I have been complaining for a while that I am in a bit of a rut and haven’t improved my as a person recently. In
my year summary of 2017, I outlined what I want to change in 2018. But they were quite wishy-washy. Stuff I would like to achieve without any actionable steps on how I could go about achieving them.
So after some thought, I’ve decided to try and develop some new daily habits.
Daily habits are the backbone of a lot of the self-help or motivational books and blogs that litter the internet. And I am generally pretty sceptical of them. I don’t really like routine and anything that relies on discipline rather than enjoyment I tend to fail at. I have one daily habit that I have been trying off and on since 2015 (my
daily ideas). But tend to average doing it only about once every three days.
Anyway, I am willing to try something new and in order to keep me accountable I am going to tell you what my new daily habits are. So here we go, feel free to ask me how they’re going!:
1. A Daily Journal
Ever since listening to an interview with the film director Robert Rodriguez a few years ago, I have really liked the idea of keeping a diary or journal. He writes one each day and has done so for many years. And it has become something he loves looking back over. For example, he can remember with his kids exactly what he did with them on their birthday 15 years earlier. Or he can do a search for a particular person who he hasn’t seen in ages and remember what they spoke about and what is going on in their lives. I love that!
But I could never bring myself to keep one because I didn’t want to spend
more time writing each day. But now I’ve discovered the dictation feature on my iPhone. I can just open up Evernote (or whatever note-taking app) and speak to my phone. It will then transcribe what I say pretty accurately and only takes a couple of minutes. Even at my most laziness, I
should be able to do that… Wish me luck!
2. Getting Out The House
I work from home. Which is great! My house is lovely, it has a games room, a huge sofa, and my wife Emma is a better chef than any restaurant nearby. We host a lot (come to one of
Emma’s supper clubs) and I have no
need to leave. I can sometimes go a few days without leaving the house, which really isn’t good for me. I am going to make sure I get out at least once a day, even if it is just to get a coffee.
3. Talking On A Phone
I’ve fashioned pretty successfully my life to
remove everything I dislike from it. One of which is phone calls! I’ve disabled my phone from ringing and very rarely ever call anyone. But this has lead me to develop a bit of a phobia of phone calls. I would rather walk 15 minutes somewhere to talk to someone than just call them. Or send hundreds of emails to resolve something that could be done in a five-minute chat.
To try and get better and to take myself out my comfort zone (
which I believe is really important) I will try and make at least one phone call a day.
4. Doing Something Nice And Thoughtful For A Friend
I am generally pretty bad at keeping in touch with old friends. And I want to continue working on being a nicer, kinder, more loving person (the best trait I think a person could have). My solution to both is to try and keep a database of all my friends and acquaintances, I will go through and come up with ideas of nice things I can do for each person. Then each day I will act out one. This is probably going to be the hardest and will take a bit of time to set up properly, so I will start now!
Do you have any daily habits? What has or hasn’t worked for you?