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
Angela, thank you so much for this post! As always, it is honest and uplifting at the same time while being such an encouragement. I had never thought about the push notifications – that is genius! I run a business from my home, too, and Flylady.com has had a lot of positive impact on my home maintenance. I don’t subscribe to the feeds (because of the volume of email) but it is great to look up specific ideas to de-clutter an area of the house.
If you go onto the Direct Marketing Associations website, you can enter any applicable email addresses/mail address to NOT get sales/catalogs. I’ve done this yearly for the past couple of years and it really helps control what comes in.
I brought your “1 smoothie and 1 salad a day” challenge into 2016 and it’s crazy hair how much I crave those salads now…I even had one for breakfast! Ha!
Kudos to you and Eric for building your business while your daughter is so young and putting In the necessary self-care/routines to be healthy and happy in the process. :) Happy New Year!
LOVE these. I think it’s a great idea to aim for the little things that make a big difference. I may adapt a few of these same ones myself! And, I also like an idea I heard of 52 small goals each week rather than one or two large resolutions. So in addition to these little daily things that add up to a lot, I may try to set occasional weekly goals too, to keep me going.
I am desperate to try and switch my workouts to morning, but have always struggled as I feel that I don’t have as much energy and can’t work as hard as I can in the evening. I’m going to try eating just something little to see if that helps but if you have any more tips please share!
Lauren
Great list! It has already inspired me to look at what daily habits I want to strengthen. It’s also helpful to consider the difference between small daily habits that contribute to your overall quality of life and those big milestones we seem to always be focused on. So, thanks!
Quick note: Anything else coming on motherhood? I’ve so enjoyed your posts on the topic.
Such a wonderful post, Angela! I’m so baffled as to how I’ve never even considered tiny goals to be a part of the bigger picture, that doing these little things would give me a small (but much needed!) satisfaction or joy, and it all makes perfect sense. Even when I subconsciously do a tiny favor for myself (take extra time to enjoy my daily cup of tea or making sure ALL the laundry is put away straight out of the dryer and not half-assing it later in the day haha), I feel extraordinarily better than when I neglect these things. And I am 110% for morning workouts! I feel drastically different when I push my workout to the end of the day, which most of the time culminates in me convincing myself I’m too tired to even bother working out.
Great post! I love it. I too struggled to define lofty and large goals for myself in 2016 (uhh, finish grad school and successfully defend my thesis next week is the biggest one!). I am a big goal-setter as well, but agree this year does feel a bit different…I like your idea of focusing on the small rituals and daily-habits…it makes so much sense. And yeah, the thing about making the bed in the morning! Something about crawling into tidy pillows and blankets, just to mess them all up again!! Happy 2016!
Angela, I think you are on the right track – making small changes and tweaks daily surely will help bring more joy to your life than any lofty unfulfilled Goal. Kudos for figuring that out! My favorite of the things you listed is the last thing, Connecting with family and friends…did you save the best for last? I remember how busy life is with young kids in the house (ours are teen-ages now) and how easy it is to lose touch with loved ones. I always feel better after hanging out with a good friend or family member even when I think I’m too busy. Happiest of New Years to you dear! Hugs and cheers, Bita
you are so right about the bed, it sets the tone to the day, and I’ve found all sorts of excuses not to do it.
Hi Angela,
I had a question. I have your cookbook ❤️❤️❤️. Can I make the 10 Spice Vegetable soup in advance? I wondered how the cashew cream would be in the soup after a few days in the fridge or how it would turn out if I tried to freeze the soup and save for a later date?
Thoughts? Thanks for your help,
Pam
I try to make my bed every morning, it just makes me so much happier to walk into the room and have one part of my world, at least be neat and tidy and not quite so chaotic. I find the small things in life can make the biggest difference! Best of luck with all your goals. One of mine is getting to post on my blog more than once a month, but that’s a big one for me :-)
Daily habits for happiness – great idea! Making my bed has always been a big thing for me as it’s the biggest piece of furniture in the room and can easily make the space messy and therefore upsetting or all dressed and welcoming. My kids don’t always agree. Taking time to call family and friends is something I aim to do more of – it’s happiness x 2.
I love this! I recently just started to make the bed every morning (which definitely helps – I find it makes it easier for me to relax and fall asleep when I get ready for bed!). I also dedicate 10-15 minutes of my hour lunch break to tidying up the house. 10-15 minutes goes a long way when tidying :) Thanks for the reminder that it’s the little things that matter most !
I can tell that your little girl is ADORABLE. She looks just like mine from the back; I believe she is only a couple of months older than my little one. I do not blame you for not showing photos of her face. I do the same thing – smart mama!
Hi!
I found your blog just a few days ago, but I`m already in love.
Thank you so much for all these amazing recipes.
Greetings from Finland
Love, Heidi
Angela,
Thank you so much for writing such a refreshing, real, inspiring, and honest post! I think it is so powerful to make small changes in your life instead of trying to tackle huge, unattainable goals and always focusing on the next “big goal” in life. Right now I am facing a lot in 2016- getting married on paper to get my husband on my overseas posting “orders,” moving him overseas to be with me, planning our wedding back in the states from overseas, then moving back to the states, buying our first house, and starting a new job. That’s pretty scary stuff!! But I just try to focus on one day, one step at a time, and I know it will all work out and it will all be wonderful. I cannot tell you how much your blog and cookbook have changed my life. My small goal for 2015 was to stop putting sugar in my coffee- now it’s 2016 and not only did I stop putting sugar in my coffee, but I also am practically vegan, hardly drink coffee anymore, and have cut out all meat completely. I also lost that extra weight that was driving me nuts but didn’t seem to go away even though I regularly run marathons! Small changes can have such a huge impact! And one simple step that you can do consistently can inspire to take another step, and then another. For me- going vegan was terrifying and hard, but I started with just your two-day vegan “cleanse” post and went from there- two days turned into two weeks turned into two months!! Anyway- thanks so much for everything that you do- your inspiring posts, your fun photos on instagram, and your amazing recipes- they all make me so happy and keep me on the right, healthy path which has been so great for me and my fiance together.
hugs,
Laura
Hi Angela! Just wanted to say that I’m loving your Snapchats! You inspired me to try a matcha latte this morning, so yum! Hope your happiness carries all through the year :)
I agree 100% – small daily habits have a profound effect on happiness. Did you happen to read Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin? The book talks about this exact thing and has tons of great suggestions to build and create good habits. I recently read it and loved it.
As I have working on my goals, this is inspiring!
I’m so with you on the morning workouts! I need to shift back to mornings, too.
Another goal for 2016: use my business branding more in my personal life so that every purchase decision is one that aligns with my values.
I loved this. It just induced my own epiphany. Lol. Lovely piece
Amazing list of goals :)