The other day I had an epiphany while I was drying my hair. As usual, my thoughts were all over the place, jumping from personal reminders to work tasks to anticipated conversations to goal setting for 2016. I was debating whether I would make an official list of my goals for 2016, but as I mentally went through my list I realized that something was still missing.
After some careful thought, it hit me. I’ve focused so much on big, time-consuming goals and aspirations that I’ve forgotten about many of the simple, daily habits that create happiness in my life! In fact, life has felt a bit chaotic and unorganized for some time now, and it’s because I’ve let a lot of these daily habits slide. As I stood there blasting my hair, I realized I need to change my focus. What’s the point of setting goal after goal if the process itself doesn’t feel peaceful? Rather than plough ahead with tunnel vision locked only on the goals, this year I’m going to make room for the daily habits that bring me consistent joy – the ones that I haven’t allowed myself to make time for in a long while. I’m going to call these my “Daily Habits for Happiness”, and I truly believe that this approach can change my life.
What do I mean by daily habits for happiness? It’s anything that you can easily accomplish in your day to day life that makes you feel really good. These are often things that we brush off or let fall by the wayside because they aren’t given as much priority or importance as other things, but their potential to improve our quality of life is HUGE!
There are many things that I’m doing successfully each day (such as dedicated family time, exercise, etc), but there are many things that I can start doing to increase happiness quite easily. Here are some that I came up with. This list is a work in progress, and I’ll be adding to it as I see fit.
Make my bed each morning
I haven’t taken the time to make the bed consistently in the morning for umm….years? Since my mama told me to? In my defense, Eric doesn’t make it consistently either! The thing is, having my bed made in the morning makes me feel quite accomplished, but I’ve always told myself that other tasks are much more important and “I don’t have time”. Well, no more! It doesn’t actually take very long, but it sets the tone for the whole day and I feel like the reward outweighs any time spent on it. (I fear that I may fail miserably with this habit, but 3 days into 2016 I’m still on a killer bed making streak!!)
Shift workouts back to the morning
Speaking of convincing myself (or even bribing myself) – morning workouts! Because our schedule was so unpredictable last year (and still is at times), I shifted many of my workouts to the evening after Adriana went to bed. It seemed like the best time of the day for minimal interruptions (sleep regressions aside), but I started to really miss having restorative downtime at night. I recently started shifting my workouts back to the morning. I have Eric to thank for motivating me because he’s been rocking the early morning workouts with his buddy for a while. It’s challenging for me to workout first thing, but I always feel great when I do it. (If you’re curious – I’m doing a combo of running on my treadmill and online Barre workouts right now. I hope to add an in-person weekly barre or yoga class to my routine soon.)
Daily tidying
It’s amazing how much toys can take over our living room and kitchen area during the day (and how many times I manage to trip or hurt myself). We got into the habit of leaving the toys scattered all over the house because we were too tired to put them away before bed. But it really makes a huge difference to come out to a tidy room in the morning, rather than chaos. Now we do a quick tidy up after she goes down at night. It takes just a minute or two, but it makes me so happy to walk out in the morning and see a semi-tidy room (even if it doesn’t last!). The same goes for daily tidying other areas of the house…a quick vacuum in the kitchen and dining area does wonders for my mood.
Email management
Eric and I recently decided to disable the push notification setting on our Gmail accounts. I can’t take credit – it was his idea and I jumped on board. No longer will I be alerted every time an email pops into my inbox (which can feel disruptive and stressful – especially when it’s during the evening or on weekends). For years I’ve worked all hours of the day and on weekends. This year, email notifications are turned off and I’m checking email at dedicated times during working hours. Obviously, there will be times when I will have to break this rule, but I aim to make them far and few between.
I also find that staying on top of unsubscribing from emails and filtering out spam helps on the email front. I did it last year and it made a huge difference. I want to keep up with both of these daily habits this year.
Relaxed lunch + tea/coffee rituals
Adriana shifted from 2 naps to 1 nap a day in November. Now she goes down for her afternoon nap between 12-1pm each day. I used to eat my lunch while feeding her lunch, but I rarely got to enjoy my lunch before it got cold, or I just scarfed it down in record time without truly enjoying it. I can’t blame her though, I used to work through my lunches for years before she was born. Recently, I’ve started to make my lunch after she goes down for her nap. I find that it’s a lot more rejuvenating for me to have this downtime mid-day. I also aim to have a morning, afternoon, and evening coffee/tea/tonic ritual too.
Connecting with friends/family
This could be a lunch with a friend, a date with my coach, a late dinner at home with Eric, a girl’s get together, or a simple phone call. These connections increase happiness a lot, especially during the winter when it’s easy to hibernate.
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I’m not forgetting about my big goals for 2016 because there are many that I’m super excited about. However, this year I’m making time for the “smaller” things that help me feel balanced, peaceful, and organized on a day to day basis. This is the year that the small becomes the big. I’d love it if you joined along with me!
Cheers to 2016, friends. I hope it’s off to a great start in your neck of the woods!
Photo credit: Sandy Nicholson
Great post! You are an inspiration to women everywhere!
Happy New Year :)
Ohhhh I love this post so much and am going to make some similar changes to my business and work this year. Happy New Year! x
I like your list. My husband and I have an agreement that the last one in bed, makes the bed. It’s been working.
Making the bed in the morning is one of my favorite things to do. It just feels so good to make the bed in the morning and know when I get home it’s ready for me to cuddle into. Good luck on all of your 2016 goals, they definitely seem worth the energy and effort :)
Love this! We so often get caught up in the “big picture” yet it’s the small, daily changes we make where we notice the difference almost immediately. The gratification from these short-term things can keep us going when the long term goals don’t happen as quickly as we’d hope! Thanks for sharing :-)
You are SO right. I remember feeling great every time I managed to make my bed regularly, then the habit just seems to slip away again! Oh dear, now I know it is going to be on my list of MUST do every morning. Thank you for the reminder and good luck with building all these little habits into your routine
My daughter is just a few months younger than yours, and I struggle to find time for workouts, even at home. With your morning workouts, do you do it while she is napping/sleeping?
i love this!! happy new year!!!
Hi Angela,
Great post! Just wondering where you do your online barre workouts? I’m looking for some good ones!
Great goals! I started a habit of making my bed a few weeks ago, and boy does it make such a difference. You feel like you can tackle the day properly, no matter what happens. Thanks for sharing
I love your posts! This one is a gentle reminder to myself to slooooow done and make some time for me. Small accomplishments generate great results. My children are grown now, but I remember being so frustrated with toys all over the house and I would be so tired at night but I still picked up all the toys. My boys loved having a full toy box in the morning. I then had a brilliant idea which was worked out sooooo well! I bought a small red wagon. Each of the kids pulled the wagon through the house and picked up their own toys. Of course there was cheering along the way from mommy. Within a week it was a habit and I got to rest at night. I miss those mommy times. sigh
I love your lunch/tea break, I have a 15 month old and I realized that scarfing something down while she eats is so not worth it. Lately, I’ve been having a relaxed lunch after I put her down for a nap and try to make time for a tea/coffee + treat break too! It’s so nice! Now I just need to get over the guilt of taking some time for myself while she naps instead of trying to get a million things done!
Happy New Year Angela! Thank you for all your delicious recipes. My husband and I have been really enjoying them! For 2016, I am finally transitioning into a vegetarian diet (with the help of a lot of your recipes!) and I am finding so far that the most difficult part is the social aspect of this transition. I have just returned from being away at my in-laws, and celebrating the holidays, and I don’t know what the best way is to inform people of my new diet, in a way that doesn’t make things difficult for my family members! I’m really confused as to how to go about this in a polite way that doesn’t offend Grandma when she makes beef soup (for example) or when my dad is arguing with me that I should “just eat the steak” and I’m wondering if you have any advice, or if you could write a blog about this. Thanks again and keep up the fabulous work!
I completely agree with your point about email management. Disabling notifications on my gmail and social media apps has freed me from unnecessary stress and tension. I still check every once in a while but definitely check less than when I had the notification alert on!
It’s always the small things that count and matter :)
http://blog.tun.com/2015/05/30/how-to-be-happy-101/
What a refreshing and relatable take on setting goals in the new year!
Angela, Happy New Year to you and your family. Can’t wait for the new book. Sad to wish away the time but so excited. You changed my eating habits and I’ve not looked back.
Love your list but quick thing re your bed making. It’s actually good not to make the bed first thing (yes, that’s right). You should actually pull back all covers upon waking and leave for majority of the day (I manage until lunchtime then its bugs me as it looks messy). This helps to kill any nasties in your bed. Sounds terrible but we sweat in our sleep, shed skin cells and this is what feeds those nasties. By exposing the bed to air temps and not keeping the heat in after waking then the nasties are killed off (yeah). Anyway, I read that recently so who knows if its true but worth a shot plus if you do this then you can put another small daily habit on there or take an extra 5 mins for coffee – yes, yes!!!
I loved this different type of post! I’m not a fan of new years resolutions, but these are so simple and small that I’m inspired to try a few myself! xx
This is great stuff! Thank you for sharing such practical goals that make a BIG difference in your day. With children and even without, it’s the small things that make the biggest impact.
This post was a great reminder of some of the smaller things I can do each day that will make life a little easier! Making the bed is so quick, and makes crawling into it at the end of the day that much more relaxing.
I used to work out in the morning because I had read so much about how exercise in the evening can effect your sleep. I finally had to switch to evening due to work and was presently surprised that I sleep better than ever. It just shows how we are all different and need to figure out for ourselves what works best.
I made 10 resolutions for January for my blog, but I’m going to add a few of these goals in there too, to add some order to my chaos!
This is a cute idea :) Those little things can really tweak your outlook for the day!