Habits, atomic and otherwise
Mar. 7th, 2026 09:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dianec42After seeing numerous recommendations, I finally got the book Atomic Habits from the library. As is my way, I have made extensive notes and am trying to apply it to everything in sight.
I have also been giving some thought to changing habits in retirement. Some existing habits bear revisiting: for example, did you know, Mr Diane & I have been getting up at staggered times... which is a remnant of when we only had 1 bathroom, over 20 years ago. Some new habits are also available now, such as doing grocery shopping on a weekday or ACTUALLY WORKING ON THAT DAMN QUILT.
One habit I've successfully tweaked: I had been lifting weights twice a week (doing basically the same 2 at-home routines I came up with during lockdown) but recently started struggling to get it done. I decided to simplify and make it totally boring/mindless: I stole a short list of exercises from an NPR article in January, took out a couple that I hate, added in some more upper body and should PT exercises, and have been successfully doing this routine THREE times a week since the beginning of February.
It'll be interesting to see what else I come up with. March is utter chaos, so I'm keeping my expectations low. Maybe the chaos will shake some things loose in my brain and open up new possibilities.
Needless to say this is the year I officiallygave up on took a break from bullet journaling, and now I actually understand how habit tracking is SUPPOSED to work so I may need to start again.
I have also been giving some thought to changing habits in retirement. Some existing habits bear revisiting: for example, did you know, Mr Diane & I have been getting up at staggered times... which is a remnant of when we only had 1 bathroom, over 20 years ago. Some new habits are also available now, such as doing grocery shopping on a weekday or ACTUALLY WORKING ON THAT DAMN QUILT.
One habit I've successfully tweaked: I had been lifting weights twice a week (doing basically the same 2 at-home routines I came up with during lockdown) but recently started struggling to get it done. I decided to simplify and make it totally boring/mindless: I stole a short list of exercises from an NPR article in January, took out a couple that I hate, added in some more upper body and should PT exercises, and have been successfully doing this routine THREE times a week since the beginning of February.
It'll be interesting to see what else I come up with. March is utter chaos, so I'm keeping my expectations low. Maybe the chaos will shake some things loose in my brain and open up new possibilities.
Needless to say this is the year I officially
