Habit Formation: Day 30
As I moved further with my challenge, waking up gradually became easier until it finally just automized. I had days wherein I woke up even before my alarm did and felt so fresh as if I hadn't been asleep in the first place—no brain fog, so to say. Certain days, I would be out of my bed, into the bathroom and I'd be walking out with the toothbrush in my hand, without even realising it. The brain fog in all cases faded quicker than it usually did. As for my napping schedules, I was skipping my 12 o'clock nap since I didn't feel I needed it but I preponed my 6 o'clock nap to 3 since, after a heavy lunch, I often felt sleepy in the afternoon. That 30-minute nap at that time worked and left me feeling better later.
I am now no longer going to be consciously aware that I have to wake up the next day at 6:30, I am sure I would and now am thinking of bringing in other changes in my schedule, designed to increase my productivity throughout the day. As I've woken up every day at the same time and did the same things every morning, I've got a pretty neat idea of what works for me and what doesn't. For example, I initially used to meditate from 7 to 7:30 in the morning, since I had nothing to do at that time and I had to wait for my workout after having milk. The early morning meditation, however, would leave me feeling a little drowsy later but workout would help reduce it. Anyway, I wanted to maintain my lucidity early morning so I replaced meditation by walking my dog and scheduled meditation in the evening. That's been working for me.
And how has this one change impacted my life? Quite drastically, more than I had expected it to. When I had decided that I had to fix my sleep cycle, I was sure that I'd just focus on waking up early, even if I screwed the day later. All I had on my mind was to wake up early and to fix this first. And I had thought that as I'd fix my sleeping cycle first, I would then proceed to fix other things. But things didn't go as planned and in a good way, because, focusing on making this positive change led me to bring in other positive changes. I had wanted to workout every day, but waking up enabled me to schedule it right after to wake me up completely and to get a dose of 'feel-good' chemicals first thing in the morning. It was followed by breakfast and I also started having lunch on time. These few changes kicked off a lot of things within me. I felt more motivated and disciplined and as a result, I began using my time efficiently and tried to do something productive at all times. I felt the need to continue the flow I had early in morning but I also had this in mind that it was okay if I'd mess things up. My major concern was waking up early, and I was to follow it no matter what. Whatever I did beyond that was extra and bonus.
Now that I have made this into a habit, the next challenge I'm willing to take is the '30-days: Write Something Challenge' and all this is going to be is that I will be writing at least something, spanning a 1000 words every day. I want to do this so that I automate my writing too. Do I have any strategy or something else in my mind? Yes! I've already allocated myself 2 hours for this very purpose. So, every day at the same time, I'll be sitting in front of my laptop to get words out. There are a few advantages to this approach. If I sit at the same place to type and at a certain time, then over time, I will get so used to sitting at that place and time that at around that time, I will naturally get ideas and words to write. All the struggle part of it will be minused; all that will be left is creativity.
I am going to be making you a part of it too! Just so that you know I am keeping my streak, I will make sure that I post all that I write here on my blog. So, every day, there will be a new post, spanning at least a thousand words. Sometimes it will be my usual posts, sometimes something else that I can, maybe think of. If you wish to become a part of it too, then you can start with me. No issues if you do not have a blog of your own or a place to write. You can write anything on your facebook wall, or your Instagram or it could be sent as a message to someone or maybe even in a book. All that matters is that you write something every day. So, as long as you are writing something every day, doesn't matter what you write or where you write.
I'm quite excited to start this challenge and though I have written something about thousand words today itself at the decided time and place, I'll still officially start the challenge from tomorrow, under its own heading and also so that you can start with me. Let's see what comes out from me tomorrow!
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