The Mission :
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past – frequently simple goals such as New Year’s resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organizing and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

Start Date: January 1, 2010
End Date: September 29, 2012

Live
1. Lose 20 pounds
2. Read 30 new books (1/30) {One}
3. Travel to 3 states I’ve never been to before (0/3)
4. Learn to drive stick-shift
5. See a production by Cirque de Soleil
6. Visit Canada
7. Go berry picking
8. Save for a house
9. Take a cruise
10. Go camping
11. Cook 25 new dinners (0/25)
12. Bake 10 new desserts (0/10)
13. Make my own cookbook
14. Give a copy my own cookbook to someone as a gift
15. Buy myself flowers for no reason
16. Stop drinking soda completely
17. Become a vegetarian for a month {Done}
18. Watch 20 movies that I have never seen (0/20)
19. Visit the botanical gardens in the city
20. See a movie at the drive-in
21. Go one week without television {Done}
22. Travel to a tropical island
23. Go the summer without cable television
24. Save 3 month’s salaries for an emergency fund
25. Do not eat any take out for an entire month
26. Buy a fire safe {Done}
27. Get a promotion
28. Attend the Renaissance Festival
29. Travel to a foreign country with my husband
30. Put $5 in savings for every completed goal
31. Go back to school
32. Take a photography class for the fun of it
33. Go to a concert
34. Knit a scarf
35. Refurbish dining room table and chairs
36. Go to the Guggenheim
37. Build a snowman
38. Buy everything that is still on our registries
39. Finish Christmas shopping before Halloween
40. Learn to play the piano
41. Learn to be more adventurous with fashion
42. Go whale watching
43. See an active volcano
44. Go snow tubing
45. Swing down a zip line
46. Go ATVing
47. Walk a marathon (hey you have to walk before you can run!)
48. Get published in a magazine and/or newspaper
49. Finish five DIY projects (1/5) {Done}
50. See the Northern Lights
51. Take a cooking class and learn something really great {Done}
52. Rent a convertible somewhere warm and drive with the top down
53. Start to clear debts, some if not all
54. Get my blog redesigned
55. Have three girls nights out (0/3)
56. Enter a contest of some sort (cooking, writing, photography, etc.)
57. Go to a taping of Martha Stewart Show
58. Go to the Finger Lakes Wine Festival
59. Go on a road trip with no predetermined destination
60. Get flexible enough to touch my toes
61. Find a new apartment to move into next October
62. Do something I’ve always been afraid of
63. Stop cussing for 1 week {Done}
64. Go to a book signing and get a book signed

Love
65. Restore contact with three people I’ve lost along the way
66. Make our wedding album {Done}
67. Spend a rainy day with my husband watching films in our PJ’s
68. Make breakfast in bed for my husband
69. Watch 5 movies that my husband loves that I am not interested in (0/5)
70. Send my uncle all of the photos he has lost {Done}
71. Make a gingerbread house with my husband {Done}
72. Go on a date with K once per month (0/33)
73. Take a vacation to Disney with my husband
74. Buy 5 things off Etsy (0/5)
75. Win a contest with something I did or made
76. Love every day
77. Surprise someone with a card or gift
78. Take a photo of 101 things that make me happy (0/101)

Entertain
79. Master making fresh pasta
80. Learn to make the perfect cheesecake
81. Throw 50 parties/dinner get togethers (0/50)
82. Try 15 new restaurants (1/15) {One}
83. Learn to bake French pastries
84. Host a wine and cheese party
85. Taste 20 kinds of cheeses (0/20)
86. Make marshmallows
87. Try at least 20 desserts from the Bon Appetit Desserts Cookbook (0/20)
88. Complete every recipe in The Best Of Cooking Light: Everyday Favorites (1/500) {One}
89. Find a new musical artist to add to my list of music every day for a month (1/30) {One Two Three Four Five}
90. Buy a china cabinet
91. Try 20 new cocktails (0/20)
92. Try 10 new video games (1/10) {One}
93. Establish a regular game night and/or movie night
94. Watch 5 foreign films (1/5) {One}
95. Pick a spice every month & learn how use and prepare food with it (0/33)
96. Try 5 new teas (0/5)
97. Learn to make gnocchi
98. Attended a comedy show with friends
99. Learn to bake bread
100. Learn to make my own jam
101. Make five ice creams and/or sorbets (0/5)

Below is my old 101 in 1001 list. I have been going over it and I have realized that some of the things that I had listed in 2009 are not tasks that I still want to do. In the time that has gone by since I first started the list, thing have changed. I have gotten married, I am older and priorities have changed. I have decided that I want to do a new list. With new tasks that I will look forward to and will actually want to complete. Some have moved from the old list onto the new, some are new but all are things that I am looking forward to doing in the future.

Start Date: January 1, 2009
End Date: September 29, 2011

Blue = completed

Green = in progress

When an item is complete, I will put the completion date and a link to the blog entry that discusses it.

My 101 in 1001

For My Body & Mind
1. Lose 40 pounds
2. Join the gym (Completed 2/17/09)
3. Blog about each thing I complete on the list
4. Stop drinking soda for a full year
5. Eat healthy vegetarian for 1 week a month
6. Sleep a full 8 hours a night (six times in one week) – no late night movie/tv watching
7. Go to the gym at least three times a week
8. Take daily vitamins (Completed 5/21/09)
9. Try three new fruits (2/3) (Completed: 1/10/09;1/15/09)
10. Try three new vegetables (3/3) (Completed 3/20/09; Completed 7/14/09)
11. Take up poetry again
12. Read 30 new books I haven’t read before (11/30)
13. Make 3 new breakfasts (not the same old egg, sausage and potatoes) (3/3) (Completed 1/25/09; 1/31/09; 2/8/09)
14. Go 24 hours w/out TV once a week
15. Try at least 2 different kinds of nuts (2/2) (Completed 1/23/09)
16. Spend a week logging what I eat (Completed 1/23/09)
17. Try 10 new foods (2/10) (Completed 3/12/09; Completed 9/27/09)
18. Floss daily for a month (Completed 2/17/09)
19. Go without junk food for 30 days
20. Rent and watch 5 classic movies (5/5) (Completed 4/9/09)
21. Always have all paperwork finished and away by the end of the week (Completed 2/17/09)
22. Get a raise
23. Become closer to at least one of my co-workers

Finances
24. Build a 3 month buffer
25. Get lunch out only 5 times for 1 month (Completed 2/7/09)
26. Get dinner out only 5 times for 1 month (Completed 12/12/09)
27. Pay off Chase credit card in 12 months
28. Pay off Kohl’s credit card in 6 months
29. Finish all Christmas shopping by Halloween
30. Raise my savings account at least $3000 more then it is now
31.Buy a Wii (Completed 11/24/09)
32. Save money to buy a house
33. Put $2 in an envelope for each task I complete and go on a shopping spree with what I saved
34. Come up with a cooking plan, with meals that are diet/honey/budget friendly (Completed 3/6/09)
35. Follow the rule and donate an item of clothing every time I buy a new one (Completed 4/9/09)
36. Only buy clothing I am truly in love with (Completed 7/28/09)
37. Buy an original piece of artwork

Just for Me
38. Get facials every 3 months
39. Order dessert before the main course once a month
40. Travel to 3 states I’ve never been to before
41. Learn to make 5 kinds of soup (5/5) (Completed 2/24/09; Completed 4/9/09; Completed 5/20/09; Completed 6/2/09; Completed 10/4/09)
42. Create a website for my photography (Completed 1/23/09)
43. Make a list of 101 things to do before I die (Completed 5/4/09)
44. Go to the theatre in NYC a 3 times this year (1/3) (Completed 7/24/09)
45. Rekindle a lost friendship
46. Spend a day at the spa and get a two hour massage (Completed 8/27/09)
47. Cook new dishes and blog about it
48. Hand write a letter to a friend (Completed 2/9/09)
49. Knit a scarf
50. Refurbish dining room table and chairs
51. Turn some of my photography into art pieces for my home
52. Master making fresh pasta
53. Organize recipes
54. Make at 5 new “clean” recipes (1/5) (Completed 8/14/09)
55. Try 12 new teas (3/12) (Completed 1/29/09; Completed 10/26/09)
56. Identify 100 things that make me happy (not including money) (Completed 3/24/09)
57. Take one bubble bath each month
58. Make my own cookbook

Love Life
59. Make a standing date night with my fiancé K
60. Get started on planning our wedding
61. Travel to three states in the US with my fiancé
62. Go to a ballroom dancing class
63. Spend a whole day with K and never leave the house (Completed 3/19/09)
64. Give him a special little gift when he isn’t expecting it (Completed 3/31/09)
65. Learn to drive stick-shift (he has wanted to teach me for months)
66. Start a new family tradition for ourselves
67. Play a board game once a month

Going Green
68. Buy some cloth napkins and use them (Completed: 1/10/09)
69. Bring my reusable shopping bags everywhere and use them (Completed 2/7/09)
70. Turn TV off during meal times
71. Visit a Farmer’s Market once every two weeks
72. Switch all cleaning products over to organic products
73. Buy organic foods

Family Life
74. Make a standing sister night with my sister
75. Have meal together with family at least once a week (Completed 2/17/09)
76. Host a non-holiday family dinner
77. Host a family only get together at my apartment

Recreation
78. Go camping
79. Take a road trip
80. Visit a park with some kind of caves/caverns
81. Try 3 drinks I’ve never had before (1/3) (Completed 1/24/09)
82. Play a game of racquetball (Completed 2/19/09)
83. Go to the aquarium (Completed 6/5/09)
84. Create my own holiday cards in 2009 (Completed 12/8/09)
85. See the Northern Lights
86. Go on three random day adventures and I use my GPS to find my way home (1/3) (Completed 9/2/09)
87. Have a “girls’ night/day/afternoon” 5 times (3/5) (Completed 4/28/09; Completed 6/14/09)
88. Go to the Guggenheim
89. Scan important family photos and make a CD of them for my family
90. Build a snowman
91. Draw up my wedding guest list
92. Visit 5 new places in New Jersey (1/5) (Completed 6/8/09)
93. Try 5 new restaurants (5/5) (Completed 1/24/09, Completed 1/27/09; Completed 3/9/09;Completed 3/15/09; Completed 3/20/09)
94. Go berry/fruit picking
95. Watch 10 movies my fiancé wants to watch that I would never be interested in (7/10) (Disaster Movie; A Fine Mess; Origins: Spirits of Past; Fanboys; It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; My Name is Bruce; Porco Rosso; )
96. See a production by Cirque de Soleil
97. Go see a movie at a real drive-in
98. Go to Comic-Con in New York City (Completed 2/19/09)
99. Visit Canada
100. Take one picture everyday in 2009 and fill an album with them
101. Watch all of the IMDB TOP 250 movies that I have not seen (109/250)