Hello again! Hope you are doing well, a few days into the new year!
Already doing better than 2020 for having a second post up! Let’s go!
The remaining 4 habits that I’ve carried on these past 5 years :
As the term itself is somewhat nebulous, “Self-care” can take many forms, depending on the day. Sometimes it’s a long shower or a bath, socializing, generally making a particular effort to take care of my health, mental or physical, particularly when I’m not feeling like it. Just an extra effort to feel a bit better, every day
Easiest is “Clean” – it’s actually difficult not to complete that one! There is always something to clean, even if I spend most of my day away from my apartment. Tidying a very messy home is my favourite : fairly low effort for a visually satisfying result. Worst is dishes. Can’t stand dishes. Very satisfying to have completed but an utter drag to even get started.
The one that remains hardest, even five years later, is “Meditate”. It is unusual for me not to have something to distract me, mostly from thoughts and feelings. Taking a moment away from that and focusing on the very things that usually overwhelm me is… a pain. Writing this is a clear realization that it’s actually something I need to specifically work on, so I suppose this will be my first task this year.
“Exercise” is the only “daily” that was removed from the list, as its completion became mandatory in another way.
In January 2021, thanks to my workplace’s well-being incentives, I obtained a smart watch in an effort to boost my motivation. Like probably the vast majority of people in the previous year, had become even more sedentary than ever before, and both mental and physical effects were clear.
Still, it took until November that year for the desired effect to properly take hold, and apart from a brief but intense illness in January 2024, exercising has been an uninterrupted daily task for a bit over 3 years! It’s usually walking outdoors or using a stationary bike (allowing me to read while I exercise…!), but it does the very important job of keeping my body in motion.
Despite not being an innate morning person, as the time I dedicated to moving my body increased, I ended up deciding to get up at 5AM. This may seem masochistic to some, it certainly did to me, but once it was clear that exercising after work was far more unpleasant to me than getting up earlier in the morning, the choice was clear. As I’m also the dedicated caretaker of a stubborn feline, this has become a 7-day schedule, and sleeping in is no longer an effective option. This is my life now.
And so, as my smart watch keeps the score, and I record the completion of that task with the length of the physical activity, checking a box was no longer necessary, and said box was removed.
Two lessons from this:
One: Like with the streak of the Duolingo app, having the incentive to see the habit as an ever rising number has proved incredibly gratifying to me. I took good note of that and also applied it to the task I was most concerned about maintaining : creating art. I got up to 227 this year, before a difficult life event had me take a break. By the time I publish this post, it’ll be back up to 70.
Two: Removing “exercising” from the daily checks to be completed, even if it is compelled another way, is the first success of this project. I wanted these to become habits, normal and but important parts of my life, because they genuinely make it better. Not all of them are at that stage yet, and too often I put them off until I can’t, instead of prioritizing them when I have the time and energy. As the hope is for me to end up spending more than the required 2 minutes per activity, that pattern is entirely counterproductive.
That is something I seek to improve upon in these upcoming 12 months. The daily boxes to be checked might remain even once (further) satisfactory habits are achieved (I’ll be honest, it is a very satisfying sight in my records, which in itself is an incentive). But I also know that after five years, I am not yet approaching a level with which I am satisfied, so let’s make it conscious and intentional!
Wishing you a happy start to the new year!
