Creating good habits

Actually creating good habits that you’re able to stick to takes a lot more than some people realise. The ones who do realise just how much have either tried and failed, or are the ones who have found some great ways that work for them to do this. I personally still struggle at times to keep up with all my good habits, or getting through my to do lists, but knowing that I am making it part of my everyday life means that if I fail one day, I just try harder the next day. I have spent some time reading and listening to lots of different people in different industries to find out what they do to help them with routines and how to make long lasting changes in their lives. Podcasts and blog posts are really good to hear and read about people’s different perspective on these things. I have summarised the tips below that I have found useful:

About healthy eating habits:

Instead of removing all the bad things from your diet and telling yourself you have to only eat “clean”, start by adding things to your daily diet. So when you want to eat your pizza for dinner, why not add a side salad and eat that before you start eating the pizza. You may not end up finishing it as you’ll be full from your salad. Lots of people want to eat a more plant based diet and whilst for some of us it’s easy to just switch in one day, others really struggle with it. So again, instead of going cold turkey (excuse the pun), try adding more fruits and vegetables to your meals and reducing the amount of meat and fish you eat each time. Or try to have only one meal a day that has meat/fish and make the rest vegan or vegetarian. Little changes can amount to big results.

About exercising:

You don’t have to do a full hour of cardio 5 times a week or spend 2 hours lifting weights if you don’t like it. You don’t have to follow a 12 week bikini guide if it’s making you miserable! The best way to exercise is to do what you enjoy. You may have to try a few different things to see why you like. Maybe try out some classes or even a personal trainer who can tailor programmes specifically to you. But the best way for you to stick with something is to make sure you enjoy it, not because you feel like you have to do it.

About your to do list:

Do you find yourself always ticking off the easiest things first and leaving the big, daunting tasks until the end? Only to find that you’ve come to the end of the day and not tackled any of those big items? Why not try actually doing some of the big things first? Sure, it might take a few hours to do, but once you’ve managed to get it out of the way, you’ll feel so proud of yourself and realise it probably wasn’t as bad as you thought before. Batching: You may already be familiar with this term, but batching is something busy people do to help them keep on top of things as they have so many things to juggle. So what is it? You look at all the things that you do on a weekly basis, emails, blog posts, cooking, shopping, taking phone calls, the list goes on. So instead of spending every day doing a bit off all those things sporadically and as they come, you set aside time each day to do a certain task for a few hours. So Mondays, for example, you’ll spend 10-1 doing all your emails and 3-5 doing your meal prepping for the next few days. On Tuesday, you can spend all morning doing blog posts, while you spend the afternoon dong emails. Later in the week, you’ll have a day where you do your photo shoots with all your different outfits, ready to use for your blog posts the following week.

About productivity:

Some people are great in the morning. They wake up full of energy, ready to take the day by its horns. That’s me I find I can whizz through stuff much quicker and efficiently in the mornings! Others are a bit slower to start and can’t really get into things until they’ve had a coffee and some breakfast, but can stay up really late to do work. We’re all different and have different levels of energy throughout the day. So, find the time when you have the most energy and mental clarity and use that time to do important and big tasks as you’re less likely to procrastinate. I hope you have found some of these tip useful. I have linked Ben Coomber’s podcast and Lauryn Evarts’ podcast where these tips have come from. She interviews so many people each week that it’s been great to hear all these different hints and tips that can be applied to our lives! Be sure to have a listen! Sources: Ben Coomber – Ben Coomber Radio Podcast Lauryn Evarts and Michael Bosstick – The Skinny Confidential Podcast