Mid-Month Habit Check – October

October 17, 2017 4 Comments

Need some re-motivation in the middle of the month? Do a Mid-Month Habit Check.

In a habit slump? Do a mid-month habit check to reignite your motivation

I started doing a mid-month habit check a couple of months ago. The beginning of the month I am completely motivated and know that I am going to conquer all of my desires and do all the things. Well, that’s what I intended to do anyway. By the middle of the month, it seems that I have lost steam and I need a boost of motivation.

So the middle of the month, I do a quick assessment of my habits which re-motivates me to keep going to the end of the month. I find this 5-minute assessment does wonders for reigniting the flame that I felt at the beginning of the month.

Questions to ask yourself for re-motivation:

Once I reassess where I am, I spend a couple of minutes thinking of what motivated me in the first place.

I ask:

Why did I start this habit?
What is the end goal?
Do I need to change the time of day for this habit?

A little meditation goes a long way.

Make a Change & Get It Done:

If I find a neglected habit, it probably means that I am not planning for it or I am letting other ‘fluff’ get in the way – things that don’t really matter occupy the time that I would spend on that habit. So I need to refocus and eliminate some of that fluff. If I need to move the habit to the beginning of the day, I do it.

For instance, the I’ve neglected the Show Me Your Letters habit this month. Last month, I missed maybe one day. This month so far, I’ve missed 7 of 17.

Supercharge your habits:

If you notice at the end of this tracker, I have numbers and a blank column on the right side. Th blank column is for the end of the month and I will calculate the percentage of days that I completed that habit. The other column that already has numbers recorded shows how many days of the month I completed the last month. For instance, the show me your letters had 23 days of September that I completed that habit. If I put it as a priority for the rest of the month, I could still meet or beat that number from last month.

I created a post a couple of months ago to “Super-Charge Your Habit Tracker” that talks more about these columns in the habit tracker. You can read it here.

I created a percentage chart so you don’t have to figure it out. Pin for reference later! In October, you would use the 31 days column to figure your percentages. At the end of the month, count the number of days you completed a habit. For instance – if your total days completing a habit was 21, and the month had 31 days, your percentage would be 68%.

For instance – if your total days completing a habit was 21, and the month had 31 days, your percentage would be 68%.

Calculating the percentage helps me really see if I need to change the time of day for that habit if I need to move it to the morning or evening. I love seeing the real numbers so I can give that habit a ‘grade’.

Percentage calculator for monthly habit trackers

Two Categories of Habits:

I actually have two categories of habits that I track. It’s not indicated anywhere except in my mind.

Habits I am actively trying to pursue, and usually the ones I spend the most time on.
Habits I am assessing – these are ‘test subjects’ if you will – things I want to include in my life and are important, I just may not have set goals for them yet. These will most likely become the next set of habits I am actively trying to pursue. Maybe they need a little tweaking, or I need to plan them into my day. It’s like they are getting a trial run on my habit tracker.

Doing a mid-month habit check has been a great ‘habit’ to start, and it gives that extra boost of motivation for the last half of the month.

**Do you do anything during the month to re-motivate yourself? I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.

Give Yourself a Little White Space – in design and life

October 10, 2017 Leave a Comment

Good morning! Well, its morning here and the start of a new day. Thank goodness for fresh starts! It is amazing what can happen when your baby doesn’t wake you up in the middle of the night. But I did have a terrible dream at the end of the night – it involved two of my old bosses. In the dream, they were Nazis and had to go through all my stuff and claim anything of worth for forgiveness of their own sins. I really didn’t want them to find my laptop but I was most upset that they were making my husband do the dirty work. The psyche is an interesting space, especially in dreams.

Looking at next week’s plans, I don’t have much on the agenda. For that, I am grateful. That dream was cause for some reflection. I think I need some downtime to organize and think about goals and priorities for the next year – just like I suggested in my last post. I like to call downtime ‘white space’. White space in design (also called negative space) is ‘the space between the design or the unprinted area’ (thank you dictionary.com). It allows your mind to rest and process the design. If you filled an entire page with ‘stuff’ in an advertisement, nothing would stand out and the message would be lost. Then it would become wasted space. The ad would fail and you would probably lose your job…eventually.

White Space in Design and Life is Necessary

White space is necessary for design. I would say it is needed for life. I refuse to call it ‘negative space‘ in context to my life – because it is anything but negative. Speaking in a design sense, the ‘negative space’ is probably the most positive space in my life. I would love to start a revolution to the term when referring to life from ‘negative space’ to ‘positive space’ because of the significant positive impact. But changing terms would be confusing and all the designers would be angry. I like what they do so I won’t start the revolution.

Leave whitespace in your life and in your planner to easily adapt to life's unpredictability and don't forget the whiteout

Correlations, Parables & Fables

I love these plays on words. I also love life correlations. In the New Testament, they are known as parables. Where there are but there are levels of understanding in a story. The more you study, the deeper the meaning. Aesop’s fables are another source for life correlations. Open for life interpretation. If you haven’t read the fables in a long time, the Kindle edition is usually very reasonably priced. I’m not saying that I have incredible insights and you should read more into what I am saying but it sure is fun to look for alternative meanings and deeper insights in the everyday.

Add Margins to Your Life and Designs

I designed this week’s layout with a significant amount of margin keeping with the simple, minimal design. Filled with white space. In my previous week’s post, I talked about my horrible day. Here is a preview of that day on my mood tracker. I woke up the next day determined to see a better day because I don’t intend to have an entire mood tracker filled with red and burgundy. What I fully intend is to have a lot of purple, yellows, and greens. I have to allow myself to recover from these bad days and the only way I know how is to leave myself some breathing room.

Mood Tracking - First Day Flop - Tracking moods by activity

How to Bounce Back

To bounce back from a truly terrible day, I knew that I needed to take full advantage of the margins I built into my days. Scale things back a little, enjoy some sunshine, make sure I play outside with my kids, go on an impromptu mini-date with my husband. Slow down and enjoy the things in my life.

Adding margin to your life allows for the unexpected. If you have room to adjust for surprises in the day-to-day you’ll be more likely to bounce back.

While I was setting up this week’s spread, I completely miscounted the top boxes. If you look closely on Friday, you can see my whiteout (though I use correction tape, not whiteout) I don’t mind using correction tape. It fixes the problem and I move on.

In life and planners whiteout mistakes and move on!

Here are some questions for you:

I’d love to know what your response is. Or you can just use them as journal prompts.

How do you plan white space into your day?
Do you include intentional downtime in your daily activities?
What impact does this have in your life?

I hope you have enjoyed a little insight into my life, my planners, and my dreams. We are all journeying to something bigger & better – at least that’s what we hope. Journaling and planning have certainly propelled me on that course.

I wrote an early post on who I give credit to here. I’d love to know who you credit in your current journey’s progression.

Remember to plan your life so you live beautifully.

~Tricia

Add margin and whitespace to your planner and your life

Keep the Function of a Monthly Calendar Spread with a Touch of Flair

October 6, 2017 1 Comment

October Monthly Calendar Layout

I didn’t always use a bullet journal as my preferred method of keeping track of my life. I used other planners. In fact, I used a planner once as a journal so I would have just a snippet of space to write in. It worked, for a while. But here is the thing, I was flipping through my old planners and they were so boring. The function was there, but the inspiration wasn’t. I have many half-filled or abandoned planners – it’s really embarrassing. There were planners where there months where there was nothing recorded. It wasn’t until I found the freedom of creating in the bullet journal system that I used it consistently.

Bullet Journaling = Flexibility and Variety

Part of the reason I have stuck with bullet journaling for so long is the variations you can add to your planner. You allow for as much space as needed any given month or week. Be as creative or minimalistic as desired. For me, This may not always be a priority, but now I need that space as a creative outlet. That being said, monthly calendar-style layouts offer the least amount of flexibility. I tried to create a gravestone monthly calendar layout. That didn’t work well because I use my monthly as a way to glance at the month and see what is coming and it was overwhelming to look at – so I just turned the page and did something different.

If having a monthly grid layout works for you, by all means, go, be productive and love the square you are in (I’ll only be a tinge jealous). Maybe someday you can teach me of your ways.

The monthly calendar is so incredibly functional, my month wouldn’t be complete without it! This start of the month page may just be the most functional page in the whole month’s layouts. Can you hear the accusing tone in my words? Don’t get me wrong…functional is essential but it’s usually so boring.

I like seeing a monthly calendar – I am a very visual person, so seeing the relationship between events helps me plan my days. Especially with the monthly calendar with its familiar boxed days. But sometimes, those boxes are just too boxy.

Just a little change to your monthly calendar makes it look completely new!

Round the corners for a change on the monthly calendar set up, add a bit of sparkle and whimsy with iridescent paints, a couple of cute spiders with webs and your (near) minimalist monthly spread is all dressed up. Keep function and add a touch of flair.

So if you find yourself bored with the same-old-same-old in your planner, tweak your functional layout ever so slightly, adding details that don’t scare you (see what I did there with the Halloween reference) by keeping function but adding some whimsy. It may not take much to brighten your planner and shake off the cobwebs (I did it again!) from your planning routine.

In review:

September’s monthly log was full of color and added elements.

I’d love to hear!

Leave me a comment below: What planner change-ups have you made to spice up your planner? I’d love to know what you’ve done!

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Hello October – Smells Like Fresh Baked Apple Pie – Monthly Welcome Page

September 28, 2017 4 Comments

Hello, October. You smell like fall. You smell like freshly baked apple pie.

If you don’t like apple pie, no worries, I’ll make apple crisp – you like that right? I’ll make extra topping.

You sound like the leaves crunching under my feet and the cool, crisp fall nights perfect for stargazing near a fire as it crackles into the night and then slowly dies to embers glowing in the moonlight. Oh Hello, October.

Hello, October. You taste like pumpkin spice.

You feel like the cozy socks I’m always tempted to wear and the heat seeping through the mug of hot chocolate as I enjoy the onset of a cooler season. If I didn’t know any better, I might say you are my favorite. Summer is fun, but it is so chaotic and unstructured. October feels like the time to slow down and enjoy life after school has started, schedules are in place, and before the craziness of Thanksgiving and Christmas set in.

October feels like a time to dream, so if it is chilly or not, if the leaves are falling or if they are staying green on the tree branches, pick up a good book, and let your imagination go. Daydream of the best times of your life. Or create a fall bucket list and enjoy this time of year.

Choosing a Theme

Halloween is always a fun theme for October. The festivities are at the end of the month, so you have a full month of enjoying little critters and ghastly ghouls. But this time, I decided to paint a pie. Truth be told, it would be the first pie I’ve ever made. Yes – that includes baking. I bake a terrific apple crisp, but I have never really attempted a pie.

Page Overview:

What I found difficult was getting the right color in the painting – showing a golden brown, not orange, and not burnt. Just enough orange and brown to make the pie look like it recently came out of the oven. The other thing is what to do between the lattice-work? I looked at lots of pictures of pies for reference and got very hungry doing it.

Overall – I’m pleased with the page – especially being that it is my first pie. The apples are my first painted apples as well. So many new things!

Typically my welcome pages for the months are on the right side, but I thought I would be great to include my monthly goals & monthly to-do list. I secretly think I just wanted to come back to this page and salivate as I look at the pie.

I know we are always overly critical of our own work, so I will admit that I like the “Hello October” but I think I could have done better on the “Monthly Goals and To Do” my spacing is a bit scrunched at the end. I’ll just put that on my to-do list for next month. That is one thing I have learned from my bullet journal. I have learned that it is ok with things that aren’t perfect. Sounds strange coming from a self-proclaimed perfectionist.

Now that this is done…

I may actually create a bucket list for October just because it has given me all the feels.

Leave me a comment and let me know what your favorite thing about fall is – and what is on your fall bucket list. I’d love some ideas! I’ve included a list of items I used in this post below. Enjoy!

Habits. Sorry for the dirty word. Mid-Month Habit Tracker Checkup

September 19, 2017 8 Comments

Habits. Sorry for the dirty word.

It can even be a dirty word when you are doing something clean like straightening up or doing the dishes (please pardon the d-word). Here is a mid-month check-up of my September habit tracker. It is much improved from last month or the month before. In the past, I would create habit trackers and never complete them. But that’s the thing, I wanted to complete them. Eventually, I would fill out a couple of boxes on a habit tracker, but nothing real. I was tracking too many habits. So this month, I decided to just track a few habits.

Guess what?! “Habits” is not such a bad word anymore!

Included are things that I knew I wanted to do – and some things I knew I needed to do, but only for improvement. I do enough feeling bad about myself (and I am so tired of that!), I knew I needed a motivation boost.

This month, I tracked doing the dishes on the habit tracker because I knew I needed just to do them instead of playing the game of “who is going to get sick of the dishes first and give in and do them angrily while the other person feels guilty” with my husband. I hate to admit that I play that game sometimes. The problem is, no one wins because if they give in and do the dishes, they are angry and you feel guilty.

If you give in, you are angry. All of these things come from playing a game with dishes.

I have to say that this shows my longest span of doing dishes regularly in a long time, I love marking off the box and seeing the marks. One day, I will have it full. #MyDreamsWillComeTrue

It’s fun to complete it, it’s like a snowball rolling down a large hill. The momentum builds on itself. But the key is that I am having fun. Not all habits are fun (like doing the dishes) but I feel good about what I have accomplished once finished. Marking it off is just another perk.

Having Trouble Keeping Up With Your Habits or Habit Tracker?

If you are having trouble keeping up with your habits or habit tracker, consider paring it down. Eliminate some of the items on your habit tracker. If you are not filling it out anyway, why include them? Include only the items that you know you can carry out, but are a little stretch. Do that for a month, feel good about yourself, then next month add another thing.

The funny thing about habits is that they don’t come all at once. It’s gradual. You are creating a habit of the habit. I think we get into the mindset of ‘I have this habit tracker, now I will perfect my life’. Which is completely untrue and not motivating at all because filling out a habit tracker takes time, motivation, and funny thing, you have to create a habit of filling out your habit tracker.

If you wanted an easy habit to track – just for motivation – add: “Fill out Habit Tracker” to your habit tracker, then fill it out. I know I would think I am hilarious if I did that. But it might just be the motivation I needed to complete some other items on my habit tracker too.

TIP for Beginners:

If you are just starting out and don’t know how to start a habit tracker, check out How to Set up a Habit Tracker.

Tip for Seasoned Bullet Journalers:

If you are more seasoned at habit tracking, check out 4 Ideas to Supercharge your Habit Tracking.

Keep this in mind:

Please keep this in mind if you take nothing else away from this post: Habit Tracking is for self-improvement, not self-detriment. If it is de-motivational rather than motivational, stop for a month and do some self-care instead. I’ve seen some really cute self-care bingo cards on Pinterest. Check out my self-care board.

Habits come over time. They are not immediate. That’s kind of the definition of a habit. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Allow time.

Have a good week and let me know in the comments below what habit you despise the most.

Remember to plan your life so you live beautifully.

~Tricia