Habit: Walking to my Car from Work

I’ve just gone through the Habit Snowball video.

My schedule for my habit is already fixed at the times I’m supposed to go to work, so 8:30 to 9AM and 5:30 to 6PM.  I did a few test runs this weekend, and I think I’m going to start by parking my car two or three blocks away from work depending on the availability of the parking space. It’s not much, and I’ve walked farther, but the challenge did specifically state to start small.

I think I’ll add a block every month. I think I should make the increments smaller but more frequent. However, given that I’m walking to my car, the availability of parking spaces sort of changes the way I intensify my habits. I’m at the mercy of whatever’s available. Maybe I could also take a longer route to work if I get forced to take a parking space near my workplace.

Because i’m walking to and from work, I’ve already sort of divided my habit into two sets. That being said, I’ll stop extending my walk when I get to work 15 minutes before my shift starts. That way, I won’t ever be late.

I’ve finished the Triggers video and am now completing the workbook.

Triggers for the weekdays are easy because it’s basically whenever I go to work or go home from work. On the weekends, I’ve still had to set an alarm. I’m trying to keep it @ the same timeslot as my work but instead of having to take the car, I bring my phone with me and use MapMyWalk to measure my walking distance so that my habit stays at the same intensity in the weekends as the weekdays.

During the weekends, I put my phone near the shoe cabinet so that I remember to turn on MapMyWalk when I put on my shoes. On weekdays I’ve gotten so used to going to work that I just have to remember to park where I want to park the car and then walk the rest of the way to work. I could also try to bring my kids with me while I walk but they don’t want to. I’m not too concerned though since my kids do love sports. They already have enough exercise.

Parenting already comes with a lot of habits that need to be done. I prepare meals for them every day, I spend time with them every evening, I check on their school activities, etc. It’s ultimately my work schedule that helps me remember to do my habits. During the weekends, I could also try to keep my phone and sneakers near the garage so that when I remember to prepare the car during the weekends out of habit, I instead wear my shoes and open the MapMyWalk. I suppose I’ll try to see if this works next weekend.

I’m currently completing the Habit Inertia workbook

So I tried to see if I can use the habit of preparing my car as a trigger for my walking habit. This didn’t quite work out right. I forgot that it was the weekend so I spent precious time working on preparing my vehicle before I realized that I wasn’t going to use it. That’s okay though, the alarms will work for now but I’ll eventually find a way around it.

It seemed obvious so I didn’t state it at the time, but I always did some stretches before I started my walk. Without them, the walk wouldn’t be very comfortable. I’ve already parked the car before I do my stretches so all that’s left to do from there is to actually walk towards my workplace.

My identity mantra is “I don’t forget my daily walking habit.”

I’ve just finished watching the Habit Convenience video and it was pretty illuminating.

For starters, I’ve made it part of my warmup to check if I have my umbrella before going for a walk. Inevitably that meant checking the car so as it turns out linking my walking habit to preparing my car wasn’t such a bust after all. On one occasion I had just finished stretching when the rains poured in and I forgot my umbrella. It felt annoying to have to give up and drive to the nearest parking space instead of walk like I should.

Aside from weather, I’ve had to deal with days where I didn’t quite sleep as well as I wanted to. I felt tired while walking and even worse once I started work. I’ve had to take some time to think about how to improve the quality of my sleep and have consulted a physician for it.

One thing I have had to do was carry a different pair of shoes with me to work. Walking with leather shoes wasn’t quite comfortable, so I’ve had to bring my sneakers with me. I swap between the two shoes as I get into the workplace.

So like any good wife, I’ve decided to let my husband in on the action.

We use the same calendar but we use different coloured pens, and we’ve made a competition of it so we can see who has the most Xs on the calendar after every month. On weekends, and assuming his work doesn’t give him much trouble, we go at it together, although I’ve had to tell him to slow down every now and then. So far the score is even, but we’ll see how the month goes.

So it seems like this is the last workbook in the challenge so here goes:

At the very least, I’ll walk in place for a minute if I really can’t walk the number of blocks that I intend to walk.

I often fail to do my habits when:
1. I am sick
2. When my kids need help regarding school activities (it sometimes require me to rush home so we can get it done early and not get them sleep deprived)
3. I have to work overtime

If I’m only feeling under the weather, then I’ll walk in place for a minute. If I am sick and need medical attention, that’s the time I opt not to do my walking routine so that I don’t exacerbate the illness.
If I have to rush home to help my kids with homework, then at least I’ll do the morning half of my walking routine.
If I have to work overtime, then at least I’ll make sure to do the morning half of my walking routine.