Money Saving Mom®

Tonight we close out the 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life series. It’s been an eventful experience, to say the least. I knew I need to intentionally focus on developing discipline in my own life, but I had no idea how eye-opening and convicting it was going to be for me to spend three weeks blogging about it.

We Always Find Time for What is Important to Us

You see, for years, I’ve come up with excuses for so many deep-rooted bad habits in life. I’ve excused almost always being late and behind as the result of being busy and having so much on my plate. In reality, while I do have a lot on my plate, my lack of being on time and getting things done early is because I habitually procrastinate and don’t prioritize things well.

I don’t plan ahead like I should. I wait until the last minute. I do things that don’t really matter to avoid doing what is most important.

You would think I would know better, since I’m a huge advocate of goal-setting and budgeting when it comes to finances. But after I posted about doing the hardest things first, I realized that this was my main problem. I’m constantly avoiding what I really should do in favor of other “busy” work.

For example, it only takes me 15 minutes per day to keep up with the laundry and yet I’m always behind on it. However, I seem to find time for reading or blogging and eating. And if I looked back on each day, I can guarantee you that there was at least one (or five!) pockets of 15-minutes that I frittered away on something that really didn’t matter. So, in reality, it’s not that I don’t have time to do the laundry, it’s that I’m not making it the priority it should be.

Here are three things that have been tremendously helpful as I’ve been seeking to break my habit of procrastination and have better priorities in my day-to-day life:

1. Do It Now

Instead of spending all day feeling discouraged that I’ve not gotten to the laundry yet, I’ve been trying to just set the timer and get it done now. The same goes for so many other things. Rather than thinking: “I should call so-and-so” or “I need to order such-and-such”, just do it then. Most of the time, it only takes a few minutes (or less!) and then the task is no longer nagging you, taking brain space and energy. Best of all, it’s done!

2. Prioritize My To-Do List

I’m a huge list-maker, but I’ve been prioritizing each item on my to-do list in the last week. And then I’ve been doing my best to strictly adhere to it. I’ve noticed that not only am I getting a lot more done, but I’m getting the most important stuff done first. This means, that if I don’t get to everything on my list (and I pretty much never do in any given day!), I’ve at least tackled the most pressing stuff from the get-go.

3. Plan to Arrive Early

Instead of waiting until the very last possible minute, I’ve been trying to start getting ready to go at least 1.5 hours to 2 hours in advance. I’ll go ahead and get the necessary items laid out by the door, make sure I have everything I need in my purse, and get myself and the children ready early. I’ve yet to arrive any place more than a minute or two early, but we’ve not been more than a few minutes late to any event in the last week, so we are definitely making some headway! (Hmm, maybe I need to start planning to leave 3 hours in advance?!)

Where Do We Go From Here?

Our 21-Day series is over, but hopefully your journey towards more self-discipline is just beginning. I encourage you to go back and re-read through the posts, tackle any of the projects you didn’t get to, and keep challenging yourself to slowly develop habits.

I’ll be writing more on habits in 2012 as I’m planning to choose 12 habits I want to develop, one per month, and blog about my progress each month. In the mean time, I’m planning to finish Getting Things Done and also read The Now Habit in December.

Thanks, again, for joining me in this! Your accountability and cheerleading made such a huge difference for me!

What have you learned from this series? How has it made a difference in your life? I’d love to hear!

photo credit

Some of you may be feeling overwhelmed as we’re nearing the end of this 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life Challenge. It might seem disheartening that we’ve spent three weeks on one habit and you still have a mile long list of dozens upon dozens of other habits you want to incorporate, too.

Don’t lose heart! Just because you feel so far behind or so far from where you want to be, look at how far you’ve come.

As you know the habit I’ve been working on for this 21-Day Challenge was getting up earlier every day. I’ve not had a perfect track record and there were one or two days I did sleep in a little past my goal waking up time. But I’m so happy to be nearing the end of the challenge and feeling like this waking up early thing is becoming a true habit, not just a good idea or something I did for a few days in a row and then fell off the bandwagon again.

It’s not been easy. There have been days when I really, really, really wanted to go back to sleep. But I made myself get up. There have been many times when I came up with a long list of excuses why it was okay for me to sleep in. But I made myself get up. Knowing that you all were with me in this challenge served as an enormous motivation to not slack off when I really wanted to.

And you know what’s been a bonus? Committing to get up early every morning has set so many other good habits in motion:

::Because I’m getting up earlier, I’m having more lengthy and meaningful time reading God’s Word every morning.

::Because I’m getting up earlier, I’m finding time to exercise almost every single day.

::Because I’m getting up earlier, I’m getting a jumpstart on my day and this has enabled me to get a lot more done and be more efficient.

::Because I’m getting up earlier, I’m getting a lot of stuff done before the children wake up. So by the time they wake up, I can give them my undivided attention and focused.

::Because I’m getting up earlier, I’m going to bed earlier and this has allowed me to be get more consistent and restful sleep at night.

That’s the beauty of intentionally working on developing discipline: Discipline begets discipline. When I am disciplined in one area, that resolve spills over into other areas. As I’ve experienced in getting up earlier, intentionally making one consistent habit change can slowly lead to amazing transformation in many areas of your life.

So stick with developing your one habit, don’t give up, and keep with it even when you don’t feel like it. One day soon, you may wake up and realize you’ve changed your whole life… just by beginning with one simple habit!

What about you? How has focusing on making one habit a priority spilled over into other areas of your life? I’d love to hear!