My word for 2020 is habits, so each month I select one habit that I want to stop and one I want to start.
So far in 2020 I’ve given up:
January – Watching shows for entertainment
February – Soda
March – Chocolate
April – Chocolate
May – No hitting the snooze
June – No hitting the snooze
July – Avoiding the national news
August – Avoiding the national news
September – Soda
October – Watching the Chiefs football games
November – No hitting the snooze
In November I quit hitting the snooze. This is something I probably need to do every once in a while as it’s so easy for me to fall back into the habit. Although, honestly, my normal this year is only hitting the snooze once. I used to use it multiple times in the morning but I seem to have at least broken that habit.
I am going to give up Amazon Prime in December. Well, once I cancel, the effects of giving it up will last longer than one month, but it’s something I need to do. The biggest reason to give it up is that I don’t get my money’s worth from paying for the service. I don’t order much from Amazon and it would be cheaper to pay the postage. I have a few more episodes of the television show Monk to watch and then I’ll be finished with the series. That’s when I will cancel the automatic monthly payments.
My starting habits for 2020 include:
January – A daily devotion using the YouVersion Bible app and a ten-minute writing timer (TMT)
February – Read a list of truth declarations (Plus daily devotions and TMT writing)
March – Twelve minutes in prayer (Plus daily devotions and TMT writing)
April – Twelve minutes in prayer (Plus daily devotions and TMT writing)
May – Two minutes of prayer after devotions (Plus daily devotions and TMT writing)
June – Two minutes of prayer after devotions; Two minutes of core after running; (Plus daily devotions and TMT writing)
July – Three minutes of prayer after devotions; Two minutes of core after running; (Plus daily devotions and TMT writing)
August – Four minutes of prayer after devotions; Two minutes of core after running; (Plus daily devotions and TMT writing)
September – Five minutes of prayer after devotions; Two minutes of core after running; (Plus daily devotions and TMT writing); read truth declarations every day
October – Five minutes of prayer after devotions; Two minutes of core after running and one ten-minute workout a week; (Plus daily devotions and TMT writing); read truth declarations every day
November – Five minutes of prayer after devotions; Two minutes of core after running and one ten-minute workout a week; (Plus daily devotions and TMT writing); read truth declarations every day
My big challenge in November was to participate in National Novel Writing Month and make significant progress on two novels. If you have followed my habits in 2020 you know that I have completed at least one ten minute timer (TMT), which is writing for ten straight minutes without interruption, every day of the year. November 30 marked 335 straight days without a miss.
During the first ten months of the year, May was the month I completed the most TMTs with 167. I shattered that in November with 277 TMTs. That brings my yearly total to 1,378
One of the reason I had such great success in November is because I focused almost exclusively on writing new words. Many of the other months I focused on revision and not new writing, so I expected my TMTs to be lower during those months. My original goal for November was to write 60,000 new words. I completed 70,099.
I plan to keep the streak alive through the end of the year. I haven’t considered yet what I will do next year. In general, using a timer has helped me be productive and focus on writing new words throughout the year. I’m sure I will continue to use them going into next year, but will decide and share in my next Habits blog.
I haven’t increased my prayer time in several months, so for December I will change my morning prayer time from five to six minutes.
