7 things I want to do less of in 2015

I want to do a few of these kind of posts. If not your thing, mark as read and see you tomorrow :)

Shout

This is my biggie of the year. I need to stop shouting. Yes, I'm an expressive and what-not but I need to just stop. I listen to myself sometimes and it's like I'm another person.

Some people drink wine and apparently I shout.

(the kids need to also listen but they're 5.5)

Psalm 141:3

Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!


Put up with things

I don't naturally put up things but somehow over the years as my "personality style" got refined, I'm a bit more tactful and soft. And some of it is good, but I've put up with lots of things I shouldn't.

This is part of the year of enough.

I spoke to our assistant and made my expectations very clear. She's now giving me good and timeous feedback, long may that last.

I used to say I have a low tolerance for nonsense, and I want that low tolerance back.

In small things like tossing out junk and getting things done around the house (painting - OH how I hate the process, but I do love the after-effects), but also in the bigger things like dealing with stuff (teachers, relationships, work stuff, etc.).



Force myself to finish books
I'm a finisher a la Gretchen Rubin and that is good with work stuff and project things (verrrrrry good with this) but it plays out with reading in that I feel like I can't stop a book once I've started. Even if it's terrible.

Thank goodness for Kindle samples because I've gotten much better over the last 2 - 3 years, but I could still let go more. I can think of at least 3 books that were a complete waste of time in 2014 but I forced myself to finish them.

D told me he realised that at his current pace of about 40 a year, he calculated that it will take him til he's retired to read everything (especially with favourite authors releasing books every year, and new favourite authors appearing all the time) on his bookshelf and Kindle. Scary.



Force myself to finish products I actually don't enjoy using
Same thing here. I bought two facewashes over the last 3 months that I hated. I only gave those away because I bought another in a sample size that was working.

I've also been using a BB cream and a moisturiser I don't really like solely because they're okay. And I spent the money. But enough.

Today I went to Clicks and bought the moisturiser I adore and a new BB cream, but (in my defence) I tried the BB cream on in the store and it looked good, so let's see :)

Louisa, what are these things called?

Let likes and comments on social media affect my state of mind

1. It's still a good blog post whether people comment on it or not. There have been lots of great commentary in the blogosphere recently on how comments are down and conversation is happening elsewhere (people linking to your post, sharing on Twitter, etc.) ... yeah well. I'm not that well-adjusted yet. Plus there's no other conversation happening.
2. It's still a good picture whether people like it or not.

Rinse and repeat.

Normally these things don't bother me much but since they're starting to affect me a bit, I want to nip it in the bud.



Spending because I "deserve it"

I see this sometimes in my spending habits. I don't need or really desperately want something but I find myself saying things like, "well I deserve it" but what am I really fixing?

I have a good filter in my head with spending and I don't spend wildly, am very responsible BUT I do say "I deserve it" for nonsense spending.

Jennifer Louden (who I LOVE!) calls these things shadow comforts. Like when you could have one block of chocolate to truly savour and treat yourself, but instead you gobble up the whole slab because you feel guilty for shouting at the children.



Less social media consumerism overall

The Fitbit lets me see how well I'm sleeping and even though I fall asleep within seconds (or a minute maximum), it's interesting to see how restless I was during the night.

My average is about 7 minutes which I think is normal, and then there are nights when the mosquitos drive me nuts and I had 56 minutes of restlessness.

But I have noticed something else. When I scroll Instagram (mostly) and very occasionally, Facebook, my restlessness increases.

Clearly my brain is still working on whatever I saw.

I just wish I could leave my phone somewhere else instead of the bedroom, but I have to tap the begin sleep button to activate sleep in the fitbit app, because if I simply tap the device on my arm, somehow it loses everything and I have to uninstall, and reinstall the app. Which, of course, is crazy.

Write your own post and link back here (if you wish) or leave me a list in the comments.

What do you want to do less of in 2015?

The 12 days of holiday and... memory-keeping for the year ahead

Well, friends, I'm pleased to say I got every last thing done on my to-do list.

I've rested enough, read enough (actually, can one ever read enough?), taken way too many photos, seen lots of friends, played with the babies and had 3 dates with D.

I think this trick (mind game) worked well for me.

Usually I think of it as # leave days; this time I thought of it as # days out of office. So instead of feeling like the holiday was short (only 5 working days off), it felt lovely and restful (12 days!).

I have slipped into LOTS of bad habits though like going to bed at 1 am every night.... and waking up late.... my productivity soars when I play to my night owl tendencies but (so very) unfortunately, the SA corporate world is not as evolved yet.


By the way, I realised this afternoon we never spoke about the wrap-up to my goals.

I got 88% of my December goals done.

I tallied up my averages and .... my average over the year was 89%. So an awesome year of goals and goal-setting.

 

I still haven't set specific January goals yet.... but I will do so this week.

I finished my Project Life this afternoon and after I hit publish, I need to tidy up the mess - sort out the cards into their containers again because tomorrow I fetch my Cobalt cards from the post office - yay!

In 2013 I actually took a photo a day and saved it in an app called Project 365. What does one actually do with these things now? Jeanette? Anyone? Good ideas for all the iphone memories?

I'm continuing this year but I need to upload last year's stuff somewhere???? because when the calendar flipped to January, I saw last year's pics there!

Ideas?

That's all I'm doing - the same as last year. Instagram and my Mini Album for Project Life (kiwi this time).

What are you doing in terms of memory keeping?



Speaking of memory keeping, these two little ladies are FIVE today. Gosh! In this photo, they're 3 and a half. Where does the time go? A and B, happy birthday to both of you!