Day 1: Checklist?

I've had too many "Day 1"s of projects to take the title of this post completely seriously. Yet my new-found lack of personal time has forced me to become more pragmatically focused. College life allowed things like $30/week diets largely composed of lentils and brown rice. I could view serious intestinal discomfort as a badge of honor rather than a crippling impossibility. My gurgling stomach could only draw attention to my defined abs, right?

Self improvement books, like politicians, always sing the trite chorus of "this time it's different". Like politicians they offer messiah-esque parables, metaphors and sweeping life-changing conclusions. And as my intelligent readers have already gathered, self improvement books and politicians have another major similarity: they seldom, if ever, get results.

I want results so given the previous paragraph it makes sense to avoid high-minded analysis and focus on actions and consequences. Without further ado:

Hypothesis: Keeping a daily check list on a piece of paper I carry everywhere with me will move me closer to my primary goals.

Status quo: Sleep deprived, losing fitness momentum, have lots of things on plate - responding on ad-hoc basis. Not up to speed on programming project with older brother. Work deliverables decent, but somewhat random.

Goal: More sleep, improving physique (steadily), have times when to-do list feels light and I can add. Up to speed on programming project with older brother. Work deliverables consistent, planned and part of long-term plans.

Evaluation schedule: Next week I'll write again to diagnose whether 1) I was able to keep to a daily check list system, what problems I encountered and how I dealt with them 2) If any obvious causal results occurred due to the change.