Habits: Day 5

Habit tip #5 is "Stay consistent". 

This is the hardest thing for me. No one ever looks me up in the dictionary and says, "Oh look it's Pillowfarmer!" 

I'm the worst. I'm the anti consistent poster child. You will find me under that! Haha. 

But creating good habits is never easy. 

So stay consistent. Remind yourself. 

And don't be too hard on yourself. This is my own personal advice. Because I mess up all the time and I need someone to tell me that I'm okay even though I mess up. :-) 

My week isn't super busy. My kids are gone with their dad for Spring Break. So it's fairly slow. But it's important to track my habit keeping. 

I'm pretty good at going to the gym, keeping up with my diet, reading and waking up on time in the morning! These are getting easier too. 

I think this is something to remember. Because good things are difficult things sometimes. It's not easy to create good habits, but it will be worth it! 

Here is a photo of my naughty baby Dixon! I'll check in again tomorrow! 

Take care

-Pillowfarmer

Habits: Day 4

Day 4 is "Remind yourself". 

One of the questions I'm always asked when people see my planner, "Why don't you just use your phone or laptop for that?" 

I like paper. Admittedly nothing makes my heart sing like the smell of paper and ink. I'm not a weirdo. There are lots of people out there like me. :-) And I know I am an avid follower of new technologies, but am drawn to keeping my schedules and feelings on paper. 

However, when those two worlds mesh...it's the best thing! 

I have been using my Reminders on my phone to tell me when to start or work on a habit. It could be checking my planner, taking medication or prompting me to settle down and read a book! I'm even starting a small list in my planner of things to remind myself of. I'm rotating them as I want to not burn myself out on the reminder thing. 

:-)

I can't think of any other way to remind myself of these daily tasks. So yeah! What did we do before technology? 

I guess it shows you that we have both and we can use both!  

-Pillowfarmer

Habits: Day 3

Look! 

I made it back!! 

I'll wait while you clap. 

I seriously have the hardest time sticking to anything long term. Having a place to write my "achievement" is a good motivator too. 

Day 3 of my Habit Tips is "Keep it Simple". (I so totally want to add 'stupid' to the end, haha). 

I am keeping it simple. 

Here are the Habits I want: 

Here are my goals for this week. 

I have not included all the habits I want. I just put down the ones I believe are manageable or reasonable for right now. 

I'm doing pretty good. I'm not anticipating that I will keep every habit, every day right now. For now, I'm just trying to create a habit...of my habits. 

:-P 

I am keeping it simple by not making difficult habits or an overwhelming amount of change. 

Keep it simple. 

-Pillowfarmer

Habits: Day 2

2. Check it daily. 

This is a skill. Haha! I am finding that the thing I admire in successful people is their ability to maintain a routine that contributes to their success. My husband is a creature of habit. Sometimes its borderline insanity how closely he follows a schedule. However, he is someone who hasn't missed a day of work in 6 years, doesn't get sick, isn't overweight, doesn't gamble or smoke and has no known health problems. I admire this for so many reasons. The number one reason is that he is happy. Number two is that he is successful in his career and has a good balance of home and job. Lastly it's that it comes easily him because of his habits and schedule. 

All that said... I am not really like that. So I must find my own way. 

That leads me to my planner and how I 'manage myself.' So here we are at How to Create Habits #2. Check it daily. It's simple. If you don't use a your tools you are a boat without a paddle. 

I want to be effective in my life. 

Everyday. 

Every way. 

My life with a husband, three kids, two dogs, two cats and a hamster is a busy one. We have band, cheer, drill team, soccer, dance, football and church. Sometimes I can't remember what day it is. And I do forget events and appointments if I'm not playing my A game. 

To be the successful person I want to be means managing myself. 

Habits are simply routines that we put ourselves through on a daily basis. Some of our habits are by choice. Some are by nature. They can be good or bad. 

I'm choosing as many good ones as I can! Today I completed 5 of the 6 habits I've chosen to work on. Yay! 

And to share a bit of what I'm doing...

I'm reading through a book on how to study the Bible effectively. 

It's called Living By the Book. It's older and was recommended to my by a friend who knows I like to study the Bible. 

I enjoy creating the habit of reading a book for 30 minutes a day! 

And to not completely be boring ho-hum. Take a look at my Corgi puppy Dixon! Look at the reception he gets with these ears! Haha! 

-Pillowfarmer

Werk it...haaaayyy, werrrrk it!

I am going to try my hand at HABITS.
You are so lucky because one of the things I want to make a habit, is journaling/blogging! You get to reap the benefit of that! haha.

After doing a lot of reading and researching, I decided to just to commit to 30 days of writing. So some of that will be on my blog and some of that will be in my journal. I haven't decided if I will share what I write in my journal YET, but either way, some blogging in a month is better than none!

Something I have really been hit in the head with is Habits. Creating habits, what is a habit, how to manage habits, break habits etc... I found a really good article from Lifehack about creating new habits. I managed to put it in my April monthly page.

My "plan" is to create new habits and routines for myself. I usually have a 'to do' section for the month of things I perpetually forget to do and they float from month to month. You can see here I have my notes on Goals and Habits, then my To Do's and the bottom corner is just a check list of Habits I want. I LOVE checklists, and will almost always complete a task if I have the power of that little box by my note! 

Part of my habits for this month is to check in daily with my planner to keep track of things. I use my monthly calendar in DIYFISH to track stuff. Track bills(when they are due and if I paid them. and right now..I also keep track of missed school days for the monster spawn. haha 

This side of the monthly calendar is the planning side. As in planned events. I will put some 'todos' in this section if they are SUPER important and need to be attended on specific days, but generally will only put holidays and events and appointments here. 

We'll check in with all this at the end of the month. The very first note in my list of tips to creating a new habit is "Commit to 30 days." So here you have it. 30 days of following me and my new habits! 

Yay! 

-Pillowfarmer 

Planner update!

I have pretty much given up on trying different planner inserts or planners. What works for me is Diyfish planner inserts and a six ring binder. I go between my Van DerSpek buffalo leather binder and my personal size ochre Malden. I use it religiously...it works for me just as it is, so I'm not trying any new things, even if I am interested in them. I sort of just shrug and move on.  Though, I do switch between daily pages and weekly pages. For April-June I am doing weekly. I do not have nearly enough room in the weekly pages, but it's always nice to have a different format. Plus, it really helps me to trim the fat! I have a tendancy to over track things and keep information that isn't very useful. Having limited space always forces me to utilize my pages. 

I am using the V.2.2 Do1P here. (or version 2.2 day on 1 page). I think once I begin school(that's right you heard me!) in the summer, I'll buy the Do2P. My biggest conundrum lately is trying to decide if I should do school, home and kids all in one planner or if I need to branch out and make a school planner. Part of me wants to keep them separate, but another part of me realizes that I will likely only use ONE. I'm a one planner at a time sort of person. 

And...I told myself to stop buying planner supplies. But I never listen to anyone. Not even myself! haha. But, I am getting better at using my supplies up, or passing them on if I'm not using them. Not to mention, some planner items from Target are SUPER cute, but they're really cheap. (yeah, I said it! I know, blasphemous.) I dislike that. I won't use them. Except their notepads. WHOOOOOO doesn't love an owl notepad?? They have good notepads and to-do list pads. Their sticky notes are CRAP. 

Here is me with my Corgi, Dixon. He's 3 months old now. Super fun and a pain in the ass most of the time because he's still a puppy and can't figure out how to pee at the right times. But, he'll get it. In the meantime, he's annoying. LOL. 

Okay. I really just wrote so I could write in my planner that I made a blog post today. You are welcome! 

-Pillowfarmer

Listed again

1. Lists always do it best.
2. Sometimes when I call people I will say to them, "Okay...Three things! Then I list what I need to discuss. I say, "Okay, number one..." 
3. The discovery has been made that I am a Personal size 6 ring binder kind of planner person. I have tried Arc, Midori's, A5 size etc...and I always come back to my ochre Malden or my black Van Der Spek. ALWAYS. It's like that song "Gravity" by Sara Bareilles. Something always brings me back to you personal size!! It never takes tooooo looong! 
4. I fell down the stairs like an old person. And now I know WHY old people are so cautious. I feel so cautious all the time. I worry about myself falling down the stairs and now I remind everyone I know to be careful going down the stairs. 
5. You're looking at a college student....I officially joined the college rat race and I am going to start back to getting my bachelor's degree this summer. 
6. I am also certifiably crazy. As where the fuck am I going to find the time??? 
7. There is a lot of official-ness going on around here because I am officially tired of my teenagers. I was never tired of my kids...but they somehow have all grown into teens and they're SOOOOOOOOOO annoying. (if you wonder where I got this phrase, ask my teenagers!) 
8. My hair is really long. I want to cut it...but I can't get a hold of my hairdresser. The fact that I am tempted to go Oasis Hair should show you that I feel desperate about it. This is a bad decision and though I verbally express that it is a bad decision, I still may go to Oasis Hair. 
9. Our house has a new member named Dixon....a lovely little Corgi puppy! He's going on 12 weeks now and he makes me appreciate my 8 year old sedate chihuahua. lol. 

-Pillowfarmer