How to create new habits without turning your life upside down
There is a lot of talk out there about habits and routines. Countless books, blog posts, podcasts and news clips about how “changing your habits & change your life!”
New year’s resolutions alway fall apart come February? This year, instead of turning your life upside down why not try a slower approach? I’m sharing my process of changing my habits while I’m in the weeds, making messy change to my life. You in?
And for a while we all buy into the idea, right?
This is how the dialouge sometimes goes:
“Ok. Monday morning, it’s going down. I’m getting up at 5am. I’ll go to the gym for an hour, come home, get ready for work and then make breakfast. Then I’ll be ready to take on the day!”
The plan is in place and you’re all in. Then Monday rolls around, your alarm goes off and that ship sails. Fast.
So, life stays the same.
Now, this all-in approach works for some people.
I wish I was one of them, if I’m being honest. But, alas, I am whole-heartedly an “all things in moderation” kind of lady. And until recently, I’d resigned myself to the idea that I could never completely change up my life routine.
Then I decided that was a bunch of bulls**t.
But I need to find a way to do it that actually works for my approach to life.
I need to ease my way into it.
I think this just might work, too.
Here are the guidelines I’m working from to create new habits:
- No more than 1 change at a time.
- Don’t add anything new until the previous change feels second nature. It could be 2 weeks or 2 months.
- Don’t rush it.
- Try a different approach if the first doesn’t work. There’s no giving up, just redirecting.
- Keep track of what you change. Progress will be slow so it’s crucial that you can look back on where you started.
Where to start
You probably have a list of things that you want to change up in your life. If that’s you, write down all of these and rank them.
The whole point of this approach is to keep it simple and to not overwhelm your sense of routine to quickly. So, prioritizing the changes you want to make will help you make a big impact in your life early.
I know that I’ll be starting by changing up my morning routine, or lack thereof, first.
#1 Wake up at 7am every day except Sunday.
Start day: September 30, 2019
I moved my phone from my bedside table to charge to the other side of the room. I didn’t want the blue light of my phone or the appeal of anything on it to keep me up. If I want to use my phone, I cannot be in bed to do it.
The other rule was that I could not lay back down after turning off my alarm
With my phone now on the other side of my room, I set my alarm for 7am.
The first few days were a mega struggle.
This was my absolute biggest goal for my little lifestyle shakeup. I was at a point where my wake up time was getting later and later. And so was my bedtime.
I saw 2am more times than I did in college. Yikes.
And let me tell ya, the first two weeks I thought my body was never going to feel rested again. But, I’ve been doing this for a while now and I’m thinking about starting to move my wake time even earlier!
I didn’t know that would ever be possible for me!
#2 Writing for at least 15 minutes every single day.
Start day: December 2, 2019
I’m the kind of person that likes to start and complete a project all in one go, if possible.
But blogging is teaching me that this mentality is serving me all to well. So, I’m setting aside at least 15 minutes every single day to move forward on at least a little bit of writing.
Here’s how it’s gonna go down: I’ll set a timer for 15 minutes and write for 15 uninterupted during that time.
Odds are I’ll keep writing at the end of that time once I’m in a groove. But, if my energy is low that day and I need to rest, I can rest knowing that I made a little bit of progress.
There isn’t a specific kind of writing I’ll be doing during this. It’s not project-specific.
The goal for me is to make writing an everyday habit.