32 new challenges in 31 days. Almost.

Ibrahim Javed
Nov 1 · 10 min read

Anyone who knows me well will tell you how much I value routine and planning ahead. By the end of the first week of every month, I would already have planned out what I’m doing for almost every coming weekday evening and weekend. For a long time I felt as though doing this and having a routine meant that I’m being productive and making the most of my time. I still believe in this, but what happens when your routine becomes repetitive? What happens when you become too comfortable in your environment? What happens is that the things that once brought you enjoyment and fulfilment end up becoming a drag and you burn out.

Usually when I’d feel like this I’d spend an afternoon searching through Skyscanner looking for cheap flights to help change things up but, with both annual leave and funds at a premium, I decided instead to do something different to make the month of October interesting. I decided to embark on a series of challenges (for lack of a better word); challenges that would not only allow me to experience new things and take me out of my comfort zone but also help me build daily habits. These varied from the basic like (7.) going to Starbucks for the first time or (11.) trying sushi, to the more challenging like (1.) running 10km with no training or (4.) conquering my fear of public speaking.

21. Watch the sunrise somewhere I haven’t been before (picture taken at Lulworth Cove, Dorset)

The way I picked these challenges was mainly based around how I perceived myself and deficiencies in skills I felt I had. One of the many things I’ve realised about myself since graduating from university and entering the corporate world was that I’m confident within my own social groups but find it difficult to express myself in the same way with people who are not of the same religious or ethnic background as me. As well as this I was just set in my routine and not very comfortable in doing things by myself, instead I’d always have try and drag someone along to events I wanted to attend. I wanted to use this month to work on these things which is why quite a few of my challenges are centred around getting to know strangers or just doing things by myself and doing things that were outside of my routine.

So, what did I learn?

It’s ok to not be a morning person
Ever since I started university and started pulling all nighters, I’ve realised I’m not the most productive person in the morning. Instead, my peak hours are in the evening or in the night which is why one of things on my list of challenges was for me to (29.) sleep by 10pm and start my day after sunrise. Sleeping by 10pm was physically not possible most nights because of plans and being out late which meant when I’d wake up before sunrise, I’d be groggy and my mind wouldn’t be switched on. I think in general, over the past few years I’ve been relatively productive with my time so I think I’m ok knowing that I will probably never be a morning person. I think there’s a connotation about waking up early and making the most of your time and if that works for you, great and if it doesn’t then also great. Find a routine that works for you and stick to it.

Doing things by yourself is actually quite enjoyable
Often times when you attend an event or an exhibition with someone else, you’re engrossed in that persons company. When I want to get to know someone or a group of people I’m always telling them “lets do a background activity”, something you don’t pay too much attention to because the more important thing is actually getting to know the person. I love doing this but what I realised this month is that when you attend these events or exhibitions by yourself, you get to appreciate it a lot more and really take it in. I think to really challenge myself, next year one of my goals will be to travel alone abroad and see how it goes. Somewhere not too far and not for too long incase I get bored of my own company and wanna come back home.

15. Visit the Islamic History exhibition at the British Museum by myself

Time boxing reading takes away the enjoyment
I’m someone who really enjoys reading so I thought I’d set myself the challenge of (9.) reading one book a week. I started of with Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes and finished it in less than 2 days because it was just that good. I then picked up Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall and read about a third of it in 2 weeks. When I was reading this, I simply wasn’t enjoying it so began thinking I need to read 40 pages or so a day to finish this book in a week. I ended up just leaving the book and not reading for most of the remaining month. That was until someone gave me A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and I finished it in about a day and a half (I have a very long commute to client site). This is a very basic lesson I learnt but don’t set yourself a time limit to finish a book, when you do, it feels like you’re back at school doing your English GCSEs. Some books will just captivate you, make you care for the characters and these books are the ones you’ll finish quickly whilst others will simply drag. Life is too short to finish books you aren’t enjoying, drop it and start reading something you will.

1. Run 10km with no training

Mental toughness goes a long way (cliché, I know)
When I attempted to run 5km back in September, I struggled really hard and was only able to run 4km in 20mins 11seconds. Which is still a decent enough time but the 5th kilometre I simply couldn’t do so called it quits and told myself it was because it was too early in the morning and I’m not a morning person. When I set myself the challenge of (1.) running 10km with no training and told people, they all thought I couldn’t do it or simply that I was crazy because I had never done it before. I doubted myself as well and after some googling thought to myself that I’d be happy with running 10km in just over 60mins. Very cliché but right before starting this run I just had this mindset that I can do this and that I would push my body to its limits in order to achieve a good time. I puked on the 9th kilometre and it actually turned out to be my fastest kilometre. A time of 45mins and 12seconds is something I’m quite proud of and I don’t think its something a lot of people can physically achieve. To quote Google, “Most runners who are reasonably fit and clock about 15 to 30 miles per week can expect to finish a 10K race in 50 to 70 minutes. More advanced runners will usually finish in about 43 to 50 minutes.”

I feel as though this month, I’ve had this mentality of wanting to push myself to my limits in order to achieve more and to do better things. I’m not a natural public speaker and I don’t think I ever will be, I remember at the first hackathon I ran part of Deen Developers it took me about a month to prepare a 10 minute presentation and even then I was stuttering. The few panel events I have been asked to participate in, I’ve been very nervous and always felt as though I had never done a good job or done the topic justice. So when someone reached out to me on LinkedIn asking me to be part of a panel event for students who wanted to get into consulting, I was a bit apprehensive but decided to take part because October is the month of change and I thought this would be a good way to try my hand at public speaking again around a topic I’m familiar with.

The past few events (2 in total) I had spoken, the audience was mainly made of people from the same religious or ethnic background as myself which made it slightly less nerve wracking for me to talk to them. This wasn’t the case this time round so I was pretty nervous as the lecture hall started filling up. After the event, the feedback I had gotten from both the students and the organisers was really positive and I’m starting to think maybe I’ve been too harsh about my public speaking skills these past few years. That or they want to use me as references for their graduate scheme applications and are just saying nice things.

4. Conquering fear of public speaking (picture taken at a panel event run by Queen Mary Consulting Society)

Reflecting on your thoughts is important
For the past few years, I’ve carried around a pocket sized notebook with me at all times. I’ve been using it mainly as a bullet journal; planning my day, my month and my future goals. Recently I started to write my thoughts in it and just how I’d be feeling during the day but I wasn’t doing this as frequently as I would’ve liked. In October I decided I would write out my thoughts everyday and reflect on them and it’s been a very beneficial process. I feel as though putting your thoughts onto paper just brings clarity to the mind; something that discussing with someone or just mulling over ideas in your brain can’t achieve. It’s something I will probably continue to carry on doing for the coming months and years.

Routine is good and makes you more productive with your time
As well as trying to give myself new experiences, I also wanted to find out if I was actually enjoying the things I had been doing over the past few years as part of my routine or was I just doing them because I’m set in my ways? So I decided to cut out certain things in my routine such as; Muay Thai, football and a whole host of other things that are too personal to write in a Medium article. I’m actually really glad I done this because it made me treasure and miss the things I actually enjoyed doing and also made me realise the things that weren’t really bringing me fulfilment or enjoyment.

Social media is both good and bad
Staying away from social media for the month has been difficult, it’s an addiction that a lot of us don’t really talk about. We endlessly scroll through our feeds and timelines whilst wasting countless hours when we could be spending that time productively elsewhere. I’m guilty of this but most of the time I’d use social media would be on my (very long) commute or right before I’d go to bed. Having cut out social media for the month, I started utilising my time on my commute a lot better; whether that would be me writing out my thoughts and reflecting, planning my coming day or reading (when I wasn’t sick of Prisoners of Geography). Not using social media at night meant that when I came home from a long day, instead of jumping into bed and scrolling through Twitter until I got tired, I’d sit with my family and catch up with them.

When you’re busy and working on countless different projects, it’s easy to overlook the things you take for granted for example family time, since it’s always there. This month has definitely helped in this regard and has helped me use my phone a lot less in general. On average, my daily screen on time before was probably around 5 to 6 hours which is actually quite frightening. Having reduced it down to around 1 to 2 hours and mainly using it just for WhatsApp (which I don’t consider social media) to keep in touch with people, bar the days when I work from home (Thursdays) and when I don’t have plans (this past Sunday), I think I’ve made some progress but it definitely can be better. Having said all of this, I think social media is a key drive for change and without it Deen Developers would not have the following it has today nor the support. To quote the obvious, social media in moderation is good and something we should all strive for.

Current screen on time for this week, Thursday I worked from home hence the spike

Conclusion

I missed out quite a few stories and lessons mainly because of timing and the article was getting quite long but also because this is only the third essay/article I’ve written in the past 7 years and I’m struggling to think what else to write. I think doing this list of challenges/experiences has been one of the best things I’ve done this year and it’s something I’ll strive to do every year for at least one month, if not more. I think in the future I will focus it more around either solely giving myself new experiences and taking myself out of my comfort zone or solely building good habits instead of mixing the two. Some things I simply wasn’t able to achieve, the main thing being putting in the time and effort to pass my theory test but I’ve downloaded the app which is a start I guess.

Many of the daily habits I’ve picked up during this month, I hope to carry on. I’m still of the opinion that planning ahead and having a routine is definitely the best way to make sure that you’re being productive with your time but sometimes it’s nice to do things that aren’t part of your routine and that take you out of your comfort zone.

The full list (please excuse my not so nice handwriting). (31.) is “message and meet up with an old friend I haven’t spoken to in years”

Ibrahim Javed

Written by

Tech consultant at Deloitte, founder at Deen Developers, mint tea enthusiast

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