The first day of 2024, I went to bed at 2 am, woke up at noon, spent a few hours watching a TV show with my boyfriend, had crappy meals, and finally decided to be productive at about 8 PM. I was beginning to lament my underwhelming start to the year before I thought about what a sham it is that we’re expected to party til (and past) midnight, but still wake up the next day and be better. If I’m going to do all the stuff on NYE, then I deserve a lazy day the next day. At the least, I deserve eight plus hours of sleep.
On January 2, I started to be a little better. I had a slightly better breakfast, trying my best to make something decent out of the low supply of groceries I had. After being at my mom’s, then coming back with leftovers, and then having it be NYE, I didn’t end up getting any decent groceries. It made more sense for me to wait a few more days and go with someone who has a car. This made me think, maybe the first week of the year doesn’t have to count. Maybe I can just ease my way into my goals and better habits as I start to get out of vacation mode before my classes start the second week of January.
I mean, day 1 I put on an hour long podcast to make myself clean up my apartment during the whole podcast. This was something that made me feel good, because not only did I get to engage with longer form content (a goal I’ve been working on as I ease my brain out of the rat-brain-endless-scrolling-phone-addiction mode), but I also got to clean a variety of places for the whole hour. Then I almost finished my book club book. Day 2 I made plans with a friend to go out, washed and styled my hair, and finally listened to a video essay I saved on Youtube while I ate my surprisingly good “what’s left in my fridge and how can I use it” toast. I wasn’t hitting all my little goals, but I was doing a decent job at trying a little bit everyday.
I don’t normally make a new year’s resolution, because if I notice something is lacking I want to try to just fix it then and there. I also get weary of setting goals because what happens if they don’t work out? However, in the spirit of my cheat week with slight improvements, I guess I’ll make a list of things to try out. They’re all pretty small scale and might seem incredibly underwhelming, but I know I need to be realistic for when classes start and I don’t have entire days to dedicate to myself.
Stay away from Reels and set a scrolling limit. Also, use phone more consciously.
I’ve successfully kept Tik Tok off my phone for about six months, but Instagram reels have slowly started to fill that void. Especially if I’m stressed, I allow myself to overindulge a bit. Now, I think what I need to do is set a timer, or not let myself lay down to watch reels, or only allow myself a certain number of scrolls before I have to put my phone down. I’m not sure which is best, so I have loose guidelines that I can fill in with whatever seems to work best. However, I know that I’ll keep picking up my phone, so sometimes it’s good to just pick better apps. For example, I have a much better time controlling my habits if I just go on Pinterest while listening to an album or podcast. Picking better things to use my phone for could help a little.
Pick a fruit of the week to eat and actually finish the whole thing
I’ve been doing well with buying more fruit and eating it, sometimes even swapping it for a dessert craving. However, finishing a whole thing of mandarins or apples or whatever has been somewhat hard for me. I hate wasting the food, but sometimes there’s just too much. I need to either ensure I’m eating some everyday to finish it, or buy smaller servings, like getting individual apples instead of the big bags.
Replace some of my coffee with tea
I love getting or making a coffee or latte, but sometimes I worry that I don’t need all the extra caffeine. I think that it might be better to drink a black or green tea some mornings instead of coffee. Not only is a bit less caffeine (albeit sometimes only marginally), but it’s also less sugar because I only add a little bit of honey to my tea compared to adding syrups and all to my coffee. Plus, certain teas are good for different things like digestion, PMS, sleep, etc., so drinking more tea and picking targeted teas could be good for me long term.
Meal prep more often
This goes a little bit along similar lines as the fruit goal, because I think that meal prepping and freezing some of the food will help reduce my waste too. Especially when I start working full time this spring/summer, I think it’ll be good to have meals in my freezer that are homemade rather than having Trader Joe’s dumplings or freezer burritos.
Journal and annotate books more
This will help with less scrolling as well, but I think it would be good to put more conscious effort into journaling. It can be helpful when I’m stressed, and sometimes I come up with surprising things when I just start physically writing. Also, annotating books can make them more fun to read. I usually avoid it because it can make reading more time consuming, but certain books just go down easier if you talk to the text a little more. I’m currently reading a book on my laptop because I couldn’t find a cheap version irl (I usually hate reading ebooks but I was desperate), and being able to quickly annotate has made me realized it’s kinda fun.
These were definitely a bit basic, but they are what I’ve had on my mind. I’ve started most of them already pre-2024, but it’s good to have them written down as a reminder. These are the small things I’ve been working on slowly with my slightly less productive start to the year. If you haven’t really been doing much since the new year started, don’t get mad at yourself. It takes time to start things, and 1/1 doesn’t have to be your magic number. Let yourself have time to adjust from the holidays, and maybe just do one small thing for the first week of the year to prep yourself mentally for more fully tackling your objectives throughout the year.
What are your goals for the year? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading :)
Enjoyed reading ur resolutions. I like most of them so I’m going to try more tea than coffee & definitely will try more exercise this year