5 New Habits for the New Year

A new year is always a motivating time to make changes in your life. Whether you are planning on making a New Year’s Resolution or setting goals, everyone can benefit from these 5 new habits for the new year.

Have a Morning Routine

How you start your day has a big impact on how the rest of it will go. If you start your day in chaos you’ll likely continue to feel that anxiety and stress throughout the day. If you can take even 10 minutes to create a quick morning routine I think you’ll find that your days improve. Your morning routine can start small, with just a few steps. For example, maybe it is:

Drink a glass of water
Take vitamins
Eat Breakfast
Read for 10 minutes
Review your planner

As you get used to having a morning routine you can expand it and add more things in. For more information on how you can create your perfect morning routine click here.

Blonde girl reading book while sitting on beige armchair in apartment on balcony

Put away the phone

Now, this is not a habit that I do well at all. It is one of my yearly goals and it’s going to be a tough one. I think many of us already know that we are on our phone/iPad/tv too much. For the purpose of this post, I’ll just be talking about our phones.

My phone is one of my biggest distractors every day. I wake up and the first thing I do is quickly look at my phone. Before even getting out of bed!! I often watch a YouTube video while I’m doing my hair and makeup. Sometimes I check social media while I have breakfast and my phone is always beside me during work hours and I catch myself scrolling through Instagram, TikTok, or listening to messages from friends on Voxer when I should be focused on my work.

One of the worst habits I have is scrolling on my phone before bed… I’ve been up past 1 am because of this many nights.

Yes. It’s nice and perfectly ok to take time to unwind, but when it becomes a distraction or negatively affects your sleep it’s probably time to make a change.

Below are a few new habits I’m trying to work on so I stop wasting so much time on my phone.

Using Apple Screen Time to disable my apps before the kids go to school.
Once the kids are at school I will plan some time to mindlessly scroll.
Keep my phone across the room when I’m working. If there is an emergency I get notifications on my Apple Watch.
Schedule a mid-day break to check social media.
Everyone put our phones away at dinner and for an hour after dinner so we can have some quality family time.

Will this happen every day? Probably not, but my intention is to try and see what works. Over time I hope I will create new habits that stick so I can enjoy the benefits!

Looking for More Goal Planning Tips

Start Meal Planning

If you are a busy mom (or dad!) and you’re in charge of mealtime you know that it can be one of the most stressful times of the day. Standing in the kitchen staring into the pantry or fridge and wondering, “what should I make for dinner” can be so frustrating!

If you’ve been around here for a while you’ll know that I sing praises for meal planning. I truly think it is one of the most important habits that you can start if you are super busy and feel overwhelmed. It not only helps to lower your stress it can also help you save money and eat healthier. I recommend starting with weekly meal planning. If you want to plan ahead even more you might want to take a look at my monthly meal planning workbook and see how I plan a month of meals in under an hour.

You can also download my free printable weekly meal planning chart here.

Complete a Daily Brain Dump

I love a good brain dump. — eww… I wish we could come up with a better phrase for this!

A brain dump is simply writing down all the ideas, thoughts, reminders, concerns, etc. that are on your mind. This practice helps you clear your mind and allows you to then make a plan to tackle any tasks. It’s like clearing a slate before you begin your day or go to bed.

Doing a brain dump often helps me to realize what’s distracting me. I also remember important things that I would have otherwise forgotten. After about 5 minutes of thinking and writing, you’ll have a long list of tasks, ideas, and feelings.

I usually do my brain dump in the morning once the kids have left for school and I’m getting ready to work. It usually is full of tasks or ideas. Then I can use this list to build my to-do list for the day. I’ve heard that doing a brain dump before bed can have a big impact on the quality of your sleep, so I might try adding that into my nightly routine.

If you need a little help getting started with doing a brain dump you can get my free printable brain dump trigger list here.

Plan to Have Regular Life Admin Days –

One easy way to get overwhelmed is to procrastinate. Putting off doing little tasks and chores that are a hassle can quickly spiral and you’ll find yourself overwhelmed. When you put off these tasks without having a plan to tackle them, you’re setting yourself up for frustration. However, when you have a plan in place … Having a Life Admin Day… these tasks are no longer forgotten or collecting dust in a corner of your mind.

Having an Admin Day each week or month is a great way to tackle these annoying things all in one day.

Find out how to organize your own Life Admin Day read my recent Life Admin Post here.