I read somewhere that if you do something consistently for 30 days it can become a habit.  I have been working on making some changes in my life the past few weeks and have recognized a few areas where building a habit might be beneficial. This post is just about four habits I will be working to build. 

• Habit 1 – Waking up at a reasonable time every day, including weekends.
  This habit is  a result of my post earlier this week about getting out of bed immediately in the morning. See post here. I’ve noticed that I have been significantly more productive, had fewer urges to take naps, and I’ve even been sleeping better all just because I wake up and immediately get out of bed at 8am every morning. Because of the great benefits this has brought, I want to keep it going. The good part about this habit is that I have a pretty good internal alarm clock, so I expect that after about two weeks, it should become a bit easier.
• Habit 2 – Working out and jogging regularly.
  I know this habit or goal has ended up on almost everyone’s list many times over, but it just never seems to stick, so I end up at McDonald’s instead of the gym. Waking up earlier has given me almost two extra hours most days that I can use for a morning jog and short workout.  I’ve always been a fan of working out, puts me in a good mood and after recovery I usually feel pretty energetic. I think adding this to my mornings will help me kick off my day right.
• Habit 3 – Better financial tracking.
  I have a nifty little app that tracks all of my financial accounts and lets me see their status at any given moment. It takes into account all transactions, even those that haven’t posted to my bank account yet.  I love it because it allows me to make better financial decisions since I can see exactly what will happen after I make a purchase. The habit I’m looking to build here is to record my transactions as they occur rather than every two or three days.  What usually happens is unrecorded transactions build up then I dread adding them to the app. I’m hoping that I can prevent this from happening by consistently recording transactions as they occur.
• Habit 4 – Planing the day ahead.
  This one is simple.  I want to get in the habit of taking 5-10 minutes before I leave for class or work to look at my to do lists and plan what needs to be done that day. This is a pretty important one because the days on which I don’t do this are the days where I miss something that could have easily been handled. I’ve gotten pretty good at making sure I have everything I need to accomplish written down, but that’s useless if I don’t take the time to view the list. I will condense my to do lists down to an “action items” list that I can carry with me so I know whats ahead on any given day.

 Well here are the four habits I’m looking to build. These aren’t too difficult and will just require some self discipline. I’ll be reporting back in 30 days to say whether each habit was a success or if I still have some work to do.