Making Good Habits

I don’t know about you, but when I think of a habit, I tend to think of bad things. If you Google “habits” you’re likely to find lots of blog posts and articles about how to break your bad habits, or examples of bad habits people have in relation to certain things. But there are also some good habits, things we do that improve our lives in some way. Here are some of my “good” habits that I’m glad to have:

• Tooth Brushing – I’ve written about the idea of tooth brushing before in relation to myself. The idea is that each evening as you brush your teeth, you think of three positive things about your day. I also do this with S in the evenings; as we get ready for bed we talk about the things we did today. It’s interesting to see which things stick out for her; they’re often not the “big” things that would stick out for me. It’s a nice thing for us to share together, and keeps us both thinking positively.

• Curating – When I wake up early in the mornings, I’m very conscious of the fact that if I move, I risk waking S. I often end up just mucking about on my mobile or tablet until it’s time to get up. I’ve developed a habit of going to my various news apps and reading today’s stories and articles. I share the one I find interesting to my Facebook page, scheduling them to post throughout the day. This populates my page with lots of (hopefully) interesting content through the day and improves my page reach.

• Taking Hundreds of Photos – I’ve always taken lots of photos; that’s only increased since I was given a “proper” camera by a friend a little while ago. I take hundreds of photos every day, and I have only recently started deleting the ones that are a bit blurry or where I missed the shot. My Google Drive is filled to bursting with photos, and I love it. I post lots of those photos, either on the blog or on social media and I love when the Timehop app shows me the photos I posted last year or the year before. I really believe you can never have too many photos!

• Scheduling Posts on Facebook – I absolutely love scheduling posts on Facebook! At any given point, I aim to have at least ten posts scheduled. I schedule links to old posts, links to interesting news stories, random updates, notes about national days, anything I think of that might be relevant. It means I can spend less actual time on Facebook, because I can do all my posting in bulk and then just check in a couple of times a day. My aim is to get down to one hour per day on all social media, so this helps.
• Reading Blogging and Business Books While S is in the Shower – As I’m sure you can imagine, I don’t have a huge amount of spare time – but I believe if you don’t continue to learn about what you’re doing, you’ll never grow and develop. I download blogging and business books onto my Kindle and tablet, and read them while S is in the shower. She’ll happily stay in the shower playing and singing until the water runs dry, and I can sit on the landing reading and making notes.

• Clicking Random Links – I don’t mean that sort of link! I wrote before about Thomas Power and types of online persona; one piece of advice he gave was that we shouldn’t try to filter what we take in. You never know when you might come across something useful or interesting. So every now and then, I click a link on Twitter or Facebook that I wouldn’t normally have clicked. I learn something new, or am otherwise enlightened. It’s fun and informative. Broadening my horizons.

• Setting Goals – I started off joining in with a linky on the Nectar Collective, but when that stopped I decided to set up a goal setting linky of my own so that I could continue setting weekly goals. It keeps me focused on what I want to achieve.

What are your good habits? Are there things you do on a regular basis to further your blog or your business?