The Habits I Thrived in 2024 (and the ones I didn’t)

It’s THAT time of the year again.

If there was one thing I thrived doing this year, it was tracking my habits. I started using Notion to habit track and it was life-changing! Each time I started a new habit or wanted to break a new one, I used my Notion habit tracker. You can read all about how I do this in this blog post.

So, to end the year, I thought I would share the habits I thrived with and the ones I didn’t (and some in the middle). I also wanted to reflect for myself on what I can do to improve for the next year.

Let’s dive in.

The Ones I THRIVED

Reading

This has been a habit for me for five years, and I show no signs of stopping. There were some missed days this year due to personal circumstances, but I’ve done pretty well with this the majority of the time.

My Tip for this Habit: If you want to start a reading habit, start with genres that interest you (whether fiction or nonfiction). Whether you read fiction or nonfiction, reading has benefits.

Listening to Podcasts

Just like with reading, listening to podcasts has been an instilled habit in me. There were also some missed days but I was able to get back into these habits easily.

My Tip for this Habit: Starting with podcasts on topics you’re most interested in is the best way to start doing this habit.

Language Learning App

I’ve mainly tried sign language learning this year, and now I’m going to start Duolingo again. While there were some missed days, it was easy to get back into it. When it comes to language apps (especially the free versions), you’re on the app for 5 minutes a day. While that might not seem like much, it adds up.

My Tip for this Habit: Download a language app, pick the language you want to learn more of and spend 5 minutes a day on it.

Exercise

This has been an easy habit for me because I genuinely enjoy my morning walks. If I were to improve for the next year, it’d be to include a variety of workouts.

My Tip for this habit: Pick an activity you enjoy. It doesn’t necessarily have to be what everyone else is doing if that’s not your thing. The less you enjoy an activity, the less motivated you’ll feel to exercise.

Spending 15 minutes on each of my goals every day

I’ve done pretty well with this for the majority of the year. But the next year I want to challenge myself to make it 30 minutes :))

My Tip for this Habit: Scheduling and planning is key to making sure you get things done. Without planning a time, it’s hard to do it.

Reaching out to someone

This has been quite easy to do throughout the year! There were days when I felt anti-social and didn’t want to talk to anyone, but most of the time I was good with this.

My Tip for this Habit: If there is someone you have in mind, it may be a sign to go and message them (there are exceptions of course like if it’s your ex lol).

Getting out of the house

So, during the periods this year when I was working from home, I had the tendency to stay at home all day and not leave the house (except for when I was exercising). Of course, it’s easy to get out of the house when I am working and have to go there. But on days when I work from home, I have to push myself.

My Tip for this Habit: If you are working from home or tend to be at home a lot, aim to go out at least once even if it’s just a small thing. For example, when I was working from home, I would go to a cafe to do my work. If I wasn’t working, I’d go out and get my food instead of ordering delivery.

Solo Date (weekly)

I have been doing SOOOOOOOO good with this! I’ve been doing solo dates for the past few years now and I don’t plan on stopping.

My Tip for this Habit: You can check out my blog post here to learn how you can be more comfortable with solo dates.

Catching up with a friend (weekly)

This has been going well! I try to catch up with more people during a week, but once a week I’m still content with it.

My Tip for this Habit: Start reaching out to friends first, join meetups and events to meet new people if you need to.

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RELATED: Essential List of Non-Negotiable Daily Habits to Implement

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Almost thrived

10,000 steps a day

I say almost thrive because I feel like there are many days where I don’t reach 10,000 steps. There are also times when I only did 6,000 steps during the day, and spent up until midnight trying to get my steps up.

This is why I put it into the “almost thrive” category because I need to work on getting my steps up throughout the day, rather than waiting until the end of the day.

Less time on social media

I don’t count the times I’m on social media to create content. But there are some days when I feel like I am consuming more content than creating. I’ve had really good days and weeks where I’m pretty disciplined with my social media time. However, there are days when I have found myself doom-scrolling.

There were also times that I would look at social media first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Majority of the the year, I was pretty good with this, but I feel like lately I’ve been working hard to get away from this.

A gallon of water a day

I’ve been a gallon-of-water-a-day drinker for two years now. There are many days that I hit this goal, but recently I’ve only been hitting more than half of that amount. I’m pretty okay with it as long as I’m hydrated throughout the day, but I want to push myself to reach that goal as much as possible.

Self-Talk

Honesty hour: I’ve struggled with my self-talk this year. Yes, there are periods where it goes well, but during certain life events (e.g. getting laid off, relationships ending, discouraging growth), I did tend to talk negatively to myself.

Declutter (weekly)

I’ve had good months where I was consistent with my weekly decluttering, but there has been a month or two where I didn’t do this as much. But my best month was definitely when I moved because I had to declutter stuff LOL.

Trying a new recipe/ cooking for myself (weekly)

So, when I was living in the dorm in law school, I had no choice but to cook for myself. That’s why the habit was trying a new recipe. However, when I moved back home, I wasn’t cooking as much as before, so I made it a weekly habit to cook for myself at least once.

Some weeks I’m good, so weeks I’m not but working on it.

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RELATED: How to Actually Level Up Your Habits

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Didn’t thrive

Waking up on time/snoozing alarm

This has been a challenge for me all year! I put these two together because when I snooze my alarm, I don’t wake up on time.

What I plan to do: I’m planning to build my self-discipline more and experiment with more ways to not snooze my alarm as much.

Sleep on time

Whatever “sleep time” goal I had set, I was far from perfect. There were times that I slept late because I procrastinated, and when I genuinely had events going on that led me to sleep late.

What I plan to do: I can’t control it if there are events that come up, and you’ve got to enjoy life! But on days when I don’t have anything going on, I’m implementing wind down routines to make sure I get to bed on time.

Take a SMALL STEP

If you want to join me in having better habits for the next year, start by listing the habits you need to build:

• Your professional goals (e.g. career, business, passion project)
• Your personal goals (e.g. health, mental health, wellbeing)
• Personal development

To Wrap Up

Maybe you got some ideas from this blog post on what habits you can implement for the next year. Hopefully you got some sort of value out of my personal reflections!

If you want to start setting your goals for the next year, I definitely recommend checking out my Goal Setting Workbook in the Free Resources Library. It is a step-by-step guide that digs deeper into your goals and how you can achieve them.

In the meantime, here’s to having a great new year!

-Lauren 🙂

P.S I suggest you read these blog posts next:

• How I Transformed My Habits in 2024: A Step-By-Step Guide
• 5 Little But Effective Ways I’m Improving my Habits
• Popular New Year Habits: What Worked For Me & What Didn’t

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