Precision & Petals: A Lifestyle Blog

Prayer

My daily goal/habit of prayer relates to my overall spiritual goal of being closer to God.

Before I get out of bed, before I eat, as I randomly wonder throughout the day, and before bed I pray. The Bible says for us to pray continually. That doesn’t mean closing your eyes and bowing your head all day, it means to have a continual conversation with God throughout your day, asking Him for wisdom, thanking Him for things, and seeking His will.

Gym

My daily goal/habit of going to the gym relates to my overall goal to lead a healthy life and my goal of trying to present myself well.

I am someone who has always hated the gym. I go through spurts of being very active, then nothing for over a year. That being said, I’ve been very diligent for about 2 months now, going to the gym before work Monday-Friday. I found that switching from solely cardio (which is what I’d always done at the gym) to lifting weights has made the whole “gym experience” a lot better for me and something that I actually kind of enjoy now. If you’re someone who struggles with staying in the habit of exercising, maybe you should try switching up the forms of exercise that you do. Instead of cardio, try weights. Instead of the gym, try walking on a trail. Instead of the same YouTube workout video you always watch, maybe try a different one!

Making the Bed

My daily goal/habit of making my bed relates to my overall goal of having a tidy house. I personally function *much* better when things are neat and organized.

While this might seem like a petty thing to add to my daily routines list, it’s important to me. It’s a simple task that takes less than 1 minute habit every morning. You can see my bedroom from my living room when the door is open and honestly this simple task makes the whole house look a lot more put together. Also, starting the day off by marking off a “done” on my daily to-do list is an easy “win” to start the day.

Cleaning

My daily goal/habit of general cleaning relates to my overall goal of having a tidy house. I personally function *much* better when things are neat and organized.

I try to make sure that I do not go to bed with clothes on any of the floors or any dirty dishes in the sink. Again, this might not be important to some (or even possible if you have young children), but it’s something important to me. I just feel like I am able to think more clearly and relax better when things are tidy around my house.

Eating Healthy

My daily goal/habit of eating healthy relates to my overall goal to lead a healthy life and my goal of trying to present myself well.

Honestly, this is one that’s always came pretty easy to me. I usually have coffee for breakfast, leftover steak or chicken with rice for lunch. Dinner varies, but usually is a meat, and rice or potatoes. I will definitely eat pizza or McDonalds on occasion, it’s not that serious, but I try to eat healthy most of the time.

The biggest diet thing I struggle with is soda. I am a Pepsi fanatic. That being said, I’ve limited myself to 2 Pepsi’s per day for over a year now (one at lunch, one at dinner) – again, on random occasions I’ll break this rule, but as a general boundary I only allow myself two per day.

Journaling

My daily goal/habit of journaling relates to all my other goals, as I use it as a way to track my progress and hold myself accountable.

I’ve done some version of this for about 3 years now. Currently, I have a bullet journal. Each day I input the following: about 5 bullet points on what happened that day, what I ate that day, if I went to the gym that day and what workout I did. To me this is just a good way to keep myself accountable for meeting my goals/fulfilling my self-set habits.

Makeup & Skin Care

My daily goal/habit of doing my makeup and skincare relates to my overall goal to lead a healthy life and my goal of trying to present myself well.

I feel like this “habit” is a given for most of us, but I guess it counts as a daily habit.
Every morning I put on my makeup, every evening I scrub it off and do a 3-step skin care (cleanse, tone, and moisturize). Similarly, I do my hair every morning (usually straighten it) and brush it out every night before bed.

Pursuit of a Passion and/or Relaxation

This daily habit/goal of pursuing a passion (or relaxing) is tied to my overall goal of being happy! A simple and somewhat obvious goal, but one that I think a lot of people overlook when setting their routines!

I interchange these two habits of “pursue a passion” and “relax” simply because I don’t usually have time to do both in the same evening after work. So if one evening I pursue a passion, I won’t have time for relaxation; alternatively, if one evening I decide to relax, I probably won’t have time to pursue any of my passions. It’s all about balance and I’d say it’s close to two days of passions, one of relaxation.

I have a lot of hobbies (blogging, trying to write a book, making jewelry, and gardening) and I like to do them in my free time, those are what I’m calling “pursue a passion.” But some nights I’ve had a long day and want to go braindead and play video games with my brother and boyfriend for hours, or watch a show on a streaming service, and those are what I’m considering “relaxation.”

These two categories are also grouped together because I do find some of my passions relaxing, especially ones involving writing, so some days it’s kind of a mixture of both.
Setting this time for yourself is important, and it’s one of those things I don’t see on everyone’s “My Habits” lists.

Creating To Do Lists

This daily habit/goal is tied to all the things that are important to me outside of the goals found on this page. Things that I don’t have a set routine for, but want to make sure they get done anyways.

I don’t know if this is a “daily habit” or not, but I truly live off of to-do lists. For example, this weekend I have the following to do list:

• Rent a tiller (after 3 PM on Friday)
• Till garden area
• Plant dahlias
• Get soil
• Fill in raised beds
• Check basement for leftover bulbs/flowers from last year
• Plant basement bulbs
• Get mulch
• Re-mulch beds around house
• Get mom flowers for Mothers Day
• Lunch at mom & dads, Sunday noon

These are not everyday things, but they’re important to me! So, when something is important and I need to get it done, it goes onto a separate list (I usually keep a small notepad in my purse, but also use my “Notes” app on my phone a lot).

Weekly Habits

Most of my weekly habits are things that I just don’t need to do as often as the daily ones, or are things that I do in order to make some of the daily habits easier to stick to.

Groceries & Meal Prep

On Sundays I try to get all my groceries for the week and I make meals for Monday through Wednesday’s lunch. This is usually me buying a $10 pack of chuck eye steaks from the store, grilling them, and putting them in the fridge so I can microwave them during lunch with a packet of brown rice.

On Wednesdays I do the same thing again, and that cooking session will take care of me
Thursday and Friday. I usually eat what I want to on the weekend and have a little more time, so I can go to the store and make things fresh.

Clean Out Fridge

I do this on Thursdays because my trash comes on Friday. Anything close to going bad
that I know I’m not going to eat, or anything that has gone bad, goes in the trash. I cannot stand a fridge that you can’t tell what’s in it/what’s good because it’s a collection of everything that’s been bought for the past few months! Also, my fridge is pretty small, and with my meal preps taking up a good portion of the fridge, I don’t have space to leave old items.

Clean Out Purse & Car

I usually do this just whenever I go to a gas station (that’s usually once per week). While the gas is pumping, throw out all the random things you’ve been collecting (straw wrappers, empty gum packs, even that miscellaneous glove box area if you have time).

Laundry

Since it’s just me, I have the luxury of doing laundry only once a week. I usually do this on Sundays and put all my clothes away directly after. During the week I have 2 hampers: 1 that I put dirty clothes in and 1 that is in a utility closet, out of the way, and dedicated to filling with clothes I no longer need/want.

Having the two hampers has been really helpful for me because my closet needs a purge. Doing the purge slowly and overtime has been a lot less overwhelming than when I’ve tried to do a massive one in the past, and it’s lead to me filling multiple trash bags full of clothes to donate over the past year.

Self-Tanner, Nails, & Hair Mask

Once a week, usually Thursdays (so it looks more natural by the weekend), I apply self-tanner. It probably takes about 20 minutes to do it/let it dry enough, and my favorite tanning product can be found in my beauty favorites post, here.

I also do my own nails every week, fingers and toes – I use 2 coats of Essie gel and 1 coat of Essie gel topcoat – I always use red; the whole process takes less than 20 minutes.

Finally, I am a blonde so once a week I do a toner/purple hair mask. This doesn’t really take any time, it’s just something I do after shampoo/conditioner in the shower and you have to leave it on for about 4 minutes. I usually do all of these on Thursdays, and Sunday is my backup day if something comes up.

Packing a Gym Bag

I have 3 bookbags that I’ve collected over my 30 years. On Sundays I fill all of them
so that when I wake up in the mornings all I have to do is grab one bag and head to the gym. This is the only way I am able to make myself go to the gym in the mornings, because if I wake up knowing that I have to get things together, I won’t be getting out of bed. On Sundays I fill them, and then on Wednesdays I repack them. The only thing I have to do in the mornings is grab one of these bags, and then my beauty bag (which I take every day and has my makeup, straightener, hair brush, deodorant, etc.).

Watering Plants

This might not be applicable to some, but it’s a big deal for me! I love my plants, I
think they really help me achieve my home’s theme of boho/nature-inspired. I’ve always had a hard time keeping plants alive, but these suckers are going strong after 1 year in the new house! I think a lot of that is that I now have a dedicated watering schedule for them. I work from home on Thursdays, so every Thursday I make sure they get plenty of water. I also got a cool-water humidifier that runs beside of them and I make sure to fill it and run it twice a week so they all stay happy.

Vacuuming

My dog is hypoallergenic, and I have no kids, so again this might be one of those habits not everyone can get away with doing only once a week, but it’s part of my weekly routine. On Thursdays, after I water my plants, I vacuum. I wait until after I water the plants because I bring my ferns in from the front porch and water them in the sink. Usually a few leaves fall of the plant during this time so I get them up with the vacuuming.

This is a good example of tailoring your habits to your needs. If you’re house is always messy on Mondays after you mow, maybe that’d be the best time for you to make vacuuming a habit.

Time with Family

I try to spend at least 2 evenings with my family per week. While that’s not always
possible with our schedules, it’s the goal. I usually do this by seeing them one evening (even if just for 30 or so minutes) during the week days, and on Sunday.

This is probably easier for me than most people, because my parents only live about 10 minutes from me and my brother and sister-in-law are about 15 minutes away. We’re a close family and seeing them is important to me, so it’s one of my weekly goals.

If you’re not as geographically close to your family, maybe implementing a set time for phone calls or Facetime would be a good option! I know when I worked on the road I would always call my parents on my way to work, just a 15 minute phone call on my drive in, and my brother after work.

Misc. Weekly

There are some habits that I just have to do each week that are pretty self-explainatory and don’t need a full write-up. These include:

• Mowing
• Weedeating
• Taking out the Trash
• You get the idea… general items that you pretty much have to do at least once a week.

Monthly Habits

My monthly “habits” are really more checkups. It’s where I take time to review what’s going on and see how things are going.

Financial Check

Once a month I update my Excel spreadsheet with all my account balances, savings,
checking, debts, mortgage, investments, etc. I like to make sure that everything is trending the right direction.

If it’s not, I evaluate what I did that month and where I could improve.

Goal Check

The whole point of any of these habits is that they progress me towards one of my goals.

Once a month I look at my main goals (good diet, doing exercise, spending time with loved ones, and pursuing passions) to see if I’m improving and following through with my goals. Usually I do this checkup by looking back at my bullet journal.

If I see that I wasn’t good about following through with my habits/goals in one area or another, I try to see what was going on at that time that made me not do the work and if it’s something I can mitigate in the future with more planning/revising something in my life.