It's been a while, hasn't it?
It takes 30 days to make (or break) a habit! This week I began/will begin forming some new habits in my life! Each day marks a new habit beginning and in 30 calendar days, I will hopefully have stuck through all of them!
Would you like to know what they are?
Yesterday (Sunday the 19th of Feb) began my first official day of no computer in bed!
I have a pretty bad habit (as I'm sure most of us who own laptops do) of bringing my computer and falling asleep with my computer in my bed. I watch movies, play games, browse reddit, check emails, etc. All while in bed! I have a desk... I've just convinced myself the bed is more comfy. In reality, it makes my sleep schedule much worse, I come to rely on it to help me fall asleep (pandora, Netflix, podcasts), and ultimately I spend way too much time browsing when I could be doing literally anything else. Technically I started this goal last week, but Sunday was the first official "no more!" day.
Today marked day one of 15 minutes per day of cleaning up my room. This is a habit that I've actually fallen out of and I know will make me feel much better about stepping in and out of my room each day. 15 minutes per day really isn't much time at all, but I find myself wanting to or knowing I should clean my room, and it just builds and builds until I have to spend a whole day doing laundry and picking up when in reality, I could've tidied up each day and it would be nice and organized all the time!
Tomorrow (even though I'm posting this past midnight) will be day 1 of no more Facebook! I'm sure we've all had our nice fasts from Facebook at different points, and I'm sure we all realized how much we didn't miss while we were gone! I really would love to delete my Facebook entirely, but with work, friends overseas, past coworkers/students I really do admit that Facebook can be a useful tool, a vain tool, but useful no doubt. This is partially why I've decided to make a blog post about it, that way I don't have to bombard someone's news feed with a wall of text that they will assume is about politics.
On Wednesday I will begin no food/drink in my room that I'm not currently consuming. If you are my family (chances are you aren't) you know I hoard cups like they will be currency in the apocalypse. This is a pretty cut and dry habit, but you'd be surprised how lazy I can be when I don't feel like bringing a glass downstairs to put in the dishwasher or sink.
On Thursday I will begin the habit of charging my phone in a different room. This will probably be the most difficult, yet the most necessary habit to form. I could link to so many different articles/studies that speak to how unhealthy it is that we sleep with our phones literally in our beds or right next to us on the bedside table. Aside from that, I have personally become far to dependent on my phone. It is the first thing I see when I wake up and the last thing I see when I fall asleep. I have found that on average I spend 15 minutes browsing email, social media, and text messages before I actually get out of bed to start my day. I love you all but your texts can wait until I've at least gone to the bathroom and began the process of my face de-puffing.
On Friday, I begin 10 minutes of mindfulness meditation before bed, each night. If you've never practiced minfulness, I'd suggest you look into it! It can be done any time, any place, by anyone. I personally prefer it before bed because it allows me to get more restful, dream-filled sleep. I also find that I don't scratch as much (I get hives sometimes) while i'm sleeping if I've practiced before bed.
On Saturday I will start drinking 1 pint of water first thing in the morning. I used to do this all the time and it didn't have a huge impact on my life, but generally helped me feel more hydrated. I drink plenty of water throughout my day, but the mornings are especially difficult for me and all I ever want is coffee. One pint is a drop in the bucket, so to speak, and is not difficult to achieve, but it's a much easier habit to fall out of than it is to fall into.
Finally, I'd like to encourage you to look at some healthy habits you can make or break this month! Quit smoking? No TV in bed? Shorter showers? They don't need to be very difficult or back breaking.
I have chosen these goals in order to make my life just a bit better and more healthy. I could've chosen "bike 10 miles a day" but I know that realistically I can bike 10 miles, but still sleep with my phone in my bed and staring at blue light still sucks, even if my quads look great!
If you'd like to set up some goals, and don't know where to start, remember this: Make your goals "SMART"
S- Specific (ex- I will not bring my laptop into my bed for 30 days)
M-Measurable (ex-28 out of 30 days were spent with no laptop in bed)
A-Attainable (ex- Am I physically able to use my laptop outside of my bed? - do I have another area to use it or is my bed the only option?)
R-Realistic (ex-30 days without a laptop in bed is easily achieved... 30 days for me to build a laptop from scratch is unrealistic)
T- Time Based (30 days VS "no more laptop ever")
For me, I set SMART goals because it requires me to track my progress and really think through the goals I am setting, why I set them, and helps me to see potentially hard or uncomfortable tasks as much more manageable.
Lastly, this is not meant to be a post where I toot my own horn, in fact, it's quite embarrassing to display how bad some of the habits I have are! I just thought I'd share some goals I am setting, in order to keep myself even more accountable to what I am setting out to accomplish. I hope you've enjoyed reading my goals and potentially will join or make some on your own! If nothing else, hopefully you enjoyed my ramblings.
As always, I appreciate any feedback and welcome questions and discussion! Love you all
