Do you ever stop to think about the new habits you incorporate into your life? How long they last? Do they impact your life positively or negatively? Do you keep track of them?
A few years ago, I started the habit of doing anything I needed to do that required less than a minute to do it right away. It isn’t an original idea, and I incorporated it after I read it somewhere (sadly, I can’t recall for the life of me where I got the idea). And from then on, if something needed to be done and I thought about it at that moment, and it would require less than a minute to do it, I did it immediately.
Every now and again, I catch myself getting lazy about it, and my mind goes into autopilot, telling me, “this is a promise you made to yourself, that will not even take a minute, DO IT NOW,” and boom — I spring into action. Today, it was about socks that needed to be picked up from the floor and dropped in the hamper. I can’t tell you how much more efficient it has made my everyday life because I have no real way to measure it, BUT I know for a fact that it has.
And the best part? It’s a habit that has stuck throughout the years.
This year, I began the habit of reading for 20 minutes with a timer, uninterrupted. I got this idea from a guest on the What Should I Read Next podcast. At first, it seemed silly, like a timer to read? Really? But the truth is, it works! I find pockets of reading time throughout my day and have a dedicated bedtime routine to read, BUT there are times I am often exhausted and fall asleep before I get through a page. So I decided to give this timer method a go, and you guys, it works! It’s excellent! I don’t reach for my phone or get distracted by anything. I ask Alexa to set a timer for 20 minutes, and I read uninterrupted; it is glorious!
It has most certainly increased my overall reading time because I am on book 14 and it’s only the 8th week of the year!
What new habit have you picked up that has worked for you? I’d love to hear!
What I Think I Say 