Thirty days. One thing at a time.

30 days

Style

Stop looking like you got dressed in the dark. Mostly this is fit, and fit is cheap.

Week one, free

1. 1.Try on your five most-worn things. Check the shoulder seam on each.
2. 2.Photograph yourself in the worst two. You cannot see it in a mirror.
3. 3.Find a tailor within walking distance of somewhere you already go.
4. 4.Take those two things in. Hem and waist, nothing clever.
5. 5.Bin or donate anything that has not been worn in a year.
6. 6.Buy one plain t-shirt that actually fits. One.
7. 7.Clean your shoes. All of them. Yes, that pair too.

30 days

Body

Two sessions a week that you will still be doing in ten years.

Week one, free

1. 1.Walk for twenty minutes. That is the whole first day.
2. 2.Squat to a chair, ten times, three rounds. Bodyweight only.
3. 3.Walk again. Notice whether yesterday hurt and where.
4. 4.Push-ups, on your knees if you need to. Three sets, stop two short of failure.
5. 5.Rest. Deliberately. This is part of it, not a day off.
6. 6.Squats and push-ups together. Same numbers.
7. 7.Book the gym induction, or clear the space at home.

30 days

Money

Find your actual number, then build the buffer that stops a bad month becoming a bad decade.

Week one, free

1. 1.Add up your essential monthly costs. Write the number down.
2. 2.List every subscription. Cancel two.
3. 3.Open a savings account at a different bank from your current one.
4. 4.Set a standing order for payday. Any amount. Fifty is fine.
5. 5.Find the interest rate on every debt you have.
6. 6.Check your employer pension match. Take all of it.
7. 7.Look at three current job ads for your role. Note the band.

30 days

Confidence

Not affirmations. Competence, repeated, until it stops being remarkable.

Week one, free

1. 1.Do the thing on your list you have been avoiding for a fortnight.
2. 2.Say one honest sentence where a deflection would have done.
3. 3.Ask somebody a question and let the silence sit afterwards.
4. 4.Make a decision in under a minute that you would normally chew on.
5. 5.Pay somebody a specific compliment. Not a generic one.
6. 6.Sit up. Shoulders back. All day. It is stupid and it works.
7. 7.Send the message you have been drafting in your head.

30 days

Dad

Twenty minutes a day, phone in another room. That is the programme.

Week one, free

1. 1.Twenty minutes, phone in another room, doing what they chose.
2. 2.Drive them somewhere and do not fill the silence.
3. 3.Cook something together. Let them do the bit you would do faster.
4. 4.Apologise properly for something you got wrong recently.
5. 5.Ask about one specific thing you remember them mentioning.
6. 6.Put them to bed. All of it, start to finish.
7. 7.Tell them one thing you admire about them. Be specific.

30 days

Faith

A daily practice rather than a position. Ten minutes, same time, every day.

Week one, free

1. 1.Ten minutes, same chair, same time. Start in Proverbs.
2. 2.Write down one line that landed. One.
3. 3.Pray for somebody by name, out loud, specifically.
4. 4.Find the men’s group in your church. Ask when it meets.
5. 5.Say grace at a meal where you normally would not.
6. 6.Read the same passage again. Notice what you missed.
7. 7.Turn up to the group. Just once. Say nothing if you like.

30 days

Grooming

Ten minutes a day that everybody notices and nobody mentions.

Week one, free

1. 1.Buy a face wash, a moisturiser and an SPF 30. Three things. Make the SPF a mineral one (zinc oxide), such as CeraVe Hydrating Mineral or Blue Lizard Sensitive.
2. 2.Morning: cleanse, moisturise, SPF. Four minutes.
3. 3.Book a haircut. Learn the name of the cut and the number.
4. 4.Evening: cleanse and moisturise. Three minutes.
5. 5.Nails: short, filed, clean. Takes five minutes and lasts a fortnight.
6. 6.Sort the neckline on the beard, or change the blade.
7. 7.Floss. Every night from here. This is the one nobody does.

30 days

Skills

Seven practical things a capable man can do, one a day.

Week one, free

1. 1.Tie a tie properly. Four-in-hand, twice, without looking it up.
2. 2.Find the jack points on your car and locate the spare.
3. 3.Cook a steak with a thermometer. Pull it at 52°C.
4. 4.Sharpen a kitchen knife. Actually sharpen it.
5. 5.Turn your water off at the mains. Know where it is before you need it.
6. 6.Change a plug, or wire a light fitting safely.
7. 7.Write your own CV bullet points leading with results, not duties.

30 days

Business

Know your numbers, raise your prices, stop being the bottleneck.

Week one, free

1. 1.Work out what is left after everything, divided by hours actually worked.
2. 2.Count your win rate on the last twenty quotes.
3. 3.Raise your price 10% on the next quote you send.
4. 4.List every task only you can do. That list is the problem.
5. 5.Write one process down properly. Just one.
6. 6.Chase every invoice over thirty days. Today.
7. 7.Decide which is your constraint: sales, delivery, or you.

30 days

Friendship

Male friendship does not survive on autopilot after thirty. This is the fix.

Week one, free

1. 1.Message the friend you have not spoken to in over a year.
2. 2.Suggest a specific day. Not "we should catch up".
3. 3.Propose a standing thing. First Thursday. Anything recurring.
4. 4.Call somebody instead of texting them.
5. 5.Say the real answer when asked how you are. Once.
6. 6.Introduce two friends who do not know each other.
7. 7.Turn up to something you would normally skip.

30 days

Screen Time

Take back the two hours a day a phone is quietly taking from you.

Week one, free

1. 1.Look at your screen time. Do not judge it. Write it down.
2. 2.Charge the phone in another room overnight. Buy an alarm clock.
3. 3.Delete the worst app off the phone. Keep it on the laptop.
4. 4.Turn off every notification that is not a person.
5. 5.Greyscale the screen for one day.
6. 6.One hour, phone in a drawer, evening. Notice the reaching.
7. 7.Compare the number to Monday.

30 days

Home

The house is the biggest thing you own. Start acting like it.

Week one, free

1. 1.Test every smoke alarm. Replace the batteries.
2. 2.Find and label the stopcock, the consumer unit and the gas valve.
3. 3.Build the first aid kit properly. Saline, burn gel, real tweezers.
4. 4.Clear one surface completely and keep it clear.
5. 5.Fix the smallest broken thing in the house.
6. 6.Bleed a radiator, or clean the filters on whatever heats the place.
7. 7.Write a maintenance list by month. Stick it inside a cupboard door.