As a reminder to myself that finishing the tasks on my list really is possible, here's a record of tasks that I completed previously, from both my original list and the partial list that I started to make prior to this one.

( 14 Completed Tasks )

"How can I possibly think of 101 tasks?" you exclaim. The flexibility of having 101 spaces to fill with your own choices is great, but also quite scary. Here's a suggested outline for giving your list a bit more structure:

• 18 Categories X 5 Tasks
• 9 Specific Tasks for the Past, Present, and Future
• 2 Purchases

The first part of forming your list involves defining 18 categories of tasks that are important to you. My 18 categories are listed below as an example. It's unlikely that anyone could directly use my set of categories since we all have a different combination of interests (my list is heavily weighted toward the arts, since my education and most hobbies are in that area), but marking out the categories that don't interest you and then finding replacements is a good way to start.

My Categories:

1. Education
2. Theatre
3. Creative Writing
4. Photography
5. Knitting/Crochet
6. Music
7. Culture
8. Recreation
9. Social
10. Family
11. Health
12. Civic Duty
13. Financial
14. "Adulthood"
15. Organization
16. Adventure
17. Overcoming Fears
18. Special Skills

After you have 18 categories selected, list 5 tasks relating to each category. It may feel a bit restrictive having only 5 tasks for your current favorite activities, but this limit encourages you to think carefully about what your most important goals are and to aim for improvement in multiple areas of your life. Once this section is completed, you will have 90 tasks on your list.

The next 9 tasks on the list come from three groups known in brief as Past, Present, and Future. While you certainly aren't required to do these exact tasks, especially if they are things that are already done in your life, I feel they're important for everyone and you ought to consider whether you can improve upon what you've already done or replace the task with a different one that fits the category.

Recalling the Past

1. Create a genealogical record for at least 4 generations of your family (yourself, parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents)
2. Compile a scrapbook of your childhood, with pictures of yourself at each age, your close family, and friends, and your pets
3. Start writing an autobiography (there are many great books out there with prompts to help you figure out what topics to cover)

Recording the Present

1. Assemble a time capsule to be opened in 20 years
2. Record your daily life in photographs for a week
3. Start a journal (your choice as to how often is reasonable for you to write in it, although I'd suggest at least once per week)

Preparing for the Future

1. Start a savings or investment plan
2. Get health insurance (if you've got adequate insurance already, get life insurance payable to your next of kin...if you've got that, well, lucky you!)
3. Write your will and advance directives

Now we're up to 99 tasks, and the last two are fun ones. Select two significant purchases you'd like to make. These should be within your long-term budget but not things you'd make a casual decision about purchasing. Many of us would probably choose a new computer as being one of those things we'll want in the next few years, but anything works so long as you wouldn't just hop into a store and throw it in your shopping cart without a second thought.

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No matter how you choose to structure your list, here are a few tips for selecting individual tasks:

• Make your tasks very specific and concrete. You have to be able to measure whether a task has been accomplished or not. Don't just write "learn to tap dance"...how will you know if what you've done constitutes learning enough. Instead, choose tasks such as "take a tap dance class at the community center". Class ends, you've had the experience, and your task can clearly be marked as complete.
• Make your tasks achievable. There's a difference between challenging yourself and setting yourself up for failure. Base your tasks around your own actions, and aim for things that don't involve reliance on the actions of others. If you want to get a poem published in a literary magazine, you can't aim for getting published. It's not entirely in your control. What you can and should aim for is sending a certain number of submissions to the magazines in which you'd like to be published. Then your part is done, and it's time to let it go and focus on another task that you can do.
• Choose tasks where you can apply the old adage "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." The fastest route to misery in this project is declaring that you will do a specific task every day for the entire 1001 days. It's simply impossible. Forming a good habit doesn't mean that you have to be perfect from the start, but that you can pick yourself up and start again if you fail. Tasks that involve forming good habits are great to have on the list, but you need to limit the duration so it's possible to accomplish them. For example, "quit drinking caffeinated beverages" is a purely evil goal to set for yourself. One little mistake and you'll beat yourself up and probably quit trying entirely since you've already "failed". Instead, try something like "Limit caffeine intake to one 20 oz. cola per week for two months". If you don't manage it on the first try, look how many more two-month spans are available in which to attempt it again!

The final and most important tip for success in this project is: don't trap yourself into completing tasks if the course of your life changes. If you find out that the task you listed a month or a year ago is no longer relevant, replace it! There's an important lesson here regarding willingness to assess a situation and make necessary changes. Making changes is what this project is all about.

Known by many names, including 101 in 1001, Mission 101, and 101 Ways to Torture Yourself (courtesy of Felicia Day), the main goal of this project is to complete a list of 101 tasks in the course of 1001 days (roughly 33 months).

I originally started the project at the end of 2005, when my friend Erin started a private spin-off of the mission101 community and promptly handed maintainership over to me. I'm still maintainer of we_love_101, but most of us have slacked a bit in completing our lists.

My original end date was Friday, September 26, 2008, and I completed 11 of the 101 items on my list. A dozen or so more were actively in progress. My work on the project stalled when I realized that my life had changed dramatically since making the list and much of it was no longer relevant. I've decided to start again, with a whole new list, and a whole new deadline.

My new deadline is Monday, May 24, 2010. This is only 848 days away, rather than 1001, but I have two reasons for the shortened time span. First is that the new deadline is my 30th birthday, and it seems appropriate to think of this as a "things to accomplish before I turn 30" list. Second is that a number of the items on the list were already in progress, so it doesn't seem like a significant disadvantage to shorten the time I have for completing them.

Two additional posts will follow soon. One is my actual list of tasks and the other is a set of more specific guidelines I've created to help those who are overwhelmed by the open-endedness of listing 101 tasks.