Habits I Want to Cultivate in 2015

Last week, I explained why I am not setting any formal resolutions or goals for 2015. Instead, I'll be focusing on little attainable habits that hopefully will make things easier once baby girl does make an appearance.

Why habits?

Once a habit is established, it becomes second nature. It's not a difficult game of willpower. It's not one more thing to keep track of. It's just something you do. Here are some habits that I already have in place that truly make my life better and easier:

• Making the bed each morning.
• Weekly meal planning.
• A regular (now bi-weekly) grocery day.
• A (flexible) laundry schedule. 
• A morning rhythm/routine with Kiddo.

Each of these started out as something I had to plan for, but over time, they became second nature. Monday (or every other) is grocery day. I plan our menus the night before. I do laundry at least three times weekly - usually Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This gives me the time to catch up between days if needed. My morning routine with Kiddo took some time, trial, and error to implement, but now that he knows the routine, our mornings usually go pretty smoothly.

Barring a battle of wills, of course. Three is a whole new ballgame.

And the main reason why I want to cultivate good habits now? Once baby girl arrives, I'll need some norms and routines to keep the house in order so we don't lose our sanity.


Sitting down with Hubby, I brainstormed a few habits that I would like to make part of my daily life in 2015. I started by thinking of some areas of my life where I'd like to see change, improvement, or growth. As much as I hate to do this considering my previous post, we'll call them goals. Using those "goals" as my guide, I jotted down some basic habits that should hopefully get me there. 

10 Habits I Want to Cultivate in 2015:

Goal 1: Keep A Tidier Kitchen

1. Wash Dishes Right Away. (And Clear The Drying Rack Before Washing More Dishes)
2. Sweep The Kitchen Daily.
3. Keep Kitchen Counters Clear. (This will probably require a few smaller habits to truly accomplish.)

Goal 2: Keep A Cleaner House

1. Do one cleaning chore each day.
2. Purge unnecessary and unused items regularly, to a designated place.

Goal 3: Keep Christ At the Forefront

1. Daily Personal Devotions 
2. Daily Family Devotional Time
3. Regular, Planned Devotional/Prayer Time As a Couple

Goal: Blog Smarter

1. Go to bed by 10:00 p.m.
2. Plan ahead for future posts using Google Calendar.

 A few of these are habits that we already were working on in 2014, and I would like to continue (such as the personal and family devotions). However, most are new. Some are simple, and others may involve multiple steps and planning to accomplish. But in general, they are broken down into small, digestible steps that I really think I should be able to accomplish.

How I Plan To Make Them Stick:

• Introduce only on one or two habits at a time.
  Too many new things at once will spell failure. By focusing on forming only one or two (related) habits at a time, I hope to make them second nature before taking on more.
• Add a new habit every 3 weeks or so.
  I would like to have established many of my housekeeping habits before baby girl comes, so I'll try to keep on top of this. The general rule of thumb is to take 21 days to form a new habit, so I'll allow myself about that much time before I move on to something new. Once I feel like I have a handle on the habit I'm working on, I'll be ready to focus on another.
• Accountability.
  I'm going to enlist Hubby's help with this one. So far I've been working on keeping up with the dishes and sweeping the floor every morning after breakfast. He's been really encouraging when he notices these are getting done. He also isn't afraid to gently (for the most part) remind me about my commitment to a particular goal if he sees I'm starting to slack a little. In addition, I may blog about this on occasion (no promises) to share my accomplishments or when I need an extra boost of accountability.

Tell Me About You:

Do you have any helpful habits that make your life run more smoothly? What did you do to make those habits stick? Are there any new habits you want to cultivate this year?

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