Launching a new blog

After much vacillation, I’ve decided to launch a new, parallel blog. It’s called Thrupenny Thoughts and will contain various bits and pieces around the theme of developing daily discipline. I’ve been thinking about it for a while – partly as a means of committing piles of paper to electronic format and clearing up some of the accumulated mess in our house.

It’s also partly due to the coaching session that I was talking about yesterday – doing something that might make a difference to someone and also committing myself to a course of action that I’ve been toying with for some time.

I will still be posting the usual drivel and inanities here.

Caffeine control

One of the earliest daily disciplines that I consciously adopted was controlling my caffeine intake.

I used to suffer from hideous migraine, lasting up to 48 hours. Then I made some changes to my lifestyle and I haven’t had a migraine for over 3 years now.

Addressing my significant caffeine intake was one of the things that I changed. (By the way, I’m following the adventures of AnneDroid as she is attempting to tackle her caffeine consumption.)

Now I like coffee – my preferred way of taking caffeine – and I wasn’t really prepared to give it up completely. So my solution for too much caffeine was to drink coffee only before lunchtime (a somewhat vague measure of time), and to be quite strict about the volume. On a work day that means a cup of coffee with breakfast and some coffee (a somewhat vague measure of volume) in the middle of the morning.

I freely admit to being a coffee snob. I only drink instant coffee when held at gunpoint. So the important part of this discipline for me – is to only drink good coffee. This does mean planning ahead sometimes and taking filter coffee from home in my thermal cup, but it does mean that I haven’t resented the reduction in quantity as the habit has become firmly embedded in my daily disciplines.

Caffeine control

One of the earliest daily disciplines that I consciously adopted was controlling my caffeine intake.

I used to suffer from hideous migraine, lasting up to 48 hours. Then I made some changes to my lifestyle and I haven’t had a migraine for over 3 years now.

Addressing my significant caffeine intake was one of the things that I changed. (By the way, I’m following the adventures of AnneDroid as she is attempting to tackle her caffeine consumption.)

Now I like coffee – my preferred way of taking caffeine – and I wasn’t really prepared to give it up completely. So my solution for too much caffeine was to drink coffee only before lunchtime (a somewhat vague measure of time), and to be quite strict about the volume. On a work day that means a cup of coffee with breakfast and some coffee (a somewhat vague measure of volume) in the middle of the morning.

I freely admit to being a coffee snob. I only drink instant coffee when held at gunpoint. So the important part of this discipline for me – is to only drink good coffee. This does mean planning ahead sometimes and taking filter coffee from home in my thermal cup, but it does mean that I haven’t resented the reduction in quantity as the habit has become firmly embedded in my daily disciplines.

Thrupenny thoughts??

Where did the name for this blog come from?

Well, originally it was going to be called “DDD” (as in Developing Daily Discipline), but I thought that might attract the wrong kind of attention – and therefore disappoint readers!

My next thought was 3d, which seemed a lot safer but still carried the potential to confuse.

Then I realised that 3d was how we used to depict threepence (thrupence) in writing. (Yes, I remember using pre-decimilisation British coinage.) This coin would have a relative low value nowadays (slightly more than one penny). It’s also multi-sided – a quaint feature of some British coins, which I like. It’s actually a duodecagon (that’s 12 sided).

So Thrupenny Thoughts seemed to be an appropriate name and metaphor for a blog that will cover different aspects of developing daily discipline (multi-sided), with the thoughts being of limited value in their own right!

Well, it makes sense to me!

Thrupenny thoughts??

Where did the name for this blog come from?

Well, originally it was going to be called “DDD” (as in Developing Daily Discipline), but I thought that might attract the wrong kind of attention – and therefore disappoint readers!

My next thought was 3d, which seemed a lot safer but still carried the potential to confuse.

Then I realised that 3d was how we used to depict threepence (thrupence) in writing. (Yes, I remember using pre-decimilisation British coinage.) This coin would have a relative low value nowadays (slightly more than one penny). It’s also multi-sided – a quaint feature of some British coins, which I like. It’s actually a duodecagon (that’s 12 sided).

So Thrupenny Thoughts seemed to be an appropriate name and metaphor for a blog that will cover different aspects of developing daily discipline (multi-sided), with the thoughts being of limited value in their own right!

Well, it makes sense to me!

Developing Daily Discipline

Over the past decade or so I’ve been collecting articles, snippets, tips and ideas that I have come to associate with ‘developing daily discipline’. The first time that I can find myself using that term specifically was in December 2005, when I was maintaining a reflective journal for a course that I was on at the time. I wrote:

“I’ve written frequently in this journal about: ‘I need to …’. While it’s good to identify areas for improvement, ideas need to be put into practice. For me – I think – this is most likely to happen if changes are introduced as daily disciplines.”

Since then I’ve been a bit more conscious of gathering material on a variety of topics that can loosely be associated with this theme. So I’ve decided to start posting some of them in this blog.

Very few of them will be in any way original; many will be simple; many will be idiosyncratic or even self-centred. Over the years some of these disciplines have changed; some have been completely jettisoned; others exist as ideas that have yet to be tested by me.

Feel free to add comments, include your own ideas or variations on the theme.

I’ll probably post a couple of thoughts each week, but there are no promises!

Developing Daily Discipline

Over the past decade or so I’ve been collecting articles, snippets, tips and ideas that I have come to associate with ‘developing daily discipline’. The first time that I can find myself using that term specifically was in December 2005, when I was maintaining a reflective journal for a course that I was on at the time. I wrote:

“I’ve written frequently in this journal about: ‘I need to …’. While it’s good to identify areas for improvement, ideas need to be put into practice. For me – I think – this is most likely to happen if changes are introduced as daily disciplines.”

Since then I’ve been a bit more conscious of gathering material on a variety of topics that can loosely be associated with this theme. So I’ve decided to start posting some of them in this blog.

Very few of them will be in any way original; many will be simple; many will be idiosyncratic or even self-centred. Over the years some of these disciplines have changed; some have been completely jettisoned; others exist as ideas that have yet to be tested by me.

Feel free to add comments, include your own ideas or variations on the theme.

I’ll probably post a couple of thoughts each week, but there are no promises!