Mini Resolutions - Two Months Success and Increased Productivity

Thanks so much for the incredible feedback for my New Year’s Mini Resolution plan! It all feels so doable, which excites me to no end! And, it has already increased productivity for me! I just wanted to give you a little update on my first two months. The long and short of my plan is that I made 12 individual month-long commitments this year. Each commitment lasts only 30 days, but if the habit stays around for longer, great. Or, if I want to adapt it into my daily life a little differently than it looked originally, fine, too. I thought it would be a good way to gently fold some excellent new habits in to my life. My plan is working well!

January – Make it to the Gym 5 days a Week

First, January’s goal was to make it to the gym 5 days a week. I wasn’t able to make it to the gym every single week day, but I did exercise every single week day (and some weekends too!) And, I’m happy to say that I’ve kept this up. I’ve continued to exercise a minimum of 20 minutes a day, since January started, sometimes this is a quick dog walk, sometimes this is a swim, sometimes this is a trip to the gym. I feel good making it a priority and a necessity – just like brushing my teeth ;). The commitment did make me do some extraordinary things that I wouldn’t normally do. For example, I went to hotel gyms on business trips, sometimes at 9pm if I was busy all day. Going above and beyond my norm like this made me feel great!

February – Concentrated Block of Work 9 – 12

Next, February’s plan was to include a 9am to 12pm window of focused work on my current primary work goal, which right now is my new book. I found this commitment difficult, mainly because my schedule is so variable with three kids, travel, appointments etc. As the month went on, I had to tweak this goal a bit. Each day, I made a conscientious effort to get three focused hours of work in on my book, it just didn’t always fall between the hours of 9 and 12. This did work wonders. A lot of times, too, if i started working on my book in the morning, I continued to work on it the entire day because I was in the groove! I am thrilled with this commitment’s effect on my increased productivity.

I am most definitely incorporating part of this February plan into my daily life. I’m shifting the commitment a little bit as to make it work better for my tumultuous schedule. I’ve talked about the Pomodoro Method on the blog before. In summary, the method suggests 25 min focused work periods (i.e put your phone away, turn off all notifications, etc), followed by a 5 minute break. Then, after 4 sessions like this, you take a 15 minute break. Now, instead of 9 – 12, I am including 4 pomodoro work sessions on my book every day as a priority in my daily schedule. I’m also trying to write down an actual schedule for how the day will flow with these sessions built in. I think this will be very successful. Yay, increased productivity!

March’s goal includes showering, get dressed, and putting on make up every work day. I have been doing this every day so far. It is definitely not my norm! I am curious if this habit will lead to increased productivity. Do you think it will? Then, April’s goal is to plan my top 3 priority to-do list each night. I’ll come back to report on the next two goals at the end of April. Until then, happy commitments. Tell me below what commitments you’ve been working on? How are your resolutions going?