October was such a hectic month! There were many good things. But I actually missed my blog anniversary, which is crazy! I am so thankful for the continued support throughout the years, and I work to always provide you with stories, recipes, lessons, and relevant advice. I don’t know if I would still be writing if it wasn’t for you.

Anyway, because October was so hectic and busy, I feel a little discombobulated now. Many of the things I was doing kind of consistently have slacked or dropped off completely. I am working to build and create new routines that way I can keep up the consistency for next year and don’t have to struggle as much.

This is something I’m still working on, but I wanted to give you the steps I used to create this process in the hopes that if you find yourself in a similar place, you can work to do better and don’t have to struggle in the same way I did. Here’s what I’m working on and have worked through.

1. Be willing to make a change- No one can make you change if you don’t want to. Somewhere inside you, you have to recognize that you need to make a change. Otherwise, none of these other steps will work.
2. Write down everything- I am a visual person and a list person. If it’s not written down somewhere I can see it, it is not going to get done. After deciding that I wanted to change, I decided to write down all the things I wanted to incorporate in my day. This included things like “work out,” “taekwondo,” “puzzle,” “clean house,” etc. This was just the generic list of all the things I’m trying to accomplish and do.
3. Sort and categorize- From this large list, I then grouped the things I want to do into categories. For example, “taekwondo” became grouped under “health improvement.” “Puzzle” fell under “self-care,” and “clean house” was placed under “others improvement.” In total, I had four categories: Self-care (things I enjoy doing for fun), Self-improvement (things that I do to help me become a better person), Others improvement (things that benefit others), and Health improvement (things that help my physical or mental health).
4. Decide times- Once I had the categories, I then needed to decide how much time was going to be taken for each category per day. To keep things easy for me, I tried to divide into increments of either 30 minutes or an hour at a time.
5. Schedule- Now that I had my activities, my categories, my times, and everything else, the next step was to schedule it for me in a time where I can work on it. For me, I want to do these things after work. The time period that I was working with was mainly 3-10pm. I wanted to give myself time to decompress, so the first thing was self-care. From there, it really depends on the day. But regardless of what the day has in store for me, I was able to create a schedule with each of those four categories in it. Each one looks different for the day it’s in, and that’s okay.
6. Work to implement your schedule- Either on my to-do list for the week or on my drive home from work, I’m working to do my best of planning and thinking about what I’m going to get done that day. By planning it out, I feel like there’s a better response on my end other than just hoping for the best. I can envision myself getting tasks done, completing the categories for the day, and making more of my week. It feels better than just going through the motions or staying on my phone all day.
7. Give yourself grace- I have wrenches thrown in my days all the time. And sometimes they’re good wrenches. Sometimes it’s that my partner and I are going out to do something. Sometimes self-care is a long nap. Sometimes I just don’t have it in me. Those are all okay. That’s why I made mine a general schedule as opposed to fully planning every detail out. If something doesn’t get done, it’s okay.
8. Use things you’re already doing- You don’t always have to try new things or activities. Cleaning the house gets lumped into others improvement, as does making dinner. I’m doing my best to celebrate the things I’m already doing to incorporate them into my routine.

I’m not perfect, and I definitely don’t have everything figured out (sometimes I don’t even think I have anything figured out). But I’m constantly learning, constantly working, and trying my best. That’s all I can ask for myself and for anyone else!