Creating a New Rhythm for Our Evenings

We're about two weeks into this whole 2016 thing, and so far it's going pretty well, besides the raging cold that I've had ALL YEAR LONG! (Doesn't it just sound so much more dramatic that way??) Anyway... one of my big goals for this year is to read more. I even shared 16 books that I want to read this year (and I've found more since then... help me!).

So when Loverboy and I sat down on January 2 to do our annual Looking Back & Looking Ahead New Year's Date (yes, it's official because it's capitalized), we talked about ways that we can actually make this whole reading thing happen. Because it did not happen last year, and legend has it that if you keep doing the same old things then you better expect the same old results. So something had to change.

We decided that although we love our TV shows, that they were kind of dominating our evenings, and when given the choice between vegging in front of the TV or actually turning on our brains and reading something... guess which one we most often chose?

Our solution? One hour of technology-free wind-down time before bed. So that means that usually sometime around 9pm we're heading upstairs to read for a bit before bed, which is so relaxing! And it also means that we usually get more talk-time in since we're not staring at a screen right up until we climb the stairs to fall into bed.

We've decided this will be a weeknight only thing, so we can still totally binge late into the night on a Friday night if we want to (phew!). So far we are loving having the extra time to relax before bed, take a break from technology, and start chipping away at my over-zealous 2016 reading list (already half way through For The Love!).

One practical change we made for this new rhythm to really take hold was getting a new headboard. Our old headboard was a cute little brass one that I hunted down on Craigslist that was totally adorable but so not practical for sitting and reading in bed. You had to stuff 5 pillows behind you to have any chance at being comfortable and not sliding through the bars. And reading in bed is probably my most favorite place to read, so this was an important part of the change.

So what 2016 goals do you have that you could work into your day by creating a new rhythm? What practical step can you take (even if it means biting the bullet and spending a little bit of dough) that could help you reach your goal? Why not keep riding the January New Year momentum and make a change today?