I’ve slept in my own bed only once in the past 2 weeks. The only consolation is that someone else makes my hotel bed. Tomorrow, I can look forward to sleeping on the floor after my friend’s stag do (boys + burgers + beer).

I can look forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight. No doubt I will want to have a long lie in after a week of having my sleep cut short.

This is actually a bad habit. I feel tired during the week when I need the energy. On the weekends I waste several hours of my precious free time. How do I change?

I’ve been having conversations about habit change with my friend Andrew. We’ve both been inspired by the "4 Hour Work Week" by Tim Ferris. There was a chapter devoted to habit change. I decided to use those principles to achieve two aims:

Be out of bed 30 seconds after the alarm goes off
Sleep for at least 8 hours and only 8 hours

The principles come from the writer of the Zen Habits website: 13 Things to Avoid When Changing Habits

The main principles were:

Keep it simple
Do it for 30 days
Write it down
Make it public

Andrew and I have decided to try for the only one of the habit changes first. You can go to this link and track our progress over the next 30 days.

So far, we are failing miserably!

I hope you enjoyed reading the review of my year.  It was actually a very hard slog to write it.

I’ve just finished a semi-busy week in Luton on an away job. The work feels a lot easier after a few months of audit experience.  The team got put up in  a hotel and I enjoyed the not having to clean up after myself.  However, I did miss my church group’s Wednesday meeting.  I overcame this by using something I learnt from work – the conference call.

I look forward to a weekend in Liverpool and the Chinese New Year celebrations.  It will be the year of the Ox, which symbolises a long continued slump in the economy with a collapse in the jobs for Ox rearers, Ox groomers,  Chartered Ox Surveyors and auditors of Ox farms.

I’m not talking about Woolworths.

I entered December in reasonable shape for the exams. But I didn’t take into account two weeks of client work with long commutes. But a combination of sympathetic managers, a well designed revision plan, sticking to one half of the revision plan and blind panic means that I pass the exams. I celebrate by going on a midnight pub crawl in Greenwich finishing at 3.30am. I would recommend "Desperados" as the place to get a beer at 2am (because everywhere else is shut).

I spend two quiet weeks in Liverpool at the end of the year. But not before the new joiners in my department fulfil their duties at the Christmas party. We sing a song that professes our love for audit using the music of Take That’s "Back for Good".