March Resolutions 2021

As part of My Happiness Project, each month I focus on different aspects and areas of my life. This is about my journey of how I incorporate new habits, and a thought process into every day. For March, I have decided to focus on my possessions, and how I declutter through more of my things. I plan on putting my energy into ways I can create space in my life. I am really excited to go through my belongings, and finally see what I need and no longer need. I picked the month of March to go through my possessions, which also includes a digital clutter because spring begins in March. I have always viewed March for a fresh start, and new beginnings. On the first day of every month, I will discuss my goals, and resolutions, and how I will be making these changes. Then on the last day of the month, I will talk about how I made these changes, and to discuss on how these habits helped me experience more happiness.

My Resolutions

1. Be cautious on bringing in more clutter into my house and life.
2. Purge through items every day
3. Create a no dumping areas
4. Spend 15 minutes every day deleting emails, duplicates of photos

Be Cautious

I want to have a better relationship when it comes to owning things. I would think more clearly when I make any purchases. I feel like I have done a pretty job when it comes to this. This is something that I want to continue. I am comfortable with having less things in my life. I also like saving the money I have been saving because I’m not going out of my way to buy something new. I also refrain from taking gifts, or other things with me. Normally my Grandma will find something for me, like a new shirt, or something else, I politely decline because I have reached the point in my life, where I am happy living with less.

Purge Items Daily

I have been playing this neat game, every one is welcome to join. Although I am a bit behind in posting everything. The objective of the game is simple, on the first day, you donate, throw away, or sell one item from your house, then on the second day, you remove two items, and so on and so forth. You can either stop at the end of the month, or you whenever you are comfortable with your work. It is okay if you stop before the end of the month. I recently did a Daily Decluttering Challenge last year, where I began by removing one item a day, for 192 days. Any items that you have gotten rid of is more than what you would have gotten rid if you didn’t participate in this challenge.

Create No Dumping Areas

I have mentioned this before, but that’s okay. I feel like everyone has a zone in their house, whether it’s their dresser, dining room table, or kitchen countertop, or a bookshelf. It’s basically an area where people just “dump” everything, because they don’t have a place for them, or just don’t want to deal with any of it. My boyfriend likes to treat our bookshelf like this. It’s his dumping zone. I’ve been trying to tell him to handle and deal with his things instead of just dumping it all on the bookshelves.

Digital Declutter

I would love to go through all of my photos that I have taken for the past few years, and organize them into photo albums. I plan on getting some of them developed. My boyfriend and I have a couple of photo albums already, although we just need to get our photos developed and place them. I know it’s kind of ironic, but to me, I grew up on photo albums, and to me, they spark joy. I feel like if it sparks joy, then it isn’t really clutter. I feel like clutter is anything that holds you back, or adds stress. Another characteristic of clutter is something that no longer adds any value to your life.

I feel like these resolutions are going to make things easier and better in my life. I have been working on these goals already. I can’t wait to update you with my progress. I would love to hear about your journey if you wish to partake in any of these challenges.

Advertisement

February 2021 Resolutions Summary

For my readers whom may not know about my Happiness Project… Each month I focus on making resolutions for myself that focuses on different aspects of my life that help me become more organized, happier, and more loving. I became inspired by the idea from Gretchen Rubin’s book, The Happiness Project. In February, she found ways to add more love to her relationships. So I sort of did the same idea for my month of February as well.

On the first of every month, I will write about my resolutions are, and why. And then on the last day of the month, I will write about my successes and my not so successful resolutions. It has been an exciting journey so far, I have learned a lot about myself.

For more information about my own Happiness Project, feel free to click here;

https://threeyellowdaisies.ca/category/my-happiness-project/

I feel like this was a busy month, so that made things a bit more stressful. The days went by so quickly, that I felt like I didn’t have much time to get the things I wanted to get done, done. So I had to learn to manage my time better, and more efficiently. I feel like my confidence has increased a bit. I have felt like I have been loving myself more. I started partaking a yoga schedule, and getting myself more active.

My February resolutions were…

1. Fight right
2. Give tokens of love
3. Kiss each other good night and good morning
4. Give compliments to each other

Ironically, my boyfriend and I had a stressful month, because we spent a lot of night fighting with each other. Although it gave us chances to work on our fighting, and how to resolve a conflict we were facing at the time. My recommendations to fight right is paint, or draw a picture to express the feelings you are experiencing. You can write a letter to the person, and have that person you are in a disagreement, reply back. You can use; “I feel…” statements. Really refrain from calling each other rude names, because that will just make things worst.

I painted my boyfriend a painting, and I wrote him a letter. I wanted to do more for him, but he was home more than he normally was, because his work was slow. But we spent a lot of time together, to make up for the fact. We watched some new shows together, which is always fun. We took turns cooking, and cleaning.

We definitely kiss each good morning, but sometimes my boyfriend got too tired, and fell asleep before kissing me good night. But for the most part, we did fairly well with this resolution.

I feel like we did give each other compliments, but I guess we could have given each other more compliments. We can work on that next month, too.

All in all, I am starting to feel more happy with making and working on these resolutions. I feel like I will try to do better in March. I can’t wait to start and begin new resolutions. I’ll definitely keep you posted on what I am working on next.

Day 52

I have been working on my Happiness Project, and I am still enforcing my January resolutions in February. For those that don’t know, a Happiness Project was inspired by Gretchen Rubin, about how she makes monthly resolutions in various aspects of her life. Each resolution is to help add happiness in her life. I was inspired to start my own Happiness Project. Feel free to get caught up if you haven’t already…

/http://threeyellowdaisies.ca/category/my-happiness-project/

Gretchen has written a book documenting her journey, tilted The Happiness Project. It was an inspirational book.

One of her rules that I have been working on, too, is if it takes 60 seconds or less, don’t procrastinate and don’t get that task done. Get it done now. The amount of energy and stress we have of constantly thinking about this task, and ways to avoid it, is actually more exhausting than doing the actual task at hand. I am slowly reminding my boyfriend about this rule, too. I think that it is a good rule to have and enforce in your house.

Today, I spent about 5 minutes doing various one minute chores, like cleaning a dirty mirror.

One minute tasks include hanging up your coat when you walk in the door, adding more toilet paper to the bathroom, putting your clothes in your hamper, instead of on the floor, and I know they are so many other tasks like this, that for some reason we keep pushing off.

Today, I will focus on getting tasks that no time at all now, instead of wasting time and energy waiting to schedule those tasks in my day, or do it another day. It is best to do things as they happen, instead of waiting to do them later. We can actually save energy, and be less stressed, as well.

February Resolutions 2021

As part of My Happiness Project, each month I focus on different aspects and areas of my live. This is about my journey of how I incorporate new habits, and thought process into every day. For February, I had decided to focus on love, and relationships, not just with my boyfriend, but with other relationships as well. On the first day of every month, I will discuss my goals, and resolutions, and how I will be making these changes. Then on the last day of the month, I will talk about how I made these changes, and to discuss on how these habits helped me experience more happiness.

My Resolutions

1. Fight Right
2. Give tokens of love
3. Kiss each other good night, and good morning
4. Give compliments to partner

Fight Right

This one is about being able to come to a resolution, that doesn’t include name calling, or making fun of each other. There are various ways of being able to fight right without being hurtful to one another. I would explore other ways of fighting right in order to come to a conclusion. I would keep you posted on that later.

Give Tokens of Love

I will find ways to give tokens of my love to my boyfriend. I’m not encouraging or recommending that you spend a lot of money on this. But some ideas include writing a letter, or drawing a photo, or making him a cup of a tea, or have breakfast in bed, or other ways that doesn’t cost any money.

Kiss Each Other Good Night, and Good Morning

This one is important, because you never know when the last time you will see each other, so it’s important that you end your conversations, and departures on a good note. Which brings me to my next resolution…

Give Each Other Compliments

It’s important to let your partner know that you appreciate them. So it is recommended that you show them your appreciation by saying thank you, or that they did something that you liked. And telling them a compliment is always nice. Tell them they look nice, or that their cup of tea you made them was delicious, etc. It isn’t that hard to find compliments for your partner.

Conclusion

I have loved working on this project. I am excited for what this month is going to bring for me. If this has inspired you to make these kinds of changes in your life, I would love to hear about your journey, and your Happiness Project. Be sure to keep me updated either in the comments, or by tagging me in your posts. Looking forward to hearing from you.

January 2021 Resolutions Summary

For my new followers, who may not know about this, I have been working on my Happiness Project. I have become inspired by Gretchen Rubin’s book titled The Happiness Project. In case you haven’t heard about the book, it’s where she made monthly resolutions in order to improve herself and her lives. Each month she focused on a different aspect in her life. I sort of mimicked her style. In January she focused on ways she can boost her energy.

On the first of every month, I will write about my resolutions are, and why. And then on the last day of the month, I will write about my successes and my not so successful resolutions. It has been an exciting journey so far.

For more information about my own Happiness Project, feel free to click here;

http://threeyellowdaisies.ca/category/my-happiness-project/

This has been a bit of a difficult month for me, a lot of stresses, to be honest. But I think I was able to handle those stresses because I have been working on my Happiness Project. I dealt with helping my mom move, and she has a lot of things. Another thing that was stressful to me, at least, was babysitting my niece. I don’t have children, so the thought of having to watch someone else’s child(ren) gives me anxiety. But now that I have done it more times, I am getting used to it. But some days it’s hard because I have to say no to her, since she can’t climb on to the table.

My January resolutions were…

1. Go to bed early
2. Exercise more
3. Organize
4. Tackle a nagging task

I was able to do these resolutions, but for me the hardest one was going to bed late, mostly because my boyfriend likes to stay up late playing video games. So it is sometimes hard for me to go to bed when I like to. We live with other people, so we can’t really use the living room for his video game. So he has to play in our room, which is basically all we have to ourselves.

The easiest resolution that I was able to follow was organizing. I love organizing things, so it was easy for me to keep things organized, and get organized.

Tackling a nagging project is any projects that I need to get done, or should get should, but for whatever I keep putting off. I have brainstormed some ideas already, so I am able to do some of them when I have the time. I like to keep track of everything using a piece of paper, and when I accomplish a resolution, I put a red check mark beside all of the resolutions I have completed for the day.

I know that with as time goes by, I will find it easier to accomplish this in the upcoming weeks. I am starting to feel a bit more happier. Which is something I was hoping for. I can’t wait to be even more happier. I feel like these resolutions have been helpful, and I can’t wait to partake in the resolutions that I have made for myself in February. More to come about that tomorrow!

January Resolutions 2021

This is the first chapter of my My Happiness Project. It is where I discuss small habits that can add so much value and happiness in my every day life. I was inspired by Gretchen Rubin’s book, The Happiness Project. Every month, I focus on a new aspect of my life. This month’s theme is Boosting Energy. Every first day of the month, I will write about my resolutions, and why I think they will help. On the last day I will report back on how I did, and if it actually helped me increase my happiness. To see all of the other upcoming months, check them out here,

http://threeyellowdaisies.ca/category/my-happiness-project/

My Resolutions

1. Get more sleep
2. Exercise More
3. Organize
4. Tackle a nagging task

Get More Sleep

The past few years, we have been known to work more hours, more than ever before. Working longer at work can negatively impact our happiness, because we often have less time for the things that matter to us, like our relationships, hobbies, and properly taking care of ourselves. I know that everyone is in a different situation than others, so I can understand where you are coming from if some nights may be more difficult than other nights. I just wished there was a way that we didn’t have to put our bodies through so much.

So because we are working a lot more than we have compared to the previous decades, we need to take proper care of our bodies. And one way to do that is ensure that we are getting enough sleep each night. Some nights may be more challenging than others, but it is still important to try.

Our adult bodies should be getting at least 7.5 hours, although some people say that they can function on less, others need more. Perhaps it takes you awhile to fall asleep. Here are my tips for you!

1. If you can, refrain yourself from screens (phone, TV) at least one hour before bed
2. Drink sleepy time tea
3. Write in a journal (your thoughts, some chores and errands for the next day)
4. Read a book (preferably one that doesn’t deal with stressful topics like money, business, cookbooks, these just don’t seem like they would be helpful before bed)

My plan is to create an evening and morning routine to help me with this transtition.

Exercise More

I plan on taking more walks in my neighbourhood. My goal is to walk at least 20 minutes, maybe 30 minutes every day. I will start off small, and increase the more I walk. I’m really excited for these new changes in my life. I might even download some Tedtalks, and or some audiobooks for my walks.

I will try to make healthier dietary choices as well. I will limit my intake on take out, sugary foods, and drinks.

Organize

Because I have already gotten rid of some things already, it is time to work on organizing things around my room again. This time is a bit different, because I am enforce my boyfriend to do the one minute rule, which is if takes less than one minute to do, you can’t postpone from the task at hand. Some of these things include hanging up a sweater, or a coat when you come in from outside. Put something back where it belongs. “Do what ought to be done.” – Gretchen Rubin.

Tackle a Nagging Task

Like Gretchen Rubin says in her book, having a long to-do list drains energy, we should slowly work on tackling tasks that we continue to push off, and not do. We probably waste more energy and thought process on ways to avoid this task than if we did this actual task itself.

Conclusion

I cannot wait to get started in this journey. I will keep track of my tasks using a check list. I’m really excited! If anyone else is wanting to partake in this journey, please keep me updated. I would love to see other posts.

Happy New Year!

Happy new year! I hope everyone is having an amazing start to the year so far.

What to expect from me, Three Yellow Daisies AKA Julianne? Well, I am keeping everything the same, but for right now I am not going to be holding off on my daily decluttering mission for the time being. Instead I am going to be focusing on My Happiness Project. It’s where each month I focus on making small changes in my life in order to bring in more joy and happiness into my life. This month’s theme is ways to boost my energy. Although there is a topic about possessions coming up shortly, so that is where I will continue my decluttering journey. More on this shortly.

You are all welcome to partake in either My Happiness Project, or Gretchen Rubin’s book called The Happiness Project, or if you like you can make your own. It’s totally up to you.

If any point, you feel inspired, feel free to let me know, or you can spread joy, by telling a friend, or a family member about how this blog has helped you. I would love and appreciate that.

Even though the majority of us aren’t able to travel to new places, it doesn’t mean that we have to stay where we are. We can embrace new places, whether it’s getting promoted at work, or going to school, or talking a walk in a new neighbourhood. Staying where we are, doesn’t mean anything bad. It just means we have to embrace what we have. No storm lasts forever. Remember that. Instead embrace new beginnings and new opportunities.

Here’s to new beginnings, and hopefully a lot of happiness.

My Happiness Project 2021 Introduction

I finally have the confidence in myself to make my own Happiness Project. Years before I read The Happiness Project, written by Gretchen Rubin, I always wondered ways to add more happiness in my life. So when my friend told me about this book a few years ago, I was mind blown, because I had a similar idea in mind. Little did I know this book was published in 2009, and I started thinking about this in 2012 for myself, and my own happiness. It is sort of like I subconsciously knew about this idea before I was even introduced to this amazing story.

My friend was telling me that each month, Gretchen focuses on a different area in her life, ranging from parenthood, finances, time for fun, and a career, etc. She found little ways to make her life more meaningful and happier by adding new habits to her daily life.

“What you do every day matters more, than what you do once in awhile.”

-Gretchen Rubin

I asked for this book for my birthday, since it was a month away at the time since my friend told me about it. I was lucky enough to receive it for my birthday. I read this book in 2014, but I reread it more slowly in 2015. I read a chapter every month, since each chapter was about how she slowly changed her habits each month, and what she learned. And then I reread it in 2016, so I can do this with my boyfriend, since he only knew about it, and hadn’t read it yet.

As you can, I have read this book a lot! And I took it with me everywhere. But that’s okay, it adds character to the book.

I now have the confidence and resources to do it this year. I am so excited!

I tried to do this last year, but we fell behind with our move, and the stress of the pandemic, so we didn’t make much progress.

Here are some of my commandants, they are similar to Gretchen Rubin’s commandants, but with my own twist.

Be Julianne

For those that may not know, my name is Julianne. And for me that means I should focus on what makes me happy. Not really listening to what people have something negative to me, which I haven’t really come across anyone that has had anything negative to say to me, or about me. It means doing things for myself, and not trying to appease anyone else.

Be More Spiritual

I would like to practice yoga, and mediation more regularly. I have been trying to do this one for a bit now. I am totally looking forward for this one!

Make Time For Reading

As of lately I have been trying to make time for reading, but some days it is more difficult than others. Sometimes it’s easier to just lay in bed, and play games on my phone. Instead of getting up to do yoga, or read a book.

Go on More Adventures

I hope that we are able to have a bit more freedom in the new year. I would love to make more time for adventures. I would love to travel the world as well. I would love to visit Bali, London, and Africa (because I love giraffes).

Have a Morning and Evening Routine

This will ensure that I have enough sleep, so I have no problem getting out of bed to start my day.

“Do What Ought to be Done” -Gretchen Rubin

I am borrowing this one from Gretchen Rubin. I really like this idea. It is so simple, yet so profound. It just reminds me that I shouldn’t put stuff off. I am glad I am one of those people that likes to get things done. Sometimes my boyfriend doesn’t, but I think this will help him.

What are some of your commandants for the new year?

Last year we were so ready! This is our binder for Our Happiness Project. The pages are in the inside need to be updated a bit, but I still love the design of this. The pages on the inside of the binder will be updated tomorrow. So I will definitely keep you posted later on tomorrow.

Here is a sneak peak of what you can expect for the upcoming year. And perhaps you’ll become inspired to make your own Happiness Project. I am super excited to begin this journey with all of you. Of course everyone’s Happiness Project is going to be different. At the moment, I’m not working, so maybe you might want to add a category strictly about your career, or perhaps you are parent, you can make resolutions to be more loving parent, or “new traditions” and adventures with your child(ren).

Monthly Resolutions

January: Boost Energy
February: Love And Relationships
March: Possessions
April: Finances
May: Exercise
June: Family and Friends
July: Adventure
August: Make Time For Fun
September: Mindfulness
October: Literature
November: Community Involvement
December: Minimalize Holiday Stress

Every first day of the month, I will talk about the resolutions I will make month. I am only going to add three, maybe four habits each month. On the last day of the month, I will go over my notes, and talk about the things I have learned about myself. I cannot wait to share this journey with everyone.

If you are inspired to make your own, please tag me, because I would love to read your posts. Although you don’t really need to make a binder out of your resolutions, like I have done. I’m a bit old school like that, where I prefer paper and pen to do certain things. I like being able to check things off on my to-do list.