September 18, 2022

So what’s going on with my weekly habits? Last time I updated, I was falling apart. Well I didn’t quit. I’m still at it, doing mostly better, except for the last couple of days when I had a bout of depression kick in when my meds ran out – see all those zeroes on Friday and Saturday? (Too honest? Ok, maybe you don’t want to hear that.) But the good news is that I feel much better today, and I’m back doing 100% of my habits for the day.

You can see from my tracker above that I’m struggling with the 5 minute speed pick-up – I do it only 57% of the time! And I was just telling my husband that if you start with a relatively clean house, 5 minutes a day is all you need to maintain it. That doesn’t speak to all the tasks that keep the dust bunnies and microbes at bay, but it does do wonders for the daily junk that tends to pile up. 

I’m going to make a concerted effort to prioritize that habit for the next couple of weeks. Gotta get it back up to 70% or better! I’ve blown through most of my slack time on that one, so I have to really step it up now.

Generally, I’ve been trying to vary the types of habits that I’m adding each week. If I’m not feeling so motivated one week, and add something that I think will be easy (like brushing my teeth every morning), a week or two later I’ll try to mix in a habit that I think will be harder (like walking every day). Or if I pick something related to housekeeping one week, then I’ll shift focus to health & hygiene the next.

I’ve heard that you can only successfully focus on two or three main areas of your life at a time – like health and finances. The rest inevitably falls by the wayside for a while, until you shift priorities back to the neglected areas – relationships, personal growth, or household – while health and finances start to slip. Maybe that’s true. Maybe I’m biting off way more than I can chew with this challenge, trying to do too much in too many areas. But you could also argue that the real issue here is singular. It’s about time management and motivation. It’s not about doing dishes, or decreasing my waistline, or any of the other symptoms of the bigger problem.

Whew! That’s a revelation for me too! All this time I’ve been wondering how all the other people seem to keep up with everything so effortlessly. How do people live? I mean, how do they live daily life as productive, happy people? And here I am, trying to answer that question for myself using a system that so far mostly works, even for me – who I’d largely written off as a hopeless case.

I’ve been following this program for ten weeks now. I know it will get exponentially harder as I add more and more habits to my days. But I’m heartened by how well I’m doing so far. And I’m enjoying it! (Mostly.)

 With that in mind, I’m going to pick something difficult for next week, and it’s going to be… getting to bed by midnight every night. For a lot of people, I know that’s not a challenge at all, but I’m a chronic insomniac by choice. I love staying up at night. It’s the only time of day when I get some quality vegging out time guilt-free. But I also believe all the hype about all the benefits of a good night’s sleep. I know I’m wreaking havoc on my entire being by missing out on sleep. So it is with reluctance that I must sadly say goodbye to that bad habit. With that said, I’m off to bed!