My Happiness Project - January - Boost Energy - COMPLETE!!!

As I posted at the beginning of the month (here) I am doing The Happiness Project, inspired by Gretchen Rubin's book.  Each month I'll read a chapter and work on that goal.  At the end of each month, I'll write about how it went.

For January, the goal was to Boost Energy.  Below are the steps I planned to take to reach this goal and how I did each one. 

1. Get at least 7 hours of sleep a night
I made sure that each night I was in bed by 10:30 ready to fall asleep.  Even if it took some extra time, I was atleast in bed.  I stopped texting by 10, told my friends goodnight, and signed offline.  Often, just laying in bed and playing around with my dogs helped me doze off.  Unfortunately I had 2 terrible colds during January so my sleep schedule was all messed up, but I would say I still accomplished my goal.


2. Exercise 5 - 6 days of each week
This has been very realistic for me even though I thought it might be difficult.  Being single gives me more time to work out and having an accountability partner (Hi Kate!) who checks in with me daily to see if I plan to work out and then again to see if I actually did work out, really pushes me to follow through each day.  Plus, I find that I'm not as sore now because my body is getting more used to exercising.

3. Keep a clean, organized, and un cluttered home
This is by far a great thing that I think everyone should do! There are several ways that I decluttered my home (and life)

• I gifted extra blog freebies that I didn't need or use.
• I sold higher end items like purses, shoes, electronics that I don't use often on ebay.
• I donated clothing to Goodwill.
• I eliminated two whole storage boxes in the basement simply by combining the contents and cleaning out the stuff I really didn't need to save anymore.
• Rather than buying CD's, I download MP3's and rather than buying books I may not read again, I buy them on a Kindle.
• I went through my medicine cabinet and really thinned it out.
• I cleaned out my pantry and it now makes grocery shopping and making a list much easier.
• All closets and drawers have been cleaned and organized
• I got rid of extra wire hangers. I don't use them and they are annoying.
• I pitched all my old icky ratty shoes, all except 2 pairs.
• I always ask myself the question "If I was moving right now would I pack this or pitch it?"
• I unsubscribed to junk mail!

4. Simplify my To Do Lists
I used to have a list for everything - work, home, songs to download, things to buy, goals to achieve, etc.  It actually added stress to my life rather than making me happier.  So, I combined my lists so that I only have 1 work To Do list which stays at work on my desk, 1 blog to do list which is an organized planner book, 3. One personal /home/life to do list which is in my planner book.  That's it!  If I want to buy a book or remember to buy it, I add it to my wishlist on amazon, RIGHT AWAY, that way I don't have to hang on to the list.  If there's a song I want to download, I do it RIGHT AWAY!!

I'm very proud of myself and I do have much more energy and more free time.  I am not stressing as much and I don't feel overwhelmed at all.  In fact, not once this month was there a time that I said "I'm overwhelmed!" 

Check back tomorrow when I introduce my February Happiness Project Goal!!