Pure Nuff Stuff

It's that time of year isn't it?  The time when we promise that we'll do all the things we've been putting off, whether it's giving up smoking, going to the gym, losing weight or spending more time with the family.

Well we've decided to give up giving up this year.  We're not doing resolutions, we're doing aspirations and we're doing one a month for the whole year.  I think it's easier to start new habits bit by bit anyway, it gives you time to fit them into your daily routine.  So this month, I'm aspiring to keep to the 20 minute rule for my own housekeeping.

If you're not familiar with this one, the idea behind the 20 minute rule is that you spend 20 minutes every day doing a household job that you wouldn't normally do - you do 20 minutes and then stop (even if it's not finished).  And I must say, so far it's working.  I feel like I'm getting niggly little jobs out of the way and I don't feel like I'm being a slave to the house (the "bits drawer" in the kitchen hasn't been so clear in years).  And yes, it did take me 4 days to clear out the spare wardrobe, but as I knew I was going to come back to the job, I didn't feel bad about leaving it till the next day.

I also made up the 10 minute rule.  This one is just for me - l spend 10 minutes a day doing something for me.  Instead of setting aside a whole evening a week and trying to remember to pumice my feet, pluck my eyebrows, do a facemask, whip up a hair treatment and all the other stuff that makes up personal maintainance these days, I'm doing a little bit every day.  And that's working too - my eyebrows are no longer battling to meet in the centre and my toes are painted for the first time in weeks.  And I don't feel like I'm being selfish either - there's enough pressure on women generally to be there for everyone else that we do tend to put ourselves at the bottom of every list.  Like we don't have enough guilt in our lives, eh?  The little confidence boost you get every day from feeling well groomed though, well, that's worth a lot in my humble opinion.

Have you got any new ideas for this year or do you live in the moment enough that you don't feel the need to make big changes?