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Since I am doing this myself currently, I thought it would be fun trying to make it a swap; it's my first swap as coordinator, so bear with me, everyone. :-)
Do you want to improve your life?
Then remove one thing from it you don't like and add one you would love to have in your life - that's the basic idea.
So you do:
Buy or make a nice journal/ notebook; nothing big, it just has to take you through four weeks. Make it small, as you will carry it with you anywhere you go.
Your journal is for your personal use: It is not supposed to be artsy but a workbook! You will keep track of your successes and failures each day, and after the week, you can go back for the e-mail-overview you are going to email your partner. Since this is your journal and you will keep it private, you also can also note the more personal stuff you want to keep track of but not necessarily want to exchange with your partner. Think of something you want to remove from your life; up to September 26th, you should know what to get rid of. Partners are assigned on September 26th, and now traditional swap-roles are switched for four weeks:
There will be one partner assigned to you, and you send immediately a quick email out to this assigned partner with an encouragement. Now the assigned partner will email you back for four weeks, at least once each week, that makes four emails at least, starting with the minus he/ she chose.
In his/ her weekly e-mails, he/ she gives you an overview over the last week, reporting minus-successes and -failures, and includes a photo of the journal he/ she keeps so that you can see he/ she really does journal. You hold him/ her accountable, encourage him/ her, coach him/ her a little bit.
(You will of course also have gotten an e-mail from the partner you are assigned to with his/ her encouragement and start to e-mail him/ her with your own minus.) On October 10th, that's after two "minus-weeks", the "plus-weeks" start and everyone will add his/ her one thing. Keep your minus (!) and add your plus, and email to your minus-plus-coach about that, too. The minus-plus-phase ends on October 24th. In the last emails, you will sum up the last four weeks. By now, you should have a rather good idea what your assigned partner will like, and you have his/ her profile at hand; now you go and make or buy a little gift (5-10$ before shipping) you'll send him/ her, preferably of course something about their minus or plus. They SO earned that! Swap ends on October 31st, and gifts have to be sent by then. After the swap, you decide for yourself if you want to keep your minus and/ or plus... :-)
IMPORTANT!!
Do minus first, then two weeks later plus. Most of us have to many things in their lives to add another, so first create the space to add something. Keep it fun and as simple as you can, as this is no therapy and your partner no lifecoach or therapist. It hasn't got to be big or fancy, it just has got to be personal and "swap-able": You don't want to minus smoking, as this is nothing you can do in a swap (perhaps reduce down to a certain number of cigarettes if need be?), and you are not allowed to minus your spouse/ romantic partner! ;-) This can be rather intense and demanding even if you do something seemingly small like add 5 minutes downtime for yourself each day. Be as specific as you can.
"Minus sweets" will not work, "minus cupcakes" might, "minus gossiping" surely not, "minus gossiping with XY in lunchbreak" might.
"Plus exercise" bah, "plus 10 minutes monday, wednesday, saturday on a treadmill" will, "plus more self-care" nah, "plus 30 minutes in the bathtub twice a week" is great.
You can also minus or plus one specific event or activity in your weekly schedule. You are not allowed to talk about yourself and your own minus/ plus with your assigned partner! This is all about him/ her, and you have to be a "neutral" person, adviser, buttkicker, donor; be sympathetic, nice, helpful as you see fit, but be about them! That means, you have to keep your own minus/ plus out of the equation when it comes to your assigned partner and keep that e-mail-exchange strictly about their minus/ plus! As for your own minus/ plus, you are assigned to a person as well, so minus and plus there exclusively!
I hope this is understandable and not too complicated; contact me with questions if you have any.
Newbies welcome, as I am one myself, but please contact me first and fill out your profiles. No-newbies rated better than 4.5 please.
EDITED on June 2nd:
Due to summer-hustle-bustle, few persons seem to be in the mood to minus and plus very much. So I changed swap-dates to autumn; hopefully there will be more wind-of-change then than hot-in-the-city! :-)
I will be on vacation from August 31st to September 18th and not be responding to e-mails and questions that time as I will be away from internet and not swapping. Please have patience and bear with me those 3 weeks as I will answer every e-mail when I'm back. Promise. :-)
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