Habit = Choosing A Little Change, Every Day
I’m surprised there are so many memes on having and breaking bad habits, and very few on forming good habits!
Routines are, to me, a curated collection of habits. I’m a fan of some routine in my day. While I’m no stranger to change, I do like to have some small part of each day that is predictable — in this way, routines help me make sure I’m regularly taking my allergy medication, for instance, and otherwise doing the self-care that keeps me feeling and doing my best.
Pre-pandemic, I traveled 2-3 times a month. I had “daily routines at home” and “daily routines on the road” and TBH it wasn’t too bad. But after I went into lockdown at home, I found the “daily routine at home” to feel endless and full of drudgery! I abandoned my daily routines for whatever I felt like doing from moment to moment. Fun for a while, but probably not great for my health.
Seeing an opportunity to be intentional about new habits I wanted to “bake in” to each day via my morning routine, I added one new daily habit at a time, in addition to coffee and walking the dog, until I reached the point I’m at now:
Journaling each morning upon waking
Cooking breakfast
Exercising
And now I would like to figure out how to fit blogging into that morning routine so I make sure it gets done every day. The trick is doing all these things before 8am, which would be ideal and isn’t quite happening now…. (Get up earlier is one option, yes. I’m already up between 4-5am with no alarm and given my sleep issues the past year and a half, I won’t be pushing this one.)
I’m pretty happy with the way intentional habit-forming has worked for me in my life. What’s worked for you?