I get crazy this time of year. Crazy in the sense that I love fresh starts and new goals and productivity. My planner has been like my best friend lately, following me around to every coffee shop, meeting, or even when I’m just chilling in bed, as if it’s saying, think of all the possibilities. But in order to choose new goals, I figured it would be a good idea for me to take a little bit of time to also point out what’s not conducive in my life. Normally, I focus on the positive and try to do more of what IS working, but I think there is something to be said for identify what is NOT working. And honestly, when I started thinking about this, I realized one big theme: my worst habits are at home. Maybe it’s because I mostly work from home, but either way, it makes sense that if you can adjust your routine at home, you’re probably adjusting your biggest source of bad habits. So, lo and behold, here are five at-home habits I’m ditching this year to increase my productivity.
1. Spending too much of my morning doing dishes.
I don’t like cleaning at night, but I really don’t using my morning to clean (maybe I just don’t like cleaning? Haha). I don’t mind placing the pillows back on the couch and making our bed, but when I wake up to a giant pile of dishes in the sink, my day doesn’t get started until like, noon. Instead of doing dishes, I’d rather be showering, reading my devotional, working– pretty much anything else to get my day going. I have a bad habit of letting the dishes go at night after dinner to read or watch tv instead of just. doing. them. So I’m kicking my habit of waiting until the morning after and instead am going to try to do them right after we eat dinner. This way, I’ll be able to focus on what matters most at the beginning of my day.
2. Harsh cleaning products.
For some reason, when it comes to food, I feel pretty conscious about choosing healthy, organic products. But then with cleaning products, I’ve been buying all the name-brand sprays and whatnot without thinking a thing about it. Well, a couple months back, I was cleaning the shower with a really strong generic tile cleaner. I had a window open for ventilation, but the chemicals were so strong, I literally had a migraine for THREE DAYS. That is not okay! It really opened my eyes to start considering what the heck is in that stuff! So, slowly, I’ve been switching over to all-natural home products. So far I’ve found dishwasher and laundry pods, but I’m still working on finding a bathroom cleaner. Any suggestions, my organic friends?
3. Watching tv instead of reading.
Can we all just hate this one in complete unison? Yes, we know. Watching tv for hours on end isn’t healthy, and yes we know there are much better things to do with our time. I fall victim of this one too. My husband comes home, we make dinner, we eat, and then– it’s time to relax. So naturally, we do what requires the least effort from our brain: tv. While I think watching tv can actually be healthy because of the sheer fact that it allows your brain to chill for a while after a long day, it can get to the point (pretty quickly) where you’re suddenly lost in the 12th episode of Parks and Rec and it’s midnight. What I’m aiming to do is watch no more than an hour of tv with my husband. I specifically say with my husband because if we’re just going to be doing nothing, we need to at least do it together and talk about our day between commercials or something. After that hour, I’ll grab a book instead.
4. Mindlessly looking at my phone at night.
I’ve gotten better at this one, but there are some nights when I realize that I’ve patterned my brain to constantly want connection or entertainment 24/7 just because of the sheer fact that it can be 11 pm (when I should be relaxing and getting ready to go to bed) and all my brain wants is Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram. In order to get a good, deep sleep, I’ve got to start winding down at about 9 pm, because it’s hard to shut a creative brain off. While the ideas I’m coming up with for photography or blog posts or whatever isn’t necessarily mindless, I am off working hours and need to make sure my brain understands that by laying my phone down and relaxing!
5. Bringing home work at night.
Last wedding season I was so bad at this. I literally worked day AND night during October. Aside from shooting weddings and editing weddings, I literally remember nothing of October. I don’t even remember sleeping (maybe I didn’t). Luckily, this is my slow season, so my evenings have been wonderfully open for making dinner, talking to my husband, cleaning, etc, which I’ve realized is how it should be. Even though I am an entrepreneur, I’ve got to stick to my hours and honor my time. My time is just as valuable as anyone working at a corporation– I’m trying to get my brain to get that! It’s tempting to work at night because I have a fear that people won’t get what they want from me soon enough or that I’ll get stressed out because it’s still on my to-do list the next day. But when I work at night, it’s just faux-productivity! It’s better for me to just rest and enjoy being with my husband, or at least actually sleep!
Alright, friends– what at-home habits are you kicking this year? I hope my list inspired you to choose at least one thing that will increase your productivity in a positive way!
