Habits Can Be Good

In Make a habit/break a habit from Seth Godin's Blog, Seth Godin shares,

“If you’re trying to help yourself (or those you serve), the most effective thing you can do is create long-term habits. They become unseen foundations of who we will become.”

I know that if I can create a good habit and keep track of it, I’m more likely to do it.

I’ve been logging in my food now for about 1085 days now. I want to keep my streak so I’m very religious about logging in my food every day! I know that if I break this running streak, I’m probably not going to be as careful about logging in my food.

I record my steps, distance and sugar intake every day in my bullet journal. This keeps me on track of my exercise and sugar.

When my goal one year was to read the bible cover to cover, I followed a strict schedule and didn’t miss a day. By having this habit, I was able to meet my goal.

I post my annual goals at the beginning of every year. Then every month I review my goals and I think that helps me to meet my goals at the end of the year.

If I can help my students create good habits, it will help them be successful in the classroom.

I have a routine for the class that the student learns to follow all through the year.

I start off with a 5-minute journal writing session while I go about and collect homework that should be sitting on their desk. During this time I’m also able to take attendance and deal with any administrative duties before teaching my lesson.

I usually have a whole class lesson introduction. Then I might break the students into small groups or individual work. They know I will move around the room and help those that need it. About 10 minutes before the end of class, I get the students back into the whole group and have them go over what they learned and ask them to share. I might go over important things I want them to remember. The last 5 minutes of class is giving out homework, papers, and having them clean up around their desk.

I think it helps my students know the routine and what to expect. This helps them focus on new learning and helps them feel comfortable and safe.

What habits do you help your students learn? How do you do this? Please share.

Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash

Good Habits

In You Might Win On a Day But You Don’t Win In a Day from Cool Cat Teacher Blog by coolcatteacher@gmail.com, Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) asks,

“Are your daily habits leading you towards success?”

This past year I have started bullet journaling. At first, I just used a marble notebook but since, I’ve graduated to a dot matrix type of journal. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money if I didn’t think I would stick with it. Over the course of a year, I not only stuck with it, but I feel that I’ve been much more productive because of it.

Each month, I have an overall monthly spread that shows important events for the month and other appointments. I can glance at this and get an idea of what the month will look like for me. Then I have a weekly spread that lists things I need to do that week.

Every morning, I look at my journal and write down the things that I want to accomplish that day (my daily goals). I also have listed any appointments or events for that day. I glance at it several times during the day, so it keeps me on track with getting goals met. Before I go to bed, I can mark off everything that I finished for the day. Anything that didn’t get done will be migrated to the next day. I can also jot things down for the next day that I don’t want to forget.

I also keep a track of my steps, distance, and carbohydrate intake every day. This is helping me lose weight that I want to lose. When I don’t lose weight that week, I can look at these figures and know what is keeping me from my goal. By writing this information down, I’m more aware of my habits.

I also keep track of a cleaning schedule. By doing this, I’m not hating cleaning my house as much as I used to. Instead of spending a whole day trying to clean the house, I schedule a different room on different days. Once I finish that room, I’m free to do the other things I want or need to do. My house seems much more cleaner and organized rather than sporadically trying to fit in a whole day of cleaning.

I also have some daily reminders on my phone that help me remember to do things. I read my bible daily buy sometimes the busy-ness of the day can make me forget. The alert on my phone helps keep me on track.

Overall, I know that this bullet journal takes some time but it is well worth the effort. I’m really proud of all the things that I’m getting done each day.

What do you do to improve your daily habits? Please share.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay

Tracking Habits

Spring and summer are a good time to work on improving healthy habits. For some reason, the warmer, nicer weather makes it easier to work on these.

Here are some of the habits that I want to improve on a regular basis:

·      Eating fewer carbs (daily)

·      Logging in my food (daily)

·      Walking at least 10,000 steps (daily)

·      Cleaning or gardening (daily)

·      Reading the Bible (daily)

·      Writing a blog post. (5 times a week)

·      Creating scrapbook pages (10 per month)

·      Losing weight (lose 10 lbs. in one year)

I have found out that keeping track of my habits helps me stick to them better. I feel like I’m holding myself accountable and if I have to write it down, then it motivates me to follow through. If I see that I’m not meeting my goal, I push myself harder to work on the habit.

Since I’ve started keeping a bullet journal, it has helped me track these habits. I’m not sure exactly what style of tracker I like yet and I’m experimenting with different styles. I keep trying different ones to find the one that motivates me best.

I think my students would benefit from tracking their habits also. When I had them make a graph of their weekly average, many of them really were motivated by seeing the visual. It helped motivate them to do better and try harder. Those that were doing well, did not like to see their progress decrease. I think most people are like this.

Do you track your habits? If so, how? Please share.