I thought, two books a month, no problem. But at the end of January, I was already behind, with only one book completed. I only count the book if I finish. So I buckled down and decided to become more serious. Not just reading when the whim hit. I thought I could read each evening before bed, but for me I found that tricky since I go to bed early these days. I'd be working on stuff and then feel tired and crawl into bed and fall asleep right away. No urge to read whatso ever. I might try working on this nighttime routine.
On the flip side I've gotten into the habit of reading each morning in bed when I wake up. It was good, but I do have a shift in my time and wonder where the time has gone by by the time lunch hits. It eats up alot more time than I intend. Still, I caught up. I just finished the third book yesterday morning so am back on track. I should fess up that one of the books was a quick mystery, Agatha Christie, that I stayed up late reading one night and finished the next morning.
As I pick my next book to tackle, I've noticed a few things. I have different books I read at different times. At night, I can't read any book that makes me think and gets my creative juices going about what I want to do. I've been reading a bunch about business and behavioral science and self-help. All these get me thinking about my own stuff and does not quiet the mind before bed. Fiction is best before bed. I tried history, but if it's too dry, I'm too tired, to focus on the subject.
In the morning, I've been reading the business, etc books. Things that get my brain moving and my creative juices going. And same thing, at the gym, I have one book that I've been plugging away at since last summer. I'm almost done with that one, but it has taken awhile since I can only read while on one of the many machines. I got thinking if I should take stock of what subjects I've read by the end of the year. And try to read something from every category. But then I figured I should do the opposite. Read what I want to and at the end of the year look at the size of books I've read in each category and the size of books I have in each category. Like, I have a lot of history books because I read them on my commute, but if at the end of the year, I only read one history book, I really need to cut back on buying any more, for the time being.
So far, there was one good book, and the other two were duds, middle of the road. I'm making a pile of finished books for this year a and maybe I'll do an end of the year review.
Cookbooks:
So far, I've tried a recipe or two. I think I'm on track since I don't have more than a dozen cookbooks. Ok, I haven't been focusing on this resolution that much. I need to go back and take a look at where I really am and report back.
Financials:
This one I have been on point with. I've found it a little harder than I thought it would be. Using just cash seemed simple. But I wasn't planning right at first. Now, I think I've got it down. I figured out how much I need each month normally. Take out half on the first of the month and then the other half at mid-point. On a side note, I was running by the bank yesterday and thought, I'll get my second withdrawal for the month. But I didn't. I decided to use the money withdrawal to keep me going to the gym. So this morning, I don't really want to go to the gym, but I have to get cash, so it's motivating me to follow through with the plan. Plus I like the idea of cash withdrawals showing up on my bank statement on monkey the 1st and 15th of every month. Like it's an automatic withdrawal.
Also, I found a work around with the online purchases. I might have to modify the rules. Does it count if you get someone else to buy you something online? For my birthday, I asked for a large and heavy cat scratcher. Mom ordered it online (I gave her an Amazon link to show her exactly what I was after). Otherwise, I'm at zero for online purchases and only one for big box stores. I had to do a quick run to whole foods for eggs.
So, so far, so good. But I do need to plan a bit better and reporting my progress actually helps me stay focused on my resolutions.
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