Category Archives: 23 in lists

6 ways to get ready for a New Year

Get ready for 2015 with these 6 ways

And just like that, Christmas is over.

I really wish Christmas lasted longer than just a day, but I hope you had a wonderful day celebrating with loved ones and remembering the true meaning of Christmas, just like I did.

Now, we are only three days away from the New Year.

Pretty crazy right.

I love how each New Year is a brand-new chance to build new memories, to chase new dreams, to learn new lessons.

But a new year is also scary in some ways because nothing in the future is certain. Despite all the uncertainty that is ahead, I love getting ready for a New Year.

So as we look forward to all that is head, here are six ways to get ready for 2015.

1. Reflect on the past year.

What was 2014 like for you? What did you learn? What experiences did you have? I like using these questions to help me reflect on the year.

2. Decide what will change.

Now that you’ve had 365 more days of experience, what would you like to change in the New Year? Since there are always ways to evolve, change and grow, now is a good time to determine how 2015 will be different from the year before.

3. Start new habits.

Choose which habits you will form in the New Year and get excited for them! I embarked on my first habit challenge in November and I look forward to more new habits next year.

4. Set goals.

Whether you call them goals, resolutions, or intentions, the New Year is a great time to start anew with a fresh, clean slate of things you want to accomplish in the New Year.

5. Be accountable.

Find people who will keep you accountable for the goals you have set for yourself in 2015.

6. Get organized.

Whether it’s physical or metaphorical, leave the clutter of the past year behind and figure out how you will simplify your life in the coming year. Organize your life and get ready to start 2015 afresh!

So how are you getting ready for the New Year?

30 Day Habit Challenge | 9 things I learned

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I made it.

Last month, I embarked on a challenge to form the habit of waking up early for thirty days and I finally finished the month.

It wasn’t easy, and I didn’t do it perfectly. But I’m glad that I did this.

And I definitely learned some lessons along the way.

1. Start small.

My first goal was to wake up before 8 am. As the habit challenge progressed, I adjusted my goal to wake up before 730 am. I struggled with this one a little bit more but I’m getting there.

2. Be accountable.

Caylee and I emailed each other during the month. It was helpful for me to have an accountability partner and know that I was not alone. Caylee gave lots of encouragement, which helped me to stay motivated during the month.

I also told my mom about my habit challenge so she would wake me up if I still wasn’t out of bed when I needed to be.

3. Don’t make excuses.

This was especially true for me on days when I missed my alarm by just a couple of minutes. I had to constantly remind myself that it was better to wake up a couple of minutes late, than to give up and waste more time sleeping in, since “I woke up late” anyway. No excuses.

4. Weekends are the toughest.

I struggled the most on the weekends when I was tempted to sleep in, or catch up on sleep. I tried to push through it as much as possible but wasn’t always successful.

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5. If you miss a day, don’t let yourself get discouraged.

But also, try not to miss two days in a row.

I read that you shouldn’t miss two days in a row because it breaks your habit. But at some point, it happened and I did miss two days, especially over the weekends (I told you they were hard!).

When that happened, I had to focus on my next point.

6. Remember your goal.

My planning from Tiago Forte’s Skillshare class came in handy as I progressed and when things became discouraging. I needed to look back on my plan and remind myself that some progress is better than none and that I am doing better now than I was in the beginning.

Even if you fail, figure out what went wrong and try again.

7. Sleep early to wake up early.

In so many ways, the success of tomorrow depends on today. That means planning for tomorrow the night before, and sleeping early so I could wake up early the next day.

Since I was accustomed to sleeping late, making this adjustment was hard for me. It’s still something I’m working on, and some nights I sleep later than others, but I’m more conscious about getting to bed earlier, instead of working through the night to get work done.

8. There will be good days and bad days.

And since life isn’t perfect, the good and bad days will come and learning to adjust your habit as life happens is necessary. The point of this challenge is not to be perfect, but to create a habit that is sustainable and long-term. So keep that in mind as the month progresses.

9. Listen to your body.

I was fighting the flu for the final few days of this habit so I didn’t finish the month as well as I would’ve liked. But I listened to my body and gave myself the extra rest. Ultimately, I had to figure out what worked for me and my lifestyle, not simply what everyone else did.

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Looking back on the past month, I don’t think my habit is thoroughly ingrained yet and waking up early isn’t as automatic as I would like for it to be. But it’s definitely much easier than when I first started and I’ve made progress since the beginning. So I’m happy about that and would consider this past month a success!

What are my plans going forward? I definitely want to keep continue incorporating early waking into my daily routine and let my body adjust to waking up at an even earlier time in the coming months.

I won’t be trying a new habit in December, but I’m already thinking about the next habit I want to build in January when the New Year arrives.

Did you do this habit challenge too? What did you learn during the month? Let me know in the comments!

23 in Lists | November update

Ameliawrites-23inlistsNov

In September, I first wrote about my plan to write a goals/to-do list of sorts for each month of twenty-three. It’s hard to believe that two months have already passed by: I’ve already written lists for October and November, and a new one is soon due for December.

So I thought it was time for an update and my thoughts on this little project so far.

In the spirit of keeping things real and honest on this blog, I will admit that the 23 in Lists project hasn’t been as “successful” as I would’ve liked for it to be. It hasn’t been successful according to my terms and expectations as I make and try to execute the list. But I’m learning not to stress out over the fact that things don’t go according to the way I plan.

Here’s what I love and what I’ve learned about 23 in Lists so far.

WHAT I LOVE

  • Accomplishing things.

I didn’t get to cross off everything on the list in September or October. But for those that I did, it definitely was satisfying being able to check it off my list.

  • Making progress.

Even for things I didn’t accomplish, I was able to at least make progress. What I love about this so far is that the monthly list is really pushing me to start doing things instead of just letting them be another thing on the list. My list may not be done, but I’m making progress and that’s what really matters.

  • No stress.

All the stress I feel is mostly self-imposed, so really, there is absolutely no reason to be stressed out. If I do things right, the monthly list actually takes the stress off for me to check things off and I can actually just let some things roll forward to the next month.

WHAT I’VE LEARNED

  • Let go of expectations.

Expectations have a way of getting you down and making you more discouraged than you should be. Instead of focusing on the things I haven’t done, I’m focusing on the progress I’m making on my list.

  • Be flexible.

I’m learning to adapt and not be afraid to adjust my lists as my schedule calls for it. When unexpected situations come up, adapting and making adjustments helps me to not get overly stressed out. Note to self: Don’t be afraid to adjust, adapt and move your goals.

  • Be realistic.

As an over-achiever, I’m learning to be realistic by limiting the number of goals I include each month. This way, I have a realistic expectation of what I am able to accomplish and keep myself from feeling discouraged by an overly-long list.

There’s still nine more months of lists and I can’t wait to see what else I will accomplish during this time. Let’s keep going.

30 Day Habit Challenge

Plan of Action for a 30 Day Habit Challenge | Amelia Writes

Here’s the thing about habits: Bad habits are so easy to start and so hard to break. But good habits are so hard to start and so easy to break.

Strange, huh.

For several months now, I’ve been trying to incorporate the habit of waking up earlier. But truthfully, I haven’t been doing well with it. That’s mostly because I end up hitting the snooze button and sleeping in longer than I should (I’m not the only one right?).

So when I saw that Caylee was starting a 30-day habit challenge (accompanied with her official Habit planner printable set), I decided that it was the perfect time to actually make this habit a reality. Plus, I totally appreciate having a community and the support and accountability that comes with it.

I originally planned to start on November 1 and continue all month long. But I really needed the extra sleep this past weekend so I wasn’t able to get up as early as I would’ve liked.

So instead, I used Monday (yesterday) as my Day Zero and Tuesday (today) as my Day One. This means that the thirty days will go a little into December, but I don’t mind. I figured it was better to start on a strong note, instead of feeling defeated right from the start.

Inspired by Caylee, I worked through Tiago Forte’s Design Your Habit course on Skillshare and came up with my specific plan on Day Zero.

My plan of action for the next thirty days is based on Tiago Forte’s 11 milestones, which he covers in the course:

PLAN OF ACTION

  • Identify my new keystone habit

My habit is to wake up earlier. For me, I’m working towards waking up before 8am during the first week, and then adjusting the time so I wake up before 7am before the month is over.

  • Choose an existing anchor habit as your new trigger

After I hear my alarm, I will get out of bed.

  • Choose a reward for completing your habit

I get to cross the day off my tracker when I successfully complete my habit for the day.

  • Choose a reminder

My primary phone alarm will ring at 7am, and again at 7.15am.

  • State your implementation intentions

When I hear my morning alarm, I will wake up and get out of bed because I believe that waking up early helps me to be productive during the day and be a good steward of the time I have been given.

  • Make your habit easy to start by identifying your small wins

  1. Get out of bed immediately
  2. Snooze once
  3. Wake up before 8am
  4. Wake up and read
  5. Put my feet on the floor

  • Identify your loopholes and closers

“I didn’t have enough sleep last night and I’m too tired.” – Sleeping in and waking up late makes me go to bed late, which leads to a vicious cycle for my habit.

“I missed my alarm. Just five more minutes.” – I have lots to do today; the earlier I wake up, the more time I have to complete my work and get things done, instead of wasting time in bed.

  • Modify your environment

I place my phone across the room so I have to physically get out of bed to turn off the alarm.

  • Choose a habit tracking approach and tool

I am recording and tracking my habit in my Pretty Organized Habit planner.

  • Select an accountability system

Caylee is my accountability partner and I’ll be checking in with her during the challenge.

  • Evaluate your results

At the end of the challenge, I’ll blog about it with updates!

I think this could be the best thirty days yet, and I’m excited to see how this next month will go.

Let’s do this.

23 In Lists.

Ameliawrites-23inlists

I turned 23 a couple of weeks ago. Before my birthday, I already decided that I would do things differently this year.

Instead of of having the usual year-long list of 23 things, I’m taking the pressure off myself to make another list of things to accomplish. I loved making the list in years past (read about the 20 list, the 21 list, and the 22 list) and delighted in crossing things off the list. But having a full schedule studying, working and serving, I’m setting aside the list for this year and doing something else instead. When something starts becoming stressful instead of fun, it’s time to put that aside and work on something else.

This is the year for something new and different (at least for me).

For 23, I’m doing a monthly list instead. I’m hoping these lists actually help me to get things done because I can list things out specifically and systematically.

I feel like I do better with monthly short-term plans, instead of year-long plans that end up being forgotten or pushed aside as the year progresses. The nice thing about monthly goals is that I get to roll items forward to the next month if I don’t accomplish them in the present month. That definitely relieves the stress factor for me quite a bit.

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For September, my list has five categories:

  1. Health/wellness
  2. Creativity
  3. Blog
  4. Living
  5. Learn

Under each category, I have specific tasks listed out and things I want to accomplish this month. The categories are pretty self-explanatory, but if you would like me to share more, please let me know in the comments!

These monthly lists may just seem more like monthly to-dos/goals. Because really, that’s mostly what they are. Whatever you call it, the point is that they help me get things done so I’m just rolling with it.

Obviously, monthly lists give no guarantee that I’ll do better on the productivity front. But having a legit name like 23 In Lists just makes it sound so much more official. Right?

All right, September. Let’s do this.