My Monthly Mission

So has everyone heard that it takes 21 days to form a new habit?  I've done a little reading and discovered that it's more like 66 days.  That's quite a difference from 3 weeks to over 2 months!  I've been thinking about a little project involving forming new habits/breaking old ones for a little while now.  So I've decided to try a little experiment over the next several months.

My Monthly Mission, I'm calling it, for lack of a more creative term.

My creative juices must be a little congealed, I think it's the colder weather.

Every month I'm going to try giving up a bad habit or forming a new and better one.  So far I've brainstormed things like:

-giving up sugar
-going to bed earlier
-starting an exercise program
-giving up meat
-getting up at the same time
-cutting down on internet
-reading a book a week

I'm starting with internet restrictions, and it starts November 1st.

I spend a lot of time on the internet.  I have my laptop, my iPad, my smart phone, I'm never more than a few steps away from checking my email, facebook and pinterest.  So this is a big one.

I'm not quitting the internet entirely.

I'm not crazy.

Or that strong.

Instead, I'm setting limits for myself.  Most nights I spend the last hour or so of my day in bed with my laptop or my ipad, and most of it is time wasted.  I end up staying up way too late while browsing pinterest.  So my restrictions are as follows:

1. No internet, no laptop, no iPad, no cell phone after 8pm. Important email excluded.
2. I'm shooting for two hours of internet time a day.  I have a few important reasons to be on there, but not many.  Therefore I'm limiting my time.  I think I'll buy a special timer to track my time on the computer.

Of course I realize the slight irony of writing about my giving up the internet on my blog and then linking it to facebook.

So while I'm only trying something new for a month at a time and not 66 days, I'm still hoping to change some of my ways, there's no reason I can't continue with a habit past the 30/31 days I try it, I just get to pick up something new every new month.

Stay tuned to see how it goes.