
What Are You Going To Stop Doing in 2014? - wslh
http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2013/11/what-are-you-going-to-stop-doing-in-2014.html
======
mildtrepidation
I wish people would give up New Year's resolutions... and not as a New Year's
resolution. They're little more than an excuse to fail: People who are going
to do something do it. People who aren't are still going to talk about it.
There's a morbid example here that I don't need to explicitly state.

If you're doing something you consider bad, or aren't doing something you want
to do, then start (or stop) NOW. Don't wait for 2014. January 1 is not some
magic date. Ever have a friend who's going to start that diet next month?
Guess what a New Year's resolution is? It's not a commitment. It's an excuse
not to do something now.

I'm just as guilty as anyone of doing this, but let's not pretend "what I'm
going to do in 2014" isn't utterly meaningless unless it's something you are
and have been working towards that _can 't happen_ until 2014 because it's
just that damn hard.

~~~
3pt14159
I disagree.

I quit smoking easily last year on January 1st. I decided to quit a month
prior to Christmas, but I was afraid of the jolliness of the season making me
slip. I assume it is the same for exercise, portion control, and alcohol
consumption moderation.

Sometimes it is nice to have a clean break in a month where nobody bothers you
and where you haven't had a routine for a couple of weeks.

Although I really wish the gym wouldn't pack up so much.

~~~
twobits
Care to give pointers/mindset/whatever helped, for quitting smoking?

~~~
adam419
Smoke two packs of Marlboro reds in a 1 hour timespan.

Yep that should do it.

~~~
adam419
Downvoted? Are you kidding me? Does anyone have a sense of humor anymore?

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antirez
I actually stopped doing it for some time already, but will continue in 2014:
I stopped to train to failure. If you are into strength training I strongly
suggest to give this a try in 2014, I read a few books about it but I'm not
able to give you a short TLDR that is accurate, but if you wanna try:

\- Make about half the reps you could do with a given weight, but make sure
you still do a great total volume.

\- Train every important exercise like bench and squat at least two times
every week.

\- Form is everything. Train with great form.

If you are like me with a family, a full time job, and so forth, this may do
wonders: never tired, faster improvements in strength.

~~~
rfnslyr
I'm a body builder and competitive powerlifter. Why did you decide to stop
training to failure?

Don't give us a loose tl;dr of the books you read, give us the books!

~~~
antirez
Unfortunately the main book is in italian language :-( But it is inspired to
the Russian school of power lifters. That's the book btw:
[http://www.accademiaitalianaforza.it/metodo-distribuito-
libr...](http://www.accademiaitalianaforza.it/metodo-distribuito-libro-
gruzza/)

The main idea is to observe the world top powerlifters schedule and apply it
to amateurs.

------
Scienz
I had already recently come up with a list of things to stop doing:

\- eating meat and dairy (mostly... I just don't want to contribute to the
animal cruelty/factory farming epidemic. I'll still eat fresh caught fish and
free-range meat)

\- using Facebook, Google, and other stuff that contributes to the
surveillance state.

\- using non-open source stuff. Starts with transitioning to Linux.

\- purchasing stuff that supports IP law or DRM.

\- using "herbal supplements" that support violent drug cartels. Still fine
with anything produced by other means.

The hardest part is building a habit of not doing stuff that you've been
trained to do since birth, such as changing your diet to vegetarian. Decided
to use a spreadsheet to keep track. I may still forget and screw it up, but at
least every day I have to remind myself whether I did it right or not, which
slowly reinforces the correct habits. Has been working pretty well so far.

~~~
danoprey
I stopped eating red meat for similar reasons (I live in China and free-range
is quite a premium, although I may have some now and then when back in the
West).

Instead of a spreadsheet I use [https://chains.cc/](https://chains.cc/) from
Seinfield's "Don't break the chain".

48 weeks no red meat, 46 weeks no smoking, 3 weeks no coffee. Seems to help!

------
notacoward
I'm going to stop making excuses for other people. I'm willing to give people
the benefit of the doubt _myself_ , but if that's not working between two
other people I'm not going to take someone else's bullet. Been there, done
that, the T-shirt got ruined.

------
zakarum009
I'm going to stop cutting into my sleep schedule, especially my REM sleep, for
pointless matters. By increasing my sleep from 4 to 7 hours, my mood's gone
up, my depression has near disappeared, my energy has risen, and my confidence
is finally back to where I want it to be.

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whyenot
I'm going to (actually already have) severely cut back on the amount of time I
spend at HN, Reddit and other social sites. It's just not a productive use of
my time, and life is too short to fritter away the hours doing nothing.

~~~
seiji
I've been Reddit-free for over two years. You can do it!

How? Just stop. You can't peek. You can't view it for "just a minute." You
can't "just browse." The only solution is to not visit at all.

Give it a few days and it'll fall out of your daily routine altogether.

Also: edit your history to remove all reddit history so your browser navbar
doesn't auto-complete when you reflexively open a new tab and start typing
"re...".

~~~
danoprey
I've quit eating red meat, smoking, and coffee so far this year and I think
this one will be next for me and embarrassingly maybe the hardest! Thanks for
the tip.

------
WildUtah
I was going to resolve to stop procrastinating, but maybe I'll just do that in
2015.

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TIJ
I would try to stop wasting time and be more focused on my topcoder rank!!! i
want to enter the Red zone, right now i am in Green zone(i know i'll do it).

------
meerita
As a first instance: I will stop using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and switch
totally to Pixelmator and Sketch.

Second: relay more on data when meetings. This year I had a successful couple
of meetings with destroying data so business men couldn't deny the facts and
stopped the opinionated stuff. I will try to do it next year as a standard.

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andrewcooke
i'd like to not get so angry so often.

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nekgrim
When my glass is full, I empty it. When it's empty, I buy an other one.

Started socializing (as in "going in bars with friends") this year, but I
really dislike my behaviour. So next year, I will try to REDUCE it.

Moderation is everything.

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lmm
I'm happier with moderation. Perhaps I'll dance more, and drink less - or
perhaps the reverse. But I'm pretty happy with my life right now; no need for
any drastic changes.

------
Arnor
PHP

------
chromaton
My last day for my current consulting contract is December 31, 2013.

I'm going to be working full-time on my bootup business after that.

~~~
blinkingled
Sounds exciting - Good luck!

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jafaku
Working. Thanks, Bitcoin!

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noinput
things that don't matter. or rather, attempt to do more that do make a
difference.

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kator
Stop reading HN?

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phektus
Facebook(ing)

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moron4hire
My New Years Resolutions are always to continue to do certain things that I'm
already doing. I don't resolve to stop or start something, I only resolve to
continue painting, or drawing, or fiddling with electronics projects, or
writing stupid game projects that won't ever see the light of day. I resolve
to do this because I know that these activities shape who I am and I draw a
significant amount of happiness from them.

So basically, the resolution is to not let the doldrums of life get in the way
of the things I enjoy.

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ninjac0der
To stop participating as a contributor to this society.

~~~
Anon84
Why, if I might ask...

~~~
ninjac0der
I live in the US of A.... look around.

#edit it's the only form of protest I can think of that might actually affect
things, or at least my involvement.

~~~
blinkingled
> it's the only form of protest I can think of that might actually affect
> things

Wait, that's apathy. Don't you think being selective about where you
contribute is the right way to go? (I understand the idea of avoiding the
"intelligence in the service of madness" trap but there's still a lot of good
in the world.)

~~~
ninjac0der
Yes, it would be much more comfortable to continue riding inside the machine
that tramples others than to be the others. Perhaps the divide is how you see
of our current global actions. Truly sinister, or just the actions of a
jumbled congress/governing system.

~~~
Arnor
> or just the actions of a jumbled congress/governing system.

Exactly.

~~~
ninjac0der
Thank you for providing so much debt to the discussion.

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AsymetricCom
I'm going to start starting

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georgemcbay
I'm going to try to go the whole year without killing a single hobo.

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plg
I'm going to stop making New Years resolutions

~~~
plg
and the hobo gets a pass? c'mon

