May Happiness Challenge | Read a chapter every day

In 2019, I’m trying one new habit per month that A) promise to increase my happiness levels and B) costs little to nothing.

I allllways seem to be late posting about each new month’s challenge.  Maybe in June I will actually post about the challenge at the beginning of the month. 😉

April’s Challenge: Go outside.

First, an update on last month’s challenge, which was to get outside every day.

I successfully made a point of being outdoors for about 80% of the days in April, and I give this habit a big thumbs up.

I ate lunch outside, read on the deck, read in the hammock, and went for walks.  And being outdoors definitely does make me feel happier.

Of course, I did this in April, when it’s neither freezing nor blazingly hot.  I probably should try the experiment in a less pleasant month, such as January, and decide how I feel then.

Regardless, this encouraged me to get out and enjoy the lovely spring temperatures, so, yay!

And I think I’m going to do my best to keep this happiness habit going, the way I am the picture-a-day habit.

May’s Challenge: Read a chapter a day.

I know some people really do hate reading, but I enjoy it.  So I figured that making time for it every day would be a happiness-inducing thing for me.

And since library books cost nothing, this could be a very free happiness habit. 😉

My goal is to read a chapter every day.  I hope to read more than that, but sometimes just getting started is the hardest part!

So I figured that setting a really small daily goal would at least make me get started.

(Only got ten minutes? I probably can knock out a chapter!)

Laura Vanderkam has frequently observed that she reads more when she has good books sitting around, waiting to be read. 

So that’s what I’m doing too…I have a bunch of library books on hand, and hopefully that’ll help me make the time to read every day.

On a related note, I’ve been keeping a running list of the books I read this year, along with really short review of each.

Hopefully I’ll be adding a few to the May section of that list by the time this month is over.

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P.S. In case you missed earlier posts in this series, here’s a recap:

In January, I used my phone less.

(Definitely will keep doing this.)

In February, I tried a gratitude journal.

(This was not a keeper of a habit for me. One month was enough!)

In March, I did a photo-a-day challenge.

(I’m going to keep this habit up.)