Hobonichi Weeks – Week 20 of 2020

We’ve arrived at Monday again, friends. My weekend was a mixed bag weather-wise, but we got some really amazing thunderstorms on Friday night that made the humidity worthwhile. The peas in our garden loved the watering, but so did the weeds. It’s a good thing that I enjoy weeding!

On Mondays I like to take a little time to reflect on the week that just ended. I use a Hobonichi Weeks planner to track my daily and weekly tasks, help deepen a few habits that are important to me, and notate the amount of time I spend writing each day. I end each day by writing just a few sentences – sometimes it’s gratitude, sometimes it’s gripes, sometimes it’s just a brief summary of the day.

I’ve kept up with a few important streaks:

• I’ve continued to write my morning pages every day since April 6!
• I’ve had 39 consecutive days of walking at least 10,000 steps!

I’m really excited about these achievements. I don’t typically enjoy moving my body a whole lot, but the step streak has given me a ton of motivation to make sure I walk around as much as I can. And my morning pages streak is a delight. I’ve mentioned before how I love to see pages and pages of handwriting stack up – it’s why I post videos of my morning pages in my monthly highlights posts. Every day that I put forth the effort adds up to something bigger. Adds up to what? Even if it’s only something that aesthetically pleases me, then that’s okay. But waking up early, writing those pages, and then spending time on my blog has made a tremendous difference in my life. Knowing that I have spent that time on myself every morning makes it infinitely easier to put all of my time and energy into my family and home without feeling put upon or exasperated by every little need. Being able to curl up with good books and endless cups of coffee also helps!

My daily and weekly chores have gone pretty well. I love waking up early in the morning, walking barefoot to the coffee pot, and seeing gleaming floors. I know that the shine will be gone once the kids are up so I make sure to revel in it for the moments that I have. Those moments make the evening mopping worthwhile – when the floors need a scrub and I don’t want to do it (which is every time), I think about how I’ll feel in the morning. I’ll feel thankful, pleased, and as though I can handle all of this – so I just mop the dang floor as a gift to my future self. It’s the little things. And it helps that I’m back into audiobooks with a vengeance and can slip on my headphones and feel like I’m treating myself at the same time!

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Tell me – what are the little things that keep you motivated? If there’s a chore or job that you hate, how do you convince yourself to get it done? I’d love to hear your motivational tips and tricks in the comments!