Good things I did for myself today

I'm working on starting new habits and breaking old ones that impede my ability to be who I want to be and do what I want to do. This is what I did so far today that was good:

1. I went to bed at a relatively decent hour (12:15). Not as early as I would like, but an improvement. This will help me be better-rested and accomplish more today.
2. Before going to bed, I read a book rather than surfing the internet. Not for as long as I would like (only about 10 minutes, with net surfing until then), but again, a good start. I believe this will help me fall asleep earlier and bring the pleasure of reading back into my life.
3. When I went to sleep, I shut off my computer and did not leave a movie playing, as has been my habit. I believe the silence will give me more restful sleep.
4. When my alarm went off this morning, I hit snooze only twice and then got up to take the dogs out without logging onto the internet. I lose a lot of time in the morning to getting sucked into checking email, looking at the news, etc., without ever leaving my bed, and I want to get an earlier start.
5. After letting the dogs outside, I began drinking a glass of ice water. The early hydration is supposed to be good for the metabolism; it also helps me wake up and avoid the temptation of returning to bed.
6. While I was writing this post, my iPhone vibrated a number of times, signaling the arrival of new emails. The last few times it did so, I kept writing and didn't stop to check emails. I am concerned that I am being multi-tasked to death, in areas where nothing bad will happen if I attend to the second (or third, fourth and fifth) task later. I am concerned that this over-multitasking leaves me unfocused, unproductive and overwhelmed. So this was a tiny first step toward "one thing at a time."

Not a bad start for the Midnight to 8 am time block! Let us see how the rest of the day plays out.

Turning over a new leaf . . .

I have been in a funk lately, and have been wracking my brain for ways to break through it. Tonight, what seems like a fairly simple concept came to me: during each minute of each day, I will ask myself if I am somehow making my life better with what I am doing. That may take the form of exercising or eating healthfully, or doing work that needs to be done, or reading an engrossing book, creating my own art or taking in a movie that will inspire, charm or cheer me, or simply going to bed at a reasonable hour so as not to feel exhausted the next day. I feel excited about this plan and interested to see how it will work out.