Everyone has habits they do, whether it’s daily, weekly or whenever you feel like it. Being the nerd I am, I like to track my habits (which is surprisingly usual for people with bullet journals – I decided to try one out this year), and see how doing or not doing a habit corelates to my mood and how I’m feeling.
This blog isn’t statistic heavy, in fact I actually really hate number so I’m going to try avoiding those digits completely. Instead, we’re going to take a writer’s stance towards this, and I’m going to give you a run down of the habits I have, and why I’ve decided to track them.
The habits I track daily include:
- Writing
- Blogging
- Reading
- Working
- Driving
- Coffee (lol)
- Yoga
- Plants
- Cooking
Some habits I find easier to keep up with, and others I struggle with, especially when I rely on social interaction to complete them. Some also require less effort or are a part of my morning and evening routines and so get completed as a part of those. But I can talk about my morning and evening routines in a different blog.
Let me explain why I track the habits I do.
Writing
As I’m sure all of you know by now, I would like writing to be a part of my life, and one day a part of my career. The reason I track how often I write, whether it be a blog (like this one, hi), a chapter of the book I’m currently working on, or whether it’s just an entry into my journal, is because I like to see the progress I am making when it comes to the quality of my writing, and how committed I am to working it into my every-day life. After all, the only way to get better at something you want to accomplish, is by working on it regularly.
I also like to track my writing to see if I hold off from doing it on days where I’m feeling down or upset, or on days when I’m really busy and have plans to meet C, or if I’m working on that day. This helps me ensure that I can try and prioritise my time correctly, and to help me find the perfect time to sit down and find a moment to write.
Lately, I definitely have been slacking when it comes to my writing, and that is mostly because I can’t find a great deal of inspiration to get on with my work. But I can only improve, right?
Blogging
My blogging is an important part of my writing at the moment, and when I do manage to write, edit and publish one, I like to track my progress. This helps me keep up to date with how well I’m doing and also helps me stay on top of when I ideally need to post a blog.
Tracking my blogging, also helps me keep an eye on statistics relating to a certain blog. This helps me tailor posts on social media to what’s going on with my blog, and also helps me just generally feel good about myself and how I’m progressing on Blogspot. (You’re helping me with this part, thank you!)
Reading
I know this doesn’t seem like a majorly important habit to track, however I do it in hopes that I will eventually manage to get out of my reading slump. I’m trying to read every evening (but, if you look at my tracker, you will notice I haven’t read even a sentence of my current read in over a week – I’m trying to get better).
Reading also plays a major role in inspiration for my books. While Pride and Prejudice (my current read) doesn’t really relate to Confined (the fifth book in my Dimensions series) as they are set in completely different eras, seeing how other authors structure their writing and build up their character profiles really helps me get a broader idea of how to improve my worldbuilding skills, and how to create deeper characters.
Working
This one is boring; I will say that from the start. Yes, I track how often I work at a local garden centre. This is because I’m proud that I managed to get a job and am glad that I’ve managed to keep my job. I like to see how many days I work, and it also helps me keep track of sick days, and when to fit in other important tasks around the days I’m working.
I also track my days at work to help me keep an eye on how temporary contacts are playing out, and how the days correlate to my permanent contracted hours. Tracking my days also allows me to compare my hours to my pay slip, to make sure I receive the correct wage, and have been paid for the correct hours.
Driving
As I’m currently taking driving lessons, I’ve decided to track them. Most of my lessons take place on a Wednesday (except not at the moment because of the lockdown in place), and it’s nice to be able to track them so that I can remember when my lesson is – Which I usually forget about (just ask C) – and so that I can predict how much I’m going to spend, roughly, a month on my driving lessons. This is important for me because I save a large amount of the money I make in a month, mostly because I will need to buy a decent car pretty soon, and also because I’m hoping to one day be able to move out of home – hopefully in the next couple years.
Along with my actual driving lessons, I also track how often I do my driving theory. This is mostly for motivation reasons. I’ve already studied half of the course, and I’m trying to work up the motivation to study the other half while I don’t have much to do at the moment. Being able to track my progress really helps me stay motivated because I can see how far I’ve come, and how quickly it took. I’m hoping that my brain will understand it didn’t actually take all that long to study the first half, and so maybe soon I’ll finally be able to nail the second half.
I track the Instagram photos I post throughout the month. I rely heavily on social media platforms to push my books to sell (My eBooks are back up and cheap as anything. The first one is even FREE! So, if you want to snatch a copy, you can follow this link here!) and to get readers onto my blog, I found that it was difficult for me to stay up to date with how often I was making a post and promoting myself on Instagram, so I’ve started tracking them.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Tracking your social media posts, isn’t that a bit… Extra? My only answer: try being someone who wants to work for themselves. I’ve been doing all of my writing and Instagram posts for two years now, so I thought it was time to track them. I know I’m young and have a long time to ahead (hopefully) to push my books – and I’m very lucky to be able to currently be financially dependent on my parents – However I would still like to be able to see how I’m able to grow before I move out.
I also track Instagram posts to see my audience statistics, and when the best moments to promote my books are. It’s crucial to my success. Maybe I should start tracking Facebook posts as well, and also videos I post on Tik Tok (because I’m down with the kids and have that now).
Coffee
This is a strange one, even I will admit that. I used to track this because it helps me keep track my periods (if this is too much info, my bad. But you are reading the blog of a nineteen-year-old woman, so it was bound to make an appearance somewhen. I mean I am a human with a functioning body after all). I heard that the caffeine in coffee makes cramps even worse than they already are – at least this is the case for me – and I’ve decided I’d prefer to get a headache because I haven’t had a coffee, than make my cramps any worse than they have to be.
My coffee drinking isn’t bad. I drink about one cup a day, in the morning after my yoga (however I will potentially have another cup at work if I’m feeling like I’m struggling with my energy). Drinking coffee is a part of my morning routine – as silly as it sounds. Tracking it is fun, I don’t know why. Keeping an eye on my period also isn’t a bad thing.
Yoga
Oh yes. Yes. I track my yoga. I’m going to be completely honest with you, I track it mostly because I’m proud of myself. Seeing how well I’m doing with my yoga helps me feel amazing and reassures me that I can do something to better myself.
However, I also track my yoga to keep on top of how my body is changing in terms of muscle mass (whooo!) and also how I feel in a day. If I don’t do my yoga, I will perhaps not have as good of a day, or won’t feel as confident in myself. This affects the quality of my writing and how productive I am. For example, on Sunday I did yoga for the first time on a Sunday in over a month. I thought giving myself a day off a week would allow my body to calm down and have a break. However, the pervious no yoga Sundays saw potato Emily. This is the Emily who just wants to be left alone – which is difficult when you have to share a house with six people (and you share a bedroom with two of those). This Emily also just wants to talk to C when he’s clearly busy doing something else. She’s also susceptible to unexplainable breakdowns and stress. I’m not a big fan of this Emily, as she makes me feel like shit. Therefore, as I felt pretty good on Sunday after my yoga, I think I might have to just stick with doing yoga every day of the week.
I love tracking my yoga to see how I can stay committed to something, and complete it every day for a month, especially if it helps me feel so much better mentally, and far more confident in myself and my physical appearance.
Plants
I have plants. I’m sure you all know this, I’ve mentioned it plenty of times (especially in my Nineteen-things-I’ve-learnt-Since-Turning-Nineteen blog – which I’m super proud of and you should check out if you haven’t already). Despite how hard I try, I am not a very good plant mum. I have already sadly killed four succulents – and I think the fifth death isn’t far away. I even accidentally really sadly killed Jeremy (which I feel awful about, sorry C).
My lovely plants used to live in the conservatory, where they were happy and thriving – except for two (one got mealy bugs and the other I accidentally overwatered). However, I now have five and not enough room in the conservatory when my parents also have plants out there as well.
As a result, they live in my shared bedroom. They are not as happy up there. I think it’s because the upstairs of my house is haunted. I’m pretty sure something not great happened in my parent’s room somewhen in the past because I get the worst feeling ever just from looking at their door. I always feel paranoid when I go anywhere near it, especially at night. Therefore, I am convinced that whatever it is that’s haunting the upstairs of our house is killing my plants (this may or may not be because I don’t want to own up to the fact I’m a terrible plant mum).
But, if someone else can explain to me why my plants hate my room, go ahead. I would love to know.
I suppose I should tell you why I track them though (I got distracted, my bad). I track how often I water and feed my plants. This helps me make sure that I don’t overwater them and that they are happier than they would be if I gave them too much water.
What I don’t do, is track the plants I’ve asked C to very kindly keep at his house for me. (I secretly think he likes them – especially my Chinese evergreen which is beautiful). They sit on his windowsill and he must have the perfect room because they are alive and happy and thriving. He waters them for me (because he’s absolutely amazing) and looks after them. He’s a great plant dad, but that’s hardly surprising when he has so many animals that rely on him (which I wrote a blog on, you can find it here!).
I love my plants, so I track when I water them to keep on top of how often I can care for them without hurting them.
Cooking
If you follow me on Instagram, you will know that I keep all of you updated with how often I cook for my family (and I also cook for C too, which isn’t happening at the moment because I can’t see him). I post my cooking adventures on my Insta stories –which are also saved in my highlights if you want to take a peep – where everyone can watch me humiliate myself.
The reason I track how often I cook is because I genuinely love doing it. Cooking makes me feel really calm, and also really proud because I can provide for myself. (I get happy because I know I won’t have to live off of microwave meals for the rest of my life!). There’s nothing quite like cooking from scratch, and I like tracking how often I can do it to help me keep track of my progress, and how I’m able to make increasingly more difficult meals.
I actually managed to make Samosas the other week, and they were amazing. Who would have thought I could cook something that complex? It took me over three hours but it made me feel so proud and awesome afterwards.
I’m also experimenting with making my own recipes which I’m trying to convince my parents to let me try out. They’ve both said yes, but I haven’t been allocated a day yet to try it out which is mildly frustrating. I’m very excited to give it a go.
Ta-da! Now you all know why I track the ten habits I do throughout the month. I really like how this blog turned out! I’ve been writing some great blogs recently and it’s making me feel great. Thank you for taking the time to read them, you’re awesome. If you would like, you could share this blog with your friends, if you think they would like it. It would mean a lot to me! I will see you all when I post my next blog.
Wait! Wait! Yes, hello you amazing human. Before you go, you could follow this link to check out my eBooks on Amazon. The first one is FREE! You’ve got nothing to lose? Please? You could even download them if you want. There is only three; they’re super cheap, and are a good fantasy read! Check out the reviews if you don’t believe me. What have you got to lose other than a few pennies? Your support would mean the world!
You can also check out my last blog if you want: Things to do while social distancing.
And if you’re missing me already, you can keep up with my life on my social media until my next blog. I have:
Instagram – @emilybrownauthor
Facebook – @emilybrownauthor
And I also have Tik Tok (because why not!) – @emilybrownauthor