A list of my 20 bad habits and an update.

Do you have any bad habits? If so, what are they and how are you trying to breaking that habit?

Several months ago I made the list below, posted it on Facebook and then saved it for my records. In some ways, I was doing it out of humor (you’ll see why) but on the other hand… I wanted to hold myself accountable and see where my issues lie, so that I can become better and break said habits.

I’m just going to bold each bad habit, and write where I am with each one underneath.

1. Taking photos but never posting them, so instead I hoard them.
Oh, I still hoard, but I also don’t really take pictures anymore unless my future wifey asks me to, then she’ll have to remind me to post them.  

2. Screen capture, save or favorite things to do later or look at…and never do…until months later. 
I am honestly so far behind on things again. When 2020 hit and everything closed down, I found one of my 2015 to-do lists that I still had yet to do and was catching up on that plus the 2018/2019 list!… however, I’m finally getting around to deleting things on my phone - going thru passwords, favorites, pictures, whatever to make it cleaner…. and it doesn’t take me years to finish a to-do list anymore.

3. Ignoring notifications even though the alerts bug me. 
Half the notifications are turned off and half aren’t. The important ones I now keep on and view them asap.

4. Reading but never replying to messages until waaaay late (and I’m so sorry I do this).
I’m trying my best to reply right away. I still look at the message then step away for a while and I do sometimes forget. I’ll get back to it eventually.

5. Buying books or wanting more books even when I haven’t read the other 5,000 I do have. 
I haven’t bought any new books (I’m banned from doing so, lol, just kidding) but I also haven’t read any since I went through my phase of reading like 10 books right after one another a few months back.

6. Allowing my email inbox to reach 5,000 before attempting to clean it out or never mind taking the time to read or delete on the daily.
I got my email down to 30-50 unread and it’s been that way for a week. I keep at it - reading and deleting, or deleting if I don’t care at the moment or whatnot. I hope I never let my inbox grow that big again. I also unsubscribe from things I don’t want to get anymore.

7. Ever heard of “out of sight, out of mind”?
Not even sure what that’s referring to here…. but I try my best to clean up my messes now. It’s getting much better. I don’t put things away in boxes or cover them up so much to make the mess disappear faster.

8. Collecting coupons and letting them expire.
What coupons now?

9. Grocerying on a whim (you can’t do that these days, gotta get those deals!)
We still do this, ugh, but we have mostly been ordering thru an app so we can see the deals right away and coupon savings.  

10. Not deleting trash photos or duplicates of the same photo ten times over. 
Getting better I think.

11. Downloading things on my phone and never organizing it. 
It’s in the process of being organized right now. I dumped everything into folders and going thru each by each. I tackled the passwords the other day, emails.

12. Never updating anything - computer, phone, updates about my life. 
I’m getting better at this, definitely. I think having a lack of a Mac really put a damper on me doing postings and such because it’s too much to type out on my phone or wait for my slowpoke pc to move about. I used to be a social media queen but I took a long break and it’s harder than heck to get back into the swing of always being on.

13. Starting projects and never finish— 
As you see I “started” this list and never finished… but that’s what happens to a lot of my projects and I am trying my best to become better at it.

Overall, cleaning and organization was a big bad habit to tackle. My journey the last couple of years has really helped me become better at all of this. I used to live out of boxes and suitcases. It was my thing. I was slightly gypsy too. Every place where I was living, I still didn’t have space for a lot.

Towards the end of that era, I started getting rid of things by selling them online or yardsales. I enjoyed the extra money (who wouldn’t) but also seeing things go bye-bye.

I used the coined phrase by Marie Kondo “does it spark joy?” in a roudabout way. A few years ago, it was: have I used/worn it, do I need it, can I live without it, etc and I placed it in categories between keep and sell. That started me on the path of cleaning up my area and lessening myself of things.

When I became a housekeeper (and actually stayed on the property) that brought my mind up to speed on how in the world did I live like I did in so much clutter. Our house is hardly a mess and when it is beginning to suffocate me, I clean. I physically/mentally can’t do clutter or messes anymore. It’s satisfying cleaning up and seeing space or the dirt in the vacuum or whatnot.

So, through the last couple of years, I have definitely become more organized and I don’t like clutter. I also have this rule of if I buy something I already have a lot of, I need to sell one or two of those things. If it’s been in a box for so long, that means I don’t need it. (There are some exceptions.) There are things I’ve outgrown, my taste has changed or I’ve just simply gotten better at living.

Are there any habits you’re working on trying to tackle or just become better at?