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Habits

My habit tracking so far this year. 

I'd intended to slow down on my non-spiritual reading this Lent (and maybe I have, some) but a few days in, a couple of books I'd been waiting for at the library were automatically checked out and downloaded to my Kindle for two weeks. One is Gretchen Rubin's "Better Than Before" and I'm enjoying digging into it. 

Rubin outlines questions to ask in order to know yourself, and from taking this quiz and reading a couple of her other books ("The Happiness Project" and "Happier At Home") I know that I tend mostly toward Obliger, so I thrive on external accountability. Perhaps when I actually lay out a plan for said habits, I'll use the blog for some accountability. We shall see. 

I'm about half done and I plan to use it to continue my 2017 goal of knowing myself better in order to make positive changes and steps in the direction I want my life to go. This post won't be a review or an outline of the book but more of my random brainstorming of my habits, those I'd like to change, and those I'd like to develop. 

Positive Habits: 
  • Weekly Mass
  • Daily prayer time
  • Reading for pleasure every day 
  • Weekday-morning drink of hot water/apple cider vinegar/honey/lemon before breakfast
  • Daily vitamin
  • Making the bed every morning 
Negative Habits: 
  • Checking my phone whenever I see it
  • Logging into and scrolling Facebook endlessly every time I have more than 30 seconds of spare time
  • Eating lots of sweets, in frequency and quantity
  • Immediately answering no to almost every kid request without first considering it 
  • Yelling at the kids to hurry up (are we really in a hurry right now?) 
  • Putting things almost away (the laundry basket by the dresser, the hair dryer on the vanity)
Habits I'd Like to Develop:
  • Daily movement/10,000 steps
  • Eating leafy greens
  • Updating YNAB each evening
  • Daily spousal prayer
Helpful habits:
  • Hanging my keys on my hook inside the door immediately upon arriving home
  • Always putting my keys in my left coat or jeans pocket (haven't lost them since we moved seven months ago!)
  • Listening to podcasts while I clean up supper (I can get to the most important ones each week this way) 
  • Just Do It Now - my strategy for changing out empty toilet paper rolls. 
  • Using a new dishrag every day 
I plan to think further and see how the "Better Than Before" strategies can help me enhance and form my habits. Since I'm a nerd, I embrace exercises like this, where I can learn about myself and use what I've learned to brainstorm, then plan, changes. 

Tell me about your habits. Have you read this book? Did it help? 
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