Happy new year, friends! Guess what time it is?!? Time for some new habits…don’t worry, not being lame isn’t one of them :).

As I was making my final cup of coffee for the year, and in fact, the decade, on New Year’s Eve, I got to thinking about all of the lasts that we do at the end of the year. And also, all of the firsts that we do when a new year rolls in. And I don’t mean the things that we try to cram in at the end of a year to check some things off a list. Nor do I mean the resolutions that we tend to make at the beginning of a new year. I mean the mundane things that we do everyday, particularly the habits that we develop.

And this got me to thinking about daily habits. And how we can make the most out of each day. Because life is short and time goes so quickly, something I am really realizing as a parent…kid’s change A LOT and when you think of how fast the years have gone by since they’ve been born, it’s mind blowing, and exciting, but also sad.

I didn’t make any resolutions this year. Honestly, I never fully complete them and usually give up caring about them a few months into the year. In the past, I have made a few, thinking that this year will be different, but it never is. Maybe I’m finally accepting myself and all of my pros and cons.

But that doesn’t mean that I’m not doing anything that will ultimately have a positive impact on my daily life! But I’m choosing to phrase them as habits this year, because these are the things that I want to incorporate with no end game. These are habits that I am hoping to take from year to year.

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Habit 1: Setting social media limits

I want to be more present in my daily life. But this means that I need to reign in the amount of time that I spend on social media, Instagram in particular. Which has led me to putting a time restriction for Instagram on my phone.

If I’m being totally honest with you, I have spent up to 4 hours or more on that app some days. I’m embarrassed to have admitted that. Which is a good indicator that it was time to make a change.

Over the Christmas holiday, I took a few days off from the app and it was really nice. So now, I’ve put a 2 hour limit on my usage.

I break the time into 4 little chucks (15 min each) and then 1 larger chunk (1 hour when I post). I do enjoy being on there and interacting with the community. It’s only been a few days since I’ve figured out this system but it feels good.

Also,

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Habit 2: Making physical fitness a priority

I am not a person who needs exercise to help my mood, although I do admit that I always feel better after I exercise. But I am quite content to stay stationary all day. However, I know that this is not good for my health.

I’ve always been like this. And because of my personality, I go through cycles where I’m fit and active for a while and then something happens, I give up being active and I become sedentary.

In the past, my appearance has driven a lot of my fitness goals. But in an effort to put my health first, I have decided to make physical fitness a permanent part of my life.

Knowing the way that I’m motivated, I asked for a fitness tracker for Christmas. I ended up with an Apple watch so that I could track my movement throughout the day. It allows me to set goals for movement, exercise and how much I stand. I can also see how many steps I’ve taken, the total distance I’ve moved and the equivalent flights of stairs that I’ve climbed.

I’m definitely a numbers person and I think that having access to this data will be very helpful.

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Habit 3: Having a low buy year

Just like fitness, I go through phases with shopping. The cycles are much less frequent than they used to be but I still shop more than I’m comfortable with sometimes.

The end of this fall, for example. Even though all of the clothing that I purchased was secondhand, I still felt like I was a little out of control. I bought quite a few pieces and although they were high quality pieces that I will love for years, I didn’t need them.

As a result, I have decided to embark on a low buy year. I have a loosely defined rule that I can only purchase one new item a month, so a total of 12 items. If I end up purchasing a few more, then I won’t beat myself up about it, but I am not putting any allowances in there. If there’s anything I need to replace, I’ll plan it as my monthly purchase.

If you want to see how I’m appreciating what I already own, follow along here. I’ve also implemented a winter capsule wardrobe to keep my focus on the things that I already own. If you’re interested in starting a capsule wardrobe, read this post.

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Habit 4: Incorporating a new budgeting method

This brings me to my final habit that I want to focus on…sticking to a budget! I control the family budget and while we’ve had a budget forever, I’m not always the best at sticking to it. Some months it goes really well, which definitely helps balance the bad months.

But I’d like to stop having bad months altogether. So, after taking care of all the bills that we need to pay and allocating money to savings, I have a plan for the money that’s left over. This leftover money is what I use to pay for things such as groceries, gas, dining out, weekends, etc. I guess you could call this variable spending.

I’ve taken the total and divided it by the number of days in the month. This has given me a daily budget. At the end of the day, I write down all of our purchases and add them up. If we are under the daily budget, that extra money can carry over to the next day. If we are over the daily budget (easy to happen on grocery day), then the budget for the next day or two needs to accommodate for it.

For example, say our daily budget is $40/day. If we only spend $26 on one of the days, then we have $14 dollars that can roll over to the next day, which gives us $54 for the next day’s budget.

But if our daily budget is $40 and we spend $62 that day (over budget by $22), then we need to spend that much less the next day, so the next day’s budget would be $18.

This takes me a few minutes at the end of the day to calculate and I just write it in my daily planner as a reminder.

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Are you incorporating any new habits into your life in 2020? Do any of the habits I mention above resonate with you?

Until next time,