What I wished #

Today marks 31 days since the beginning of the year. My only resolution for this year was that I kept consistent at whatever goal(s) I wished to complete. I had a list of things that I wanted to do, but to not fall into beginning of the year’s trap, I chose two to start: reading and organization.

Reading #

My biggest challenge in reading has always been finding books that I enjoy reading and don’t get bored after a day or so. Last year I tried reading a lot of non-fiction and would often find giving up on the book after a few days. The books would stare at me from the shelf and I would feel guilty for not finishing them, oops.

This year, I decided to give fiction a try. I think I watched a youtube video or something that tried to argue how non-fiction could change your life. Instead of going to the book store (which I do enjoy by the way), I searched for a free app that I could try out, which would save me money and time. I don’t own a Kindle or any table style reader, and I don’t see the point of keeping a physical book after I’ve finished it.

One day, while scrolling through my custom feeeed, I came across a post that mentioned how this person had stuck with their reading goals and slowly increased the number of books they read. They used the Apple Books app + the reading time widget to track their reading time. That was it! I had found my solution.

I downloaded the app and started reading The Midnight Sea. To be fair the cover and the short summary interested me, which is why I picked that one. Oh, the book was free as well. I was hooked from the first chapter. I started with a tiny goal of 5 minutes a day. By the second week, I bumped it to 10 minutes. I am currently at 15 minutes a day and I am loving it.

The app comes with a widget that displays how much time you have left in your daily goal as well as your daily streak, which has helped me tremendously in remembering to read! I do use my phone a lot and seeing the widget on my home screen reminds me to read.

The beauty of reading a book you enjoy is that I don’t feel obligated to read it and time goes by pretty fast :)

Keeping up with tasks #

I have always been a fan of organization and would say I’m a pretty organized person myself. I’ve never really was one to make to-do lists or any other fancy tools. I often knew what had to be accomplished and would find time throughout the day to do it.

The problem is there are always things that would come to mind but I would forget to write them down or simply forgot about it. These were usually small things that could wait. Although, as the week went by, more and more of these little things would pile up and I would forget about them.

My solution was simple and it involves another widget. Well, I use my phone a lot and imagine others do as well. I chose to use the Google Tasks app to keep track of anything that would come to mind that needed to be done. It’s simple - I tap the widget, add a task and forget about it. Next time I pick up my phone, I swipe left and see the tasks that need to be done. This has helped me a lot and I feel way more organized. It’s synced with my Google account so I can access it from any device, which is a plus but I haven’t found myself needing to do that yet.

Continuing the journey #

The biggest takeaway I got from this is that: physically seeing reminders/tasks/notes has helped me not forget them about them. I have also started to incorporate that into the layout of my house. For example, I take vitamins every morning. When they were in the cabinet I would often forget to take them. I moved them to the counter and now I see them every morning and take them. Sometimes the little do make the biggest difference.