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Chocolate Musings

Set your goals - make the plans - artfully create your life - live it beautifully. Grab the good chocolate and find your muse.

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Home » self-improvement » Page 3

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.

Mid-Month Habit Tracker Check-up

4 ideas for your bullet journal to supercharge your habit trackingHaving 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

8 Comments
Filed Under: Artsy Planner Spreads, Blog, Bullet Journal, Habits, Plan With Me, Planner Spreads Tagged: #BuJo, Bullet Journal, bullet journal spread, check-up, habit tracker, habits, Inspire, leuchtturm1917, motivation, plan with me, self-improvement

Easy School Lunches Need Two Things: the Right Container and a Plan

August 24, 2017 Leave a Comment

Making school lunches is a chore no more with a plan and the right container.

If you are like me, the first day of school hits and I repeat over and over in my head “YAY! School is back in session! The kids are not driving me nuts anymore” That lasts all of 2 minutes. Because it hits me now: I have to make lunch for those munchkins because for one reason or another – school lunch is not an option in our family. Making school lunch is the bane of my morning. It is SUCH a chore! I have one school-aged child who will eat sandwiches – great! Easy school lunches. I have another who won’t touch sandwiches.

It’s important for me to make sure these little ones receive the right nutrition. I am not getting into a nutrition debate here, but let’s just say it is important to me that they receive a variety of foods in different colors. But ugh I have to think of things to pack for them. That was the big issue for me. Then I need to remember to keep a variety of the things they like stocked up in my pantry. I’m pretty sure they like a variety of choices instead of eating the same thing day after day.

The Motivation

A few years ago when my oldest was starting Kindergarten, I tried to have him just each lunch provided by the school. That lasted all of a week. His teacher called me and begged me to send his lunch from home because he hated the school lunch menus so bad. So I started sending him lunch in baggies. But my goodness, those are expensive! I saw an idea where a mom would use a hard plastic sandwich container and separate the food with cupcake liners. Great idea, but whoa those sandwich containers though: $3-4 each and not readily available. I couldn’t justify spending that much on each container with the high risk that it would not return home. So I thought of a cheaper alternative – just small, rectangular, shallow plastic containers with lids then I add cupcake liners to separate the food. I am not going through hundreds of baggies each school year. YES!

This helps with portion control – so I don’t overpack. The kids have a short amount of time to eat lunch and before I developed this method of packing lunches, there was always a lot of wasted food each day. I feel like I am pretty darn innovative for adapting these “bento lunch boxes” for my kiddos.

School Lunch Mind Map Page Layout in My Bullet Journal

Now if it would only get up before the sun rises and pack the containers for me…I guess that is where weekly meal prep comes in. *Sigh* another time, another place.

The other problem was planning the lunches. I now have two kiddos in school taking their lunches – with my middle starting kindergarten this year. Keeping ideas in check and supplies stocked would be an issue. I got even smarter this year and included a Mind Map page in my Bullet Journal so I always had a comprehensive list of lunch ideas while I am shopping.

To make a Mind Map: Start with a central idea expanding out and becomes more detailed as you go.

In this case, I started with the sketch of the school lunch and expanded outwards as in the picture below. Mind mapping has always been a favorite exercise of mine since I am so visually inclined. You can expand even further if you wanted (for instance under protein, I could have listed nuts and had another branch that listed all the types from there).

I use this technique for the family when we need dinner on the go. Usually when I am taxiing the kids to karate. Bonus: maybe now I can enjoy the structured nature of the school year because packing their lunches just got easier and my kids can focus on packing their brains full of information.

What tips and tricks do you have for packing school lunches for your kids? Leave me a comment below and let me know.

Pin this tip and then Follow me on Pinterest for even more tips, tricks and great ideas for your creative life journey.

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What did I use for this post? I’ll tell you.


  • Leuchtturm1917 A5 Dotgrid
  • Papermate Flair for the color
  • Micron pens for the lines
  • Tombow Fudenosuke brush pen for the lettering – buy a bigger pack – I LOVE these pens and have made all the difference in my hand-lettering journey
  • Water brush pens for blending
  • Energel in purple (because I love it) – these are my go-to pen for general writing.
This post contains affiliate links. The cost is the same to you, but I will receive a small commission to help support my blogging and creativity habits. 🙂 All opinions expressed were solely mine and from my heart.

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Filed Under: Artsy Planner Spreads, Blog, Bullet Journal, Fun with Handlettering, Get Creative, Get Organized & Start Planning, Habits, Planner Spreads Tagged: brush lettering, Bullet Journal, children, clever, creativity, DIY, hand lettering, how to, Inspire, leuchhturm1917, list, mind map, page layout, parenting, school, self-improvement

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About Me


Hi! I'm Tricia, the creative behind ChocolateMusings.com, I know how it feels to lose your inner muse. After years of darkness (which I call the dark ages of my life), I found my inner muse hiding in the forgotten corners of my soul, I vowed never to lose sight of her again.

Bullet journaling helped reignite the passion for art and living life again while organizing my days. I also discovered modern calligraphy and watercolor. Since then, my use of the bullet journal system has evlolved and I call it 'creative planning'. Here on the blog, I show you how to use your planner to ignite your inner muse and explore creativity and art while staying beautifully organized and living a joyful life.

I invite you to grab some good chocolate and dive into my musings. Let’s ignite your inner muse.

Read more on the about me page. You can also find my policies and disclosures here.

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