Becoming a little bit more aware of my own bad habits and knowing where I want to improve has been a long process. Calling yourself out on your own crappy habits isn't easy but it's very necessary all in the name of self-improvement. There have been a few things that I've noticed lately that I really want to work on and I thought I'd share them with you today.

MAKE

MEAL PREP & PLANNING

I hold my hands up and admit that my diet kinda sucks. I struggle to think of meal ideas as I have quite a few restrictions on what I can [not through my own choice] which can make things tricky. As well as having a boyfriend who works different hours constantly so thinking of meals for the two of us and things that can be reheated or things that can be a single serving isn't always easy. And usually when I get wrapped up with work I'll just think oh I'll have some cereal for dinner, which certainly isn't a dinner and not a good habit to get into. So if you have tips for sort of easy vegetarian meals then please let me know as I'm not sure how much more cereal I should be eating at this point.

PROPERLY DECLUTTERING

Decluttering is something that I'm excellent at, I don't hold back and get rid of bags and bags of stuff. However, the things that I don't give away or give to charity and want to sell on as they're still worth something I tend to keep around in a bag for far too long. I've got a huge bag of clothes that needs putting on eBay and it has been sitting around for far too long and just needs to go up. It's always the least fun part of decluttering but it's very necessary.

SETTING MYSELF A CUT OFF POINT

As my time management skills have gone down the drain lately something I'm at least trying to attempt is setting myself a cutoff point with work. When I get really into something I can tend to spend hours on it which is a good thing obviously but staying up until midnight and then getting up at around 5-6 isn't the best habit to get into. In a dream world, I'd like to say that I'd finish work at around 6 but that just isn't feasible so around 8.30 is what I'm aiming for. Then I can have a little bit of time to myself in the evening to read and spend time with Josie without a screen in front of me.

PICK UP NEW HOBBIES

As blogging used to be my hobby and then it evolved into my full-time job I haven't really got any hobbies anymore. I picked up knitting and cross stitch a couple of years ago but then I started to struggle with RSI and they became really painful. Then there was fitness which I would consider a hobby of mine, I didn't take it seriously or really have any goals in mind but it was something I absolutely adored. But as I don't really partake in any fitness apart from walking Josie and I can no longer knit or cross stitch I'm kind of stuck with what to do with the little free time I have. I always love to know what people do in their free time so do let me know.

BREAK

MICELLAR WATER CLEANSES

I've not been wearing makeup all that much lately as I've not felt like it which means my cleansing routine has been a little slack. And for some reason, I've convinced myself that it's ok to use a micellar water to cleanse my skin as there isn't really anything to remove. Which is ok for the first couple of times but the more I do it the more I know it leads to breakouts and I need to nip it in the bud. Obviously the worst thing would be to not cleanse at all but I really have no excuse not be cleansing my face properly, I mean on last count I had something like 10 cleansers waiting to be used so I better get on that.

RIPPING THE SKIN OFF THE SIDE OF MY FINGERS

Probably my worst habit of all and the one that I constantly tell myself I'm going to break is ripping or biting the skin from around my nails off. It's a gross disgusting practice I know but it's what I do when I'm really anxious, worried or scared and I always know I'm not feeling great mentally when I have bleeding sores around my fingers. I find I do this a lot less when I have moisturised my hands thoroughly too so that's a bonus to making a bad habit I suppose.

NOT BACKING UP MY HARD DRIVES ENOUGH

Considering my entire life is on my technology you would think I'd be better at backing everything up multiple times but I'm not. If I lost all my work from the past few years then I would be absolutely devastated as there are so many images that I absolutely adore. And also a lot of important information like invoices etc I already own and have nearly filled a 4TB hard drive so I think I'll be popping another one on my Christmas list just to make sure I'm really safe.

POINTLESS SCROLLING

I have a serious issue with how often I pick up my phone to pointlessly scroll through social media. It's become such a bad habit and more often than not I don't even realise I'm doing it, I used to be so good at leaving my phone in the other room so I couldn't sit and watch my IG stories throughout the day but now I've been suckered back in. It's such a drain on my productivity and it's not helping me switch off any earlier. And it's nice not to constantly know what's going on either, none of us ever need to be that informed of another persons day when we should be getting on with our own.