I've been failing lately at a *lot* of things

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I failed miserably at a lot of things in January. Language learning went down the drain, my organization system was not working for me, i was forgetting appointments, forgetting e-mails I had to send and couldn't find the motivation to go to the gym. This could be a combination of having had a cold for like three weeks, starting to adapt to life with a puppy or simply that type of moody feeling you get when it's constantly raining, but either way, January was the month where I didn't do anything I was supposed to do, I failed in all of my habits and routines and it was one of the messiest months I've had in a long time.

Buuuut, I'm a huge believer that you can start all over in any month so this year, february is going to be my January.

This video serves to, number one, tell you that "hey it's ok to be incredibly unproductive once in a while" and two, to show you how I'm trying to overcome this lack of energy and organization by using some simple techniques that I've used in the past.

If things are failing for you and you're being too ambitious about your own goals, one of the best ways to get back on track is restarting the good old habits using baby steps. First of all if you're still unsure on how to establish goals you should watch last week's video on how to use the smart method to set objectives that are clear and well-defined.

If you've established good goals but you're losing track like me, just try to think on how you started in the first place. Instead of going all out and forcing yourself to be a perfect person, just tone down your objectives and make them realistic. In my case:

- I've restarted meditating by redoing the foundational course I had started last year. It was what got me into meditating because the incremental sessions worked well to build that habit for me.
- Instead of forcing myself to go to the gym three times a week, I'm starting by working out moderately twice a week. Instead of highly intensive classes I'm doing some yoga, pilates and walking and then some light cardio and strength workouts.
- Instead of trying to learn three languages every day, I'm focusing on learning a language every day. Be it latin, japanese or german, the goal is to make progress in one language, every single day, for ten minutes or more.
- Then, I'm just now realising how it is impossible to keep up with my old reading rythm. So this time I'm compromising to read two books per month. The book featured in my yearly reading list and a second book of my choice.

I've also retraced a few steps in my organization game and went back to a notebook to scribble down to-do lists (my main calendar and Notion still work as main organization apps - I'm just ditching Actions for now) and jot down more structured lists of tasks and chores I need to accomplish. I do agree with people that say that writing things down is *different* then typing. It somehow feels like you've put more thought into whatever you're jotting down. The problem is that writing things down in a notebook is not as practical as typing or using a digital device. It's also something you become dependent on because if you don't have your notebook with you, you'll lose track of your tasks. Still, it can be a good system in the beginning and I've decided to go back to it for the time being.

Also, i still haven't found a good enough app that mimics a dual system between daily and weekly to-do lists. Actions is great to log in tasks that I need to do for specific days, but then again there are tasks that have a wider timeframe and can be accomplished in a certain day or week and I find it pretty hard to find a good app that mimics that experience. So for now at least I'll be able to mimic that experience with pen and paper.

Because of this, **and because** I've been awful with habits, I went back, once again, to a habit tracker. And although habit trackers do not work for me in the long-term, they usually provide for a great way to implement or in this case re implement habits that I've lost. So I'm starting all over again with meditating at night, working out two to three times a week and reading every day.

Since I'm worried both about habit tracking and writing down my daily and weekly to-do lists I picked up a Habit journal by james Clear which is basically a dotted notebook that also has built in habit tracker in the back of the book so I don't have to bother with creating habit trackers myself.

FTC: This video is sponsored by CuriosityStream.

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