4 Simple Habits

In the month of Dec 2020, I decided to start running (again) daily. Back then I weighed around 95 Kg and I was determined to get back in shape and start feeling leaner and more active. Fast forward to today, daily running coupled with a intermittent fasting diet help me shed around 7 Kg (and counting). The decision to stick to these two habits consistently has helped me reap many benefits starting from feeling better to higher stamina throughout the day.

As I look forward towards the next couple of months, here are 4 habits I’m currently working on to shape the various aspects of my life:

1. Stretching and free-hand exercises: Owing to some personal circumstances, I had to confine myself within my home’s boundaries for a few days. Since I have been in the habit of running in the morning for the last 5 months, spending a day without running makes me feel sluggish. One another aspect was my intention to work on my upper core muscles to complement the leg exercise I got through running. As such, I decided to start my morning with a full-body stretch followed by some free-hand exercises. And the results so far has been quite effective — my core muscles feel tighter and stronger and the planks and push-ups really help in driving away my back muscle pain and helps me with my back posture. One other advantage I’ve discovered through this habit — how to slow time? Yup, really — just go into a plank position — 1 minute seems like 15 mins :-)

2. Wim-Hof Breathing: While initially I tried meditating, I’ve recently started trying the Wim Hof method of breathing. It has only been 3 days since I started the practice. As such, looking forward to the changes it may bring about.

3. Writing: Writing has always been one of my passion. I’ve always wanted to write stories and create worlds and characters people can get lost into. Now I’ve decided to go all-in to honing my craft and improving my writing and start creating stories as I’ve always wanted. As a part of this practice, I’ve started:

• Drafting outlines for a series of stories for the world to read

• Starting blogging here on various topics of interest

4. Planning the day ahead: Owing to recent mismanagement of time and planning, I was starting to allocate more hours than necessary into my work timings at the cost of my personal development. As such, recently I’ve started two things — confining my work activities within 8 hours and planning ahead. Right before closing my work laptop, I run through the next day’s calendar and:

• Note down the meetings scheduled and the time remaining excluding these meets within a timeframe of 8 hours

• Refer my To-Do list for the next day, allot specific time for each activity and slot them within the remaining time frame

• Note down the remaining time for the day where I can engage in personal activities

• Take my personal To-Do list and allot the time into these slots

One aspect related to planning progressively that I need to work upon is adding free buffer time for both work and personal stuff to accommodate impromptu meets and life.

Some benefits of this habit of planning ahead that I’ve realized is:

• It helps in more focused engagements considering the fact I’m working on a fixed time slot

• Improves productivity and helps in prioritizing activities and engagements

• Ensures I do not miss out on important activities

As I continue working on these habits, I’ll focus more on consistency and deliberate practice.

See you tomorrow !!!

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