It takes about three weeks to form a new habit. Most New Year's Resolutions die before they reach two weeks in length, therefore the best way to ensure success in the New Year is to make small adjustments before the beginning of Resolution Season. Start going to the gym three weeks ahead of time. Start going to bed earlier three weeks ahead of time. Start doing anything you want to stick three weeks ahead of time so that there is the slightest chance of it sticking.
I decided to start my "New Year's Resolution" to go to bed at a regular time three weeks ahead of the New Year. I started so early because I wanted to have a greater chance of having my new habit stick. The next step in creating better habits for the new year is creating a regular time to wake up. Due to the fact that most jobs I have been applying to start their days at 8:00 a.m. at the latest, here lies my problem.
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My current bedtime of 11:00 p.m. certainly won't do for that much longer. Seeing as the ultimate amount of time I want to sleep is around eight to nine hours as recommended by most medical professionals I will need to start moving my bedtime up by an hour or two, which results in the necessity of better time management to be able to complete all of my work. Besides better time management I also have to have the willpower not to sleep in or to nap for too long.
I am not a morning person whatsoever, the urge to sleep in, especially knowing that my earliest class this semester is at 9:00 a.m. is so tempting; here lies the necessity for retraining myself to wake up earlier through building up better habits. Hopefully, by creating a brand new routine and sticking with it I can train myself to be much more productive in the long run.
The steps to retraining myself to sleep better and longer rely on my ability to create better habits and routines for myself. I know that once keep up with a change for at least three weeks then I know it is likely to stick with me. My first step was going to bed earlier, My second step is to wake up earlier. From there I will move on to going to the gym early in the morning. Let's hope that these new habits for the new year take hold so I can keep building up to what seems like larger and larger changes.
