Latest of his 30-day challenges wouldn't be a challenge here, but ...
Google’s anti-spam guru, Matt Cutts, practices an interesting self-improvement exercise: Every month he does something — or stops doing something — for 30 days, just to challenge himself. (Video below has a fuller explanation.)
Next up: No email after 9 p.m.
Cutts writes on his blog:
My 30 day challenge this month (July 2012) is “Don’t send any emails after 9 p.m.” Email is the part of my life that is most out of control, so it’s worth trying a few approaches to tackle it. I thought about doing something like “Only send 25 emails a day” but time tracking is much easier. You can help by not sending me any emails this month.
This might get tricky if Larry or Sergey has a question after 9.
My problem with email – make that, one of my problems with email – occurs on the other end of the increasingly 24-hour workday. A lifelong early riser, I routinely start work from the kitchen table shortly after 5 a.m. The problem occurs when I awaken even earlier and find myself on the verge of sending an email at, say, 4 a.m. Even if the recipient isn’t going to read the message for hours yet, it seems a bit weird, almost embarrassing, to be telling someone that I’m up and churning when normal people are sound asleep.
But I’ll do it nonetheless. Occasionally, I’ll send such a middle-of-the-night email to someone on the West Coast, and that person will respond at what is their 1 or 2 a.m. And I realize they haven’t been to bed yet.
Those folks might want to consider Cutts’ 30-day challenge.
