My Daily Commitments

This isn't a productivity hack - just intentional and directed activity

Last night I wrote down some personal commitments to guide me this coming week. The goal is to refine and expand them by next weekend. I’ve listed them below.

I’m not seeking encouragement. Rather, I’m letting you in on this to to give you a peek into the inner-workings.

Side note: I performed last week. It went well enough. I liked some of the photos Deb got. I included one of them below.

Commitments to Self

5 Commitments to improve:
physical | musical/artistic | mental
* emotional improvement is in the doing.

40 Pushups Each Day This Week

If you are curious, no, that is NOT a lot of pushups (for me, at least). I’ll do two sets of 20 and do them fairly slowly. In the recent past, I was doing 200-400 pushups four to five days a week. Sets of 50 to 70 but at a faster pace.

Slower pushups are more difficult but also allow me to focus on form and take intentional notice of how my body is responding to the work.

The reason to cap myself at 40 is that I haven’t done pushups or lifted weights in a while. My goal is to avoid any extreme muscle soreness, which only serves to limit what I can do in subsequent days.

If I do 40 pushups today through Sunday, I can increase my count to 100 a day next week without experiencing challenging muscle soreness.

Practice & Play Guitar 30 Minutes a Day (minimum)

With intention!

I’ve been playing more consistently and it definitely shows in the ease of performing and recording music.

But the intention mentioned above is a necessary shift. There are certain mechanical elements that I need to bring back or introduce into my playing. I listed those out and started on some of them this weekend.

Work on/Practice Vocals Daily

Two 10 minute sessions daily is enough to make progress. I share a bit about my new vocal/performance coach below.

Brisk, 1-2 Mile Walk / 20 Minutes of Yoga

I’ll either walk 4 days and do yoga 3 days or vice versa. Time permitting, I’ll do both on some days.

Eventually I’ll move to Pilates a couple days a week. I’ve been encouraged to do so by my sister and by a friend who is a personal trainer turned mortgage lender.

Write 200+ Words Each Day

These don’t have to be for a published piece. Emails and other daily/necessary writing do not count.

The 200 count can be met by writing a piece for here on Substack. However, if I write a 1,000 words for an article, I do not get to bank 800 words for the next several days.

The goal is 200 reasonably thoughtful words each day.

Things I Did Not Include In My Commitments

Drawing

I’m an ineffectual artist - when it comes to drawing. But… I LOVE the idea of drawing and definitely experienced progress when I was drawing more consistently.

However, as far as committed daily disciplines, I don’t feel comfortable adding it to my list. What I’ve listed above is enough.

That said, I found an old sketch book and will endeavor to put a few lines on it while working or sitting in meetings. I follow a couple drawing lessons on YouTube and will, from time to time, share my scribbles.

below are two drawings I did with my favorite pen in my lined notebook.

Tree at the DMV

A couple weeks ago Deb and I ran out early, coffee in hand, to wait at the DMV before it opened. We needed our Real ID’s, which we had both been negligent about.

We were the first in line, sitting in our folding beach chairs, sipping our coffee, when I decided to draw a tree I noticed across the way.

Other than scribble/doodles, it was the only intentional drawing I’ve done in months.

I kind of like it. But, it doesn’t look much like the tree I was looking at.

Mug on Tile

I have a piece of tile on my desk. I use it as a coaster for my coffee.

This drawing is a bit rougher than the tree but I still sort of like it.

Progress on Recording Projects

I also didn’t add making progress on my recording projects a daily commitment. I wanted to but it isn’t a daily discipline; it is more intermittent. Also, practicing guitar & vocals, intentionally, can include working on songs I’ll be recording in coming days.

However, making progress on my recordings is a priority.

I have a new vocal/performance coach, Korel Tundador.

I would still be going to Leo but he was accepted into a program that teaches/coaches him on being independent as a blind person. We’ve talked a couple times and he is making progress. We are proud of him!

In any case, my new coach was found after trying 4 coaches over a couple weeks. All of them were very good.

However, Korel and I hit it off well.. He is currently on tour with Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20. I think that’s pretty hip!

We go through some exercises and then we work on a specific song and/or specific parts of a song. I enjoy this process as it seems hyper-directed to what I want to accomplish.

We also discuss guitar, performance, recording, etc.

In fact, I recently upgraded my recording space with his encouragement. He indicated I needed to acoustically treat my room. You could hear the sound of room reverberation.

Nothing super-fancy but I purchased some acoustic treatment that I can put up and take down as needed.

I did some recordings this weekend and you can definitely hear the difference.

Next… upgrade one microphone.

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Those are my daily commitments. Again, not shared to elicit any encouragement or really any response from readers… Except, maybe, to get you to get your lazy ass working on some things!

I’m just kidding. ;-)

But I am interested in what, if anything, you do as a daily discipline or commitment? Or, what things would you like to include as a daily commitment?

Check in! Say hello! Let me know what you are up to.

Thanks for joining me on this journey!

With Love and Gratitude,
Matthew Moran
August 11, 2025