to be Megavideo. They have a 72 minutes daily limit but this can be worked around. Make sure you’re using Firefox browser and download the Illimitux Add-on and follow on screen instructions.



Collecting Notes

I used to track my calorie intake on blogspot sites daily so I could see how far I’ve come and make improvements along the way. Now I send my emails to a site where I tag them in the email and they are automatically organised into tagged sections for recall later.

I email what I’ve eaten and the total calorie amount daily to my WordPress site and write [tags calories] at the bottom and if the tag hasn’t been created yet, it is created new on the site. All I have to do to get all the calorie posts is go to the site, click the tag and they’re all listed in chronological order.

This could be used with workouts or simply to collect interesting links online. The only tough thing is remembering the tags to use but if you make them simple you’ll be fine. I picked a minimal theme called Sandbox. It’ s easy to navigate and has the tags displayed under each post. Make sure when you are registering your blog to enable the option to not allow Search Engines access to your website if there is confidential information on there. To create your own WordPress site, click here (free).



A Great Side Benefit

I love looking on Google Calendar over the past few months and being able to see how far I have come in terms of personal development. The times when I couldn’t get up at a regular time and slept all day keep me humble but also confident that I can do anything if I put my mind to it. It’s like a vision board for you except it’s looking back rather than forwards for motivation.



The Final Goal

You’ll get to a point where your email is extremely efficient. You set goals online, you have all of your documents/pictures/videos in “the cloud” (stored online) and your Twitter/Faceboo is minimized to what you want. Your email in-box is your processing centre for everything on-line and is constantly updated with everything you want, want to add and you’re free to change at any time.

I recommend blocking out a few spare hours to upload everything from your calendar to Google Calendar and then throwing away your old one so you are not tempted to go back to it. Upload the documents you currently have on your computer to Google Docs. If it makes you feel comfortable then back them up to your desktop using Google Gears too.

It works for me, now – this is all that’s important. In the future I may have a lot more possessions but for now I will minimize what I own. If it doesn’t work for you, don’t let people tell you that you have to get rid of things because you’re plugging into a certain mindset or whatever. Some people are comfortable with more possessions. I still think that most people can get rid of 20% of their possessions and be happier for it though.



Why Are You Minimizing?

I am minimizing possessions for detachment from things and to get rid of distractions. If all I had in my bedroom was a laptop and a table, I’d be forced into productivity and there would be no distractions to take my mind away. It’s for the feeling that I am free. That I am not held to judgement by the things I own. By owning little but being genuine I will attract people of a similar level. It speaks to peoples spirits, not their minds. In one swoop, I will get rid of lots of possible negative future friends in my life.

I differ from the main view on one major point. Many minimalists just concentrate on getting rid of their external junk. This can lead you to detachment but real change has to come from the inside. You have to consciously face and dis-empower your attachments. The inner detachment will lead to the outer one but the outer one not necessarily to the inner one. Once I feel I get back to a level where I feel unattached to objects, I may slowly add things back into my life. Only time will tell.

I’ve become a lot more conscious recently and after dropping so many inner attachments the outer objects feel dead and non essential to me now and having things like this in your environment feels wrong.



My Inspiration

My main inspiration is nature. Nature is the ultimate minimalist. It takes a human mind to create complexity. Everything gets used in nature. A gorilla eats a banana, throws it on the ground and its soaked back into the Earth to be re-used as nutrients for trees or maybe to make the ground more fertile for seeds. No waste, no non-essentials. Nature will take over our possessions one day when they break down or we die so would you rather mke the choice conscious instead of accepting the default?



How I Did It

The first thing is to make a list of your temporary possessions. Things like toiletries, washing machines, cutlery don’t count unless they’ve been hanging around for months unused. Now make a list of everything that you have in your possession. If you have hundreds of things already, you should get rid of some of them before this as compiling a list that large would take forever.

Now, get rid of are the most obvious things. Clothes that are too big, too small, have stains on them or are simply not you anymore. After that things like money boxes and little presents and cuddly toys that you have had for years doing nothing are the best to go. Only get rid of a maximum of 10% of your things here.

After this first batch, I’d say take pictures of everything you own. Now you can slowly go through each thing getting rid of things that you will not need that are on your “maybe” list. You could set a 30-day trial of getting rid of 2 or 3 items per day for a month. If you are not looking at becoming a traveller in the next few weeks, what’s the rush?

Setting a limit of 1 or 2 items each day if you have 200 items now could whittle them down to 140 within a month and you’d feel comfortable about it. If you get rid of things too quickly you’ll be too far out of your comfort zone. By all means go on a purge. But or those things you feel an emotional attachment towards it is better to rid yourself of slowly. They were accumulated slowly after all.

Money is the ultimate value. With lots of money, you an afford to own very little but have access to it things whenever you want them. You can pick up a t-shirt for £5 for example.

With emotionally attached items you may want to consider just taking a picture of them (or scanning then if they’re letters/birthday cards) so you can keep the memory but ditch the physical thing.

Find friends willing to swap with your unwanted possessions with thing they have that you really want. This is especially useful for luxury items that you want rid of. I plan to get rid of my bicycle and bench watch and expect to get some good deals for these in exchange for really useful items.

About this time you may want to start telling people about your new minimalist view. This will shock a lot of people and some of them will think it is selfish that you turn away birthday gifts etc. It reminds me of some advice: “When talking to a fool, make sure the other person isn’t doing the same thing”. When they bring up resistance, don’t get drawn in, rise above.

If they insist on a gift say you will only take certain things. Make your own list but a sample may include:

• Money
• Donations to a charity in my name
• Extremely Useful Things

Questions To Ask When Minimizing

• Should I save for next season (winter/summer)? - Yes, but only keep minimum clothes. If you’re expecting to grow or get smaller over the next few months then get rid of what you can and save the bare essentials that fit your physical body and style.
• Ask myself, is there a free alternative to what I’m doing that is just as effective? - I realise that I don’t really need the weights that I have at the moment (dumbbells/barbells/JML Bar) because they are so light that I could get just as effective a workout using my body weight and tabata intervals (pushups/pullups/situps/elevated push-ups). It would also mean I could workout anywhere.
• If I had to, how could I get by without this item? – This is a very powerful question. Ask your mind the right question and wait. It usually finds a really creative answer. I asked this about clothes and got the answer that I could figure out how often I clean them so I always have fresh ones but do not own too many items. I will test this for a month soon.
• Ask myself. could I just get rid of this because its used so irregularly that I’d be better off just buying/borrowing one when I need one? – Examples include – a football pump, a full suit that never gets used.

Minimalism is a Journey

Minimalism is the internal and external minimization of unnecessary things. It’s like happiness in a way that it’s not a destination that you reach, it’s a journey and a state of mind that you hold in the present. You won’t wake up one day a minimalist when yesterday you were not. You consciously decide to bring it into your life and things will come and go. Underneath, you stay unattached, simple and minimal. That’s the basis of it.



Treasured Memories

There is attachment in life and then there is the beautiful feeling you get whenever you remember someone or something. Having one or two little possessions that remind you of great people who’ve passed away or brilliant times in your life is not a bad thing and I’d go as far as to recommend it. It brings your spirit up when you think of them and is a positive influence.



The List

Here’s the list of the 86 things that I currently own.

Books x 20

Casual Shirts (12)
11 x short sleeved
1 x long sleeved

Smart Shirts x 1

Pants/Shorts (10)
Jeans x 4
Running Shorts x 2
Smart Black Pants x 1
Running Pants x 1
Pyjama Pants x 1
Long Johns x 1

Other Clothes (2)

2 x full suit

Exercise Equipment (6)

1 x set of small dumbbells
1 x set of big dumbbells/barbells
2 x football
1 x BMX bike
1 x JML pushup bar

Computer/Electronics (5)

Laptop x 1
SD Card x 1
USB Stick x 1
1 x ipod shuffle
Mobile/Charger x 1

Shoes (5)

Steel Toe Cap Boots x 1
Snow Boots x 1
Brown Smart Loafers x 1
1 x flip flops
1 x plimsolls

Jackets/Jumpers (5)

2 x jumper
2 x hoody
1 x winter jacket

Misc. (20)

1 x set of bike keys
1 x drawstring bag
1 x stanley knife
1 x cycle oil
1 x broken pair of glasses
1 x england flag
1 x lever arch file
1 x ear plugs
1 x wallet
1 x bench watch
1 x bench money box
1 x diary
1 x stack of paper
1 x set of keys for relatives house
1 x nhs donor card
1 x current account card
1 x pen
1 x money box
1 x plastic wallet with essential documents
1 x library card

I would still estimate that I don’t need or regularly use 50% of this stuff so lots of this will be going over the next month. I aim to get some more clothes, replace old ones, reduce exercise equipment and get out in nature to exercise and experience the elements.

I will be keeping an updated list of my posessions called “Everything I own” over here. I’ll update it regularly when I get rid of things or add a new thing and keep the old list so that we can track the minimalist progress.



Will Minimalism Work For You?

Like it or not we all live in a society that is largely consumption based. We eat too much food, consume too much information and you sometimes feel like you’re drowning in a sea of “things”. Minimalism will work for you if you feel lost in stuff, if you lack concentration in your life and if you are an experimenter who likes to try things out for themselves.

It’s like I always say though. My system works for ME. Don’t feel that you have to use the whole system, just pick and choose what resonates with you and what doesn’t. If it works for you then great, if not then I apologize for wasting your time .

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Ok the trial of writing to the blog is over! Today was my last day of the allotted 30 days and I did an arm workout. I was at my grandmas so I used the rock in the garden with the 5 second up, 5 second down protocol. I got

• Bicep Curls – 15
• Push-Ups – 4

I actually did the push-ups 5 seconds up, 5 seconds down with my face nearly touching the floor on the decline today and so they are a more accurate reflection of my push-up skill! I would not allow myself rest and was really pushing for that 4th push-up.

Don’t be afraid to switch up the workout – to be honest, you need to. You do not want your body to mould itself and become comfortable with particular exercise or it will stop growing.

I’ve really enjoyed this trial and the boost in energy that has come with it but it has been difficult at times. It’s hard getting up at 5am, but you get used to it. One thing I would have done looking back is to have the whole month planned out. All I had at the start was my body weight and a big rock to exercise with. If I maxxed out on the rock (which I did!) what would I do next?

Tabata Intervals or 5 seconds up/5 seconds down are a great way to get fit whilst spending little time. The aim of me doing this all along was so that I could get up early, exercise and then go to work. I’m in the routine now and comfortably feel like I could do this.

Another thing I would add is do not be afraid to experiment. When I got towards the end of the trial and started doing the 5 second up / 5 second down approach I did not know if it would work but had a strong feeling it would. It has been working fantastic so far. I read somewhere that Bruce Lee was an advocate of this type of training.

I also noticed how much of an affect my diet has on my body and even more my mental clarity. If I don’t eat fruit and have a heavy lunch I feel terrible and remaining present is a huge struggle. This trial has spurred me on more than ever to try a Raw Diet. As soon as I have settled into my new lodgings and got a consistent income it will be the first thing I will do.

The one day where I went 100% Raw during the trial, I felt so strong and after a nap in the middle of the day woke up feeling amazingly refreshed. The thing is with a Raw food diet is that it is usually low in fat, but, keeps you strong and your stomach full  so I will be able to lift heavier and have low body fat percentage.

The concept of  unfitness feels so foreign to me now. I can’t even remember what it is like to get up at 1pm after staying up until 1:30am getting drunk. I’ve noticed that setting little trials like this help you get clarity in other areas of your life as well.

If you become fit you might notice that your social group is unfit and reforcing those old habits or that you do not enjoy drinking with them any more. I have found that getting healthy and getting up early has shown that I need to find a new group of friends with people more like me. This is another plan to come after I have started getting a solid income form my job.

The last few days since I have started my 5 second up, 5 second down routine I have started to eat a lot more. I think it’s about double what I was eating previously and I can feel myself putting on weight. I could do with an extra stone or two of weight so that’s fine. It just seemed to come out of nowhere though and I’ve gained 6 pounds during the trial.

The future is looking bright in terms of health and strength too. I am going to turn to a Raw food diet, I’m getting my own set of weights (11 days and counting), a JML Iron Gym, a full time income and my own place shared with my brother. Things are looking up.

During this trial I have maintained an exact replica of the trial over at Richards Tabata Log and I plan to maintain it with a weekly picture and my daily workout routine.

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Today was a fantastic workout and I really felt the strain towards the end of both rounds. I did a little mix up today and did 15 sit ups with 5 seconds up then 5 seconds down with no weight and no break and just about completed them all.  I get a little back pain and need to improve my form whilst doing sit-ups.

After than I did planks. I aimed for 20 seconds of doing a plank and then 10 seconds rest, similar to Tabata. I aimed to do 15 of these without rest in total but got through 4 mins 30 secs which is 9 planks.

Difficulty was 9/10. I actually felt my current physical limit and it felt great.

5 second planks – 9/15

5 second Sit-ups – 15/15

I really enjoyed this workout. Tomorrow is Arms.

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Today was a good workout. I’d give it difficulty of about 7/10. I did squats and calf raises whilst holding a 25kg barbell across the back of my shoulders and continued with the 5-second incline and decline and it felt great.

My form was

• Squats – 15
• Calf Raises – 15

It feels like a good workout and I think I’ll maintain this weight for leg workouts for a while until I get settled and get my own weights. Feeling pretty good today and my legs feel really tight and strong. I had an avocado, kiwi fruit and a large orange for breakfast with some toast. Tomorrow is an Abs workout, I predict good things for the 5 second incline/decline on the abs days.

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Today is the first time I did an arm Barbell workout at my brothers house. I used the 25kg weights again (including the bar itself) and decided I’d do 15 lifts of 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down. The problem was, I kept on resting. In the future I will pick a weight like 25kg and earn arm workout day, try for 15 reps of 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down repetitions. When I have done this, add another 5kg weight.

Todays form was

Bicep Curls with 25kg Barbell – 15 all complete

Pushups – 7

Difficulty of about 6.5/10

My push-ups were 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down too. I think I’m going to enjoy the 5 seconds routine because it really works your limits and makes more sense than pushing out 100 reps at just 1 second.

Tomorrow is legs workout, I think I’ll need a bit more than 25kg. 2 weeks today until I get my own weights. My brother has a workout bench and some more weights now too. We will have a little gym going before long enough.

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Today was a strange workout. I didn’t have the weights as I stayed at my grandmas so the sit-ups I did were easier. My form was the same as last week so it proves that I’m limited only by the 20 second limit and not the amount that I can put out.

I ate Raw for one day (except for 3 pieces of toast in the morning) and noticed a huge energy shift upwards and then crashing back down yesterday when I had a gateau and a sirlion steak, the shame!

But in all honesty, I’m going back to eating Raw in the near future, the energy is amazing. I just needed a bit more money to carry it through, and a bit more stability in others areas of my life. One good thing about the Raw diet is that when I get used to actually eating that much physical food and get enough fat, I can lift heavier, run further and it gets rid of all the excess fat on my body giving the amazing ripped effect.

My form today was

• Sit-ups – 13
• Planks – All Complete

Difficulty 6.5/10

I somehow need to add weight during the planks and considered putting a dumbbell plate on my back but this is inconvenient during a workout. Maybe I’ll look up some alternative abdominal exercises.

I’ve successfully switched to exercising at someone else’s house too. This is great because it shows the routine is engrained for life. I can now exercise for every day for the rest of my life without it feeling too tough. Barring illness and extreme circumstances of course.

I’m going to look into getting an apprenticeship for income. Whilst the money you get is quite low, I could get by on it not having to pay rent and could actually do something I like for a few years whilst doing this writing on the side and building an income from it.

I stayed at my brothers house last night and did my first workout there. My legs were killing me from the last 2 days of football running and all that bike riding. Adding todays workout and my legs are so heavy and clumsy at the moment. I only had 4 hours sleep and it’s catching up with me now.
I did my standard Legs workout of Calf Raises and Squats with a barbell across my shoulders which in total weighted 25kg in total. I’m gonna start small and add 5kg each time so that I don’t go overboard at the start and hurt myself. I did 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down which definitely added to the intensity of the workout. I plan to continue this 5 up, 5 down set of reps. It’s shorter and more high intensity than the Tabatas and I’ll still do the running on a Sunday.

Yesterday I deciede on a whim to go Raw for a couple of days and felt pretty decent when I did my workout this morning but I’m gonna give it up for now. I have too much going on in my life already. Maybe in April/May. Difficulty 5/10. I’m staying at my brothers from now on so will hopefully be able to use the weights every day in the morning and progressively add weight to the barbell. It’s also 16 days until I get my own weights too!

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OK today was a TOUGH workout. I’d give it a 9.5/10 difficulty. I played football yesterday for about 3 hours with all the lads on Lostock Park and was so tired before I went to bed that I just knew the run would kill me. I made decent time though. I completed the run in 15 min30s which is good considered I walked a lot more of the distance than usual. Had I not played football for 3 hours yesterday I’m sure my result would have been much better.

I slept in the back room for the first time last night and was thinking that my alarm wouldn’t wake me up as its a new set of surroundings but everything went fine. I’m so sore all over, especially the legs. My back has been giving me trouble for 2-3 days now and I’m going to look up some Yoga stretches on-line to fix it. It’s leg workouts again tomorrow. That’s like 3 days in a row! It took me about 2 hours to write this post on my Grans home computer. Really need to sort my laptop out!