Put This on Your (Open) Calendar

Congratulations! You’ve made it through, let's-call-it-a "warm-up period." The past two weeks have brought on a brand new schedule paired with a different lifestyle. Now that you are somewhat in the groove and have a feel for it, it is time to look ahead. The 1st of April is this Wednesday and there is no better time to start something new than the beginning of a month.

These last few days of March are meant for reflecting back so you can plan ahead. In the past two weeks, how were you incorporating healthy habits into your day? Before you beat yourself up and quickly reply with, “I didn’t do anything!” take a moment and think about small wins. Have you taken walks or bike rides? Have you cooked different vegetables? Have you gone to bed at a decent hour? What has your morning routine looked like?

Over the next few days schedule time to sit down with paper and calendar to complete the following assignment. First, take some time to think and write about your new daily schedule. If you are now working from home and not running the roads, this could look vastly different than before. I highly encourage you to document this. Writing out an agenda, for example, can reveal where you are completing the same tasks at the same time and where there are pockets of open time.

The second part of the assignment is to brainstorm some desired outcomes for April. What health-related goals do you have? What activities do you want to incorporate in your day? What bad habits do you want to drop? In this section, feel free to scribble down thoughts as they come. It can cover various topics and start as broad ideas. Allow the pen or keyboard to go crazy without worrying about complete sentences or perfect spelling.

Before addressing the last part of your homework, you may need to step away for a break. Taking a walk in silence and thinking about what you just wrote in the previous two sections could prove very beneficial. The past few weeks have brought on enormous changes in such a rapid time frame, that your brain may need additional time to reflect on the impact.

When you are ready, and before it is April 1st, take those broad ideas and desires and turn them into a specific action plan. How and when will you work toward the goals you created? Where in your daily schedule will you do what you need to do for a desired outcome? What strategies will you implement to stop actions that are hindering you? Use your calendar here to fill out dates and times for these April agenda items. Feel free to schedule out the whole month uniformly or select a different focus for each week. Customize it for you but be specific.

There are 30 days in April beginning on a Wednesday and ending on a Thursday. In these uncertain times, where many plans cannot be made, I hope you can stay physically and mentally healthy by adding positive habits to your days. You may go it alone or have a (socially distanced) partner join in the plan, but setting just one month to focus on some change may be the stepping stone to a continued journey of healthy living. Let me know what you plan to do in April. I would love to hear your ideas. To our health!