"Research says that it takes 21 days to create a habit"...... Yada yada yada. I believe that it should only take you seven days, just one week, to see the difference implementing good habits into your life can make. Then you can decide for yourself if they are important to continue doing. Last week, I decided to do just that! I made a list of habits I thought would make my life more healthy, happy and fulfilled, and stuck with them (or at least tried to) for an entire week to see if they really were that life changing!!
I created a list of five things I wanted to add to my routine, so for seven days I had to:
1. Wake up at 6am
2. Eat a healthy diet
3. Limit social media to only 1 hour
4. Go to the gym
5. Read for 30 minutes before bed
Over the course of the week, the hardest habit to stick to was waking up at 6am. As someone that is the furthest thing from a morning person, waking up early is something I struggle with the most. To make things easier for myself, I made sure to prepare an exciting breakfast that would coax me out of bed. I also used my Sleep Cycle app, which tracks your sleep and wakes you up at an optimal time when you are in a light sleep. Whilst I least enjoyed this habit, it did help increase my productivity as I wasn't wasting the early hours of the day in bed.
Limiting the amount of time I wasted scrolling through social media also helped increase my productivity. Whilst there are apps available to track the amount of time you spend on your phone or certain apps, I instead tried to be more mindful of how often I open social media apps without even knowing I was doing it. Moving the apps into new folders or pages helped with this as I had to make a conscious effort to find and open the app. For apps like Facebook and Instagram, i utilised the time during the gym when I would need a distraction from my workout on the cross trainer or treadmill, approximately 20 minutes, and during breakfast and lunch, I would allow myself to watch some YouTube videos, approximately 40 minutes combined.
With the extra time I received from waking up earlier and cutting social media viewing time down, it made my goals for going to the gym, reading before bed and preparing healthy meals rather than relying on fast food a lot more attainable.
So, what's the recipe for success?
Be reasonable with yourself with what you know you can stick to and achieve. If your goals are to go to the gym and run 5km outside each day, choose one! If your goals are too similar, you run the chance of getting burnt out. Also, only you know what you are capable of. If you've never ran in your life, maybe running 5km each day isn't very doable. Instead ease yourself into it, and set yourself a realistic goal like running 5 minutes a day!
Be specific when writing out your goals. I learnt that the hard way, instead of saying "eat a healthy diet", give yourself specific and attainable goals like "eat 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of veg a day", you'll be able to measure your success, rather than feeling you never achieve an unmeasurable goal.
Reward yourself! To up the game, I told myself that if I stuck with it, and accomplished every habit, everyday, then I would give myself a reward at the end of the week. I had something to work towards, and it pushed me when all I wanted to do was sleep in!
So what habits will you be implementing into your life this week? Remember that if you do slip up, you can always start a fresh next week!
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