You’d be surprised about what’s new to me. I spent my teens hidden away, sleeping, and my time at university was spent almost exclusively switching between uni work, paid work and a state of cognitive suspension that meant all I could do was press the F5 key over and over and over and over…

So when I was looking for something to fill a bit of time now that the degree is done – pause here for the small party that happens in my brain every time I realise that – it made sense to concentrate on the new. To both identify the things I want to do that I’ve never done, and to grab those things that I’d never even considered but that would be fun, interesting or will one day make an interesting story to tell when I’m tucked into my rocking chair.

And because no project is complete(d) without a goal, and as I am the Queen of Ordered Lists and unattainable targets, I figured I’d start small – so 1000 new things it is! There is no time limit, but I accept that it’s in my best interests to do some of them now rather than waiting until I’m 80, not least because I need the impetus to add variety and structure to my life over the next few post-uni months

Some basic rules. I like rules.

1. For the purposes of the list, the definition of new is new to me. I’m not out to make history here. You’ll probably have done at least some of these things already (perhaps all, in which case I ask you: do you ever sleep?) but if I haven’t then it totally counts as new.
2. I can’t include anything that I can’t mentally define as “a thing”. The sort of activity that you might mention to a good friend on the phone or when you bump into them in the street. For example, five minutes ago I sent an email that I’ve never sent before while eating a cereal I’ve never had before! That’s two new things at once! But neither of these count, not least because they don’t meet the friend-mentioning criteria — not even I’d start a conversation with “yesterday I sent an email about image resizing for printing”. I hope.
3. I won’t include things that are new but that make me crumple a little inside. On Monday my purse was stolen, something that had never happened to me before, but because I don’t want to add it to the list and I don’t want to reference it repeatedly, it won’t be included in the list. Is this blurring the truth somewhat? Most likely. But I choose not to make it a bigger part of my life than it already is.
4. If I’m not sure if something is list-worthy or not, I’ll ask someone I can trust to be adjudicator. Their decision is final, unless by asking I realise I vehemently disagree with them, and then my decision is final.
5. Part of the project is to blog as much as I can, but I very likely won’t blog everything, and there may be some things I just can’t blog about (state secrets, criminal escapades, work stuff, etc.). In which case I’ll post horribly modified entries that make the story sound way more interesting that it actually is, like it’s a Facebook status update.

I’ve already started with some items I’ll blog about later (four or five so far — one needs to go into adjudication), but I’m very open to any ideas for things to do, no matter how small or big. I’ll try anything, so have a think — what do you do that I’ve probably never done?

I’m slightly smitten with this idea for making gift boxes out of old cereal boxes.  
Instructable by Blightdesign, via Zero Waste Blog, via Al.