I’ve wanted to write this post for a while because I’m always asked about my habits, routines, and rhythms. I promise I’m not overly obsessed with them, but I do take them seriously—especially from a mental health perspective. Over the years, I’ve learned how crucial they are in helping me stay healthy and thrive, especially in managing depression and anxiety.

People might be surprised to know I’m not naturally disciplined. I have to work really hard to build self-discipline. I was joking with a friend recently that I’m definitely an ‘all or nothing’ person—especially as a creative. If I don’t track something—like my steps or how much water I drink—then I literally won’t do it at all. I can swing from a gallon a day to being my most dehydrated self in one day. But what’s helped me in this area is focusing on small, consistent actions I can repeat and track over time.

I’m growing every day, but I’m also working hard to shift away from the ‘all or nothing’ mindset that has driven me for so long.

And now, without further ado, here’s the breakdown of my habits for January 2025 with some habit formation notes sprinkled in:

The Habits

• Prayer Journal- 93.5% (NEW HABIT)
• Dry January- 100% (NEW HABIT)
• Daily Step Goal- 87.1%

​​This one was pretty easy to maintain since I’ve developed the habit over the past two years of taking frequent breaks from work to walk around the block. It only got tricky on the really cold, snowy days in January, but I felt so empowered putting on my weighted vest and braving the cold to show up for myself.

• Morning Meeting- 93.5%

You can learn more about my morning meetings here.

• 80 oz H2O- 87.1%
• Turndown Service- 80.6% (days I missed were typically weekends!)

I’m planning to write a larger blog post about our turndown service, but basically, it’s a nightly routine where we flip the house into ‘evening mode.’ It’s a time to clear clutter, put things away, light candles, and pull out the cozy blankets. We’re big on coziness in our house, and the turndown service is the perfect way for us to transition from work mode to rest mode.

• Strength Training (3 x a week)- 66.7%

This one is still really tricky for me. I’m proud of myself for strength training, but there hasn’t been a single day where I’ve actually looked forward to it. Instead of trying to completely overhaul this area of my life, in December I committed to doing three strength training workouts a week. Aside from one week, I’ve stuck to that goal. Given how challenging this habit has been for me to build, I feel pretty good about that.

• Practice Journaling- 93.5%

I’m not typically a journaler, which surprises a lot of people. But this month, I did something different: I shared my word of the year with ChatGPT, explaining why I chose it, and then asked for 31 journal prompts to help me explore it more deeply. I can’t recommend this enough. The prompts were incredibly inspiring—they got me thinking outside the box and made journaling so much easier because I had a clear direction to follow.

• Read 50 Books this year- 100%
• Take Supplements- 90.3%
• Declutter- 83.9%

This habit worked really well for me because I didn’t feel the pressure to declutter an entire area every single day. The other day, I spent a few minutes organizing my Canva account and deleting old files. Old me would have never considered that decluttering, but current me is all about it. Every little bit counts!

What Worked Well

80/20 Mentality

It’s honestly shocking to admit, but I’ve never done this before. I’m sharing this because this space is about being candid and honest with you. As someone who tends to think in ‘all or nothing’ terms, I’ve often approached habit tracking in the same way. If I saw a streak of missed days or a habit I hadn’t stuck to, I’d immediately feel like the whole month was a failure and I should just give up on tracking altogether.

But this year, I made a simple rule for myself: I would embrace an 80/20 mindset. I committed to cultivating my habits 80% of the time, allowing room for the 20%—for the days when life happens: sick days, days with less sleep, snow days.

When I applied the 80/20 mentality to a month with 31 days, it worked out to about six days where I could miss a habit without feeling like I was failing. So, for example, if my goal was to walk 10,000 steps a day, I could miss six days and still be living within that 80/20 mindset.

This has been a total game changer for me. I’ve always followed the 80/20 principle when it comes to diet, but I never thought to apply it to other areas of my life. As a mom with a million things on my plate, it’s unrealistic to think I’m always going to nail every day—to always hit my step goal or sit down for quiet time.

Since implementing this simple rule, I feel a sense of freedom I didn’t expect. It’s motivated me to keep going even after I’ve had days where I don’t feel like I’m showing up as the best version of myself.

Dry January

A dry January wasn’t even on my radar at first. I’m not a big drinker, but I enjoy a glass of red wine occasionally. Over time, I realized I had developed a habit of turning to wine or a cocktail to unwind after a long day. By the time December wrapped up—literally on New Year’s Eve—I felt like it was time to do a dry January. I didn’t expect it to have such a huge impact, but it’s honestly been one of the best decisions I’ve made for my mental health in a long time. Now, I’m even questioning whether I want to go back to drinking at all.

I’m curious to dive deeper into resources about sobriety. But for anyone reading this and wondering if they should take a month off alcohol, I can’t recommend it enough. The benefits are immediate and start to stack up over time. It takes your body a little while to detox from alcohol fully, and I’ve noticed the positive changes only continue to grow as the days go by.

Only One New Thing

Many of the habits I track are ones I’ve either got on semi-auto pilot or have been cultivating consistently for a few months. But this month, I challenged myself by adding ONLY one habit entirely outside my usual routine: writing in my five-year prayer journal. I got this journal back in 2023, and I’ve barely used it. But my friend Dawn has been faithfully cultivating this practice, and I’ve seen the amazing fruit of her consistency. She’s really building a beautiful, longstanding legacy of prayer.

What I love about this journal is its simplicity. It only asks for a small paragraph of prayer each day, and once you fill it out, you can check it off the list. It doesn’t feel overwhelming, just a brief but meaningful moment of reflection and prayer.

I’ve always been a big fan of prayer and love recommending prayer journals, but this year, I’m taking a little intermission from my usual practice to focus on this one. What excites me is that, with this journal, you can pray about anything, and I’m already getting giddy thinking about how cool it will be to look back on the prayers I’ve written a year from now. It’s like building a tangible record of God’s favor and provision in my life.

I think this is going to be a really sweet discipline for me. But I know it will take long obedience in the same direction, and I’ve never felt more ready for the challenge.

Things I Learned + What’s Next

Day 19

OK, researchers weren’t kidding about this one. Day 19 is often where people start to fall off when it comes to setting resolutions, building new habits, or establishing new routines—and I can fully attest to that. Days 20 to 25 were especially tough. Maybe it was because January felt like it would never end, but that’s when I really wanted to quit. That’s when I was incredibly grateful for the 80/20 mentality. During that time, I felt not even compelled to track my habits.

So, if you’re trying to build new rhythms and disciplines, be warned: Day 19 and the following days are tough. Don’t be surprised if you feel like giving up or even want to quit altogether. Something in the air during that time makes it feel more challenging. But trust me, if you push through and stick with it past this threshold, the breakthrough is right around the corner.

No Business Goals?!

Full transparency: I didn’t set a single business goal. That wasn’t my intention, but every time I thought about it, I kept hearing my intuition telling me to just keep doing what I was doing—not to add anything else to the mix. I had planned to set a bigger vision for January, but that didn’t happen. January was about enough-ness and knowing when to say “no” to more things. I feel pretty good about that!

So, for February, I’m brainstorming some daily habits that will help me start moving the needle forward in my business, like growing my email list and finally diving into Pinterest.

I Want to Hear From You!

Overall, January was a really great month of habit tracking. I feel pretty proud of myself—if I can stick to these habits during a month that felt like it lasted 457 days, then February should be even easier! I’m already brainstorming new habits and getting ready to print out a fresh tracker for the month ahead!

If you want to track your own habits, you can grab my free habit tracker download. And if you have any questions about habit formation or discipline, feel free to leave them in the comments—I’d love to answer them for you!

One last thing: Did you enjoy this habit report? Would you like me to continue sharing them? I geek out over the data and genuinely enjoyed putting this together, but I always want to make sure my writing is helpful and serving those who read it. 

Let me know what you think!

Happy habit tracking!

p.s.

If you ever feel like you need a nudge in creating habits you love, tag me in. I teach you everything I know about habit formation and building dream routines in my course Your Routine Overhaul. I would love to have you in class! You can get started for $29 today!