Some Positive Resolutions

My new year's resolution this year: don't ever bring the phone into the room where I'm sleeping. I leave it out on the charger in the kitchen or the living room every night.

Huge return on investment.

I was aware that occasionally it would distract me and keep me up later than I should. But I didn't quite realize how much passive stress comes from sleeping next to a little black box filled with limitless distractions, messages, emails, and notifications.

I work as a full time in-person personal trainer, as well as an online personal trainer. I'm also a social butterfly. My phone can be quite a happening place. Constant messages, emails (outgoing and incoming), workout program updates, schedule changes, phone call check-ins, article writing, video tutorials, you name it. Setting aside the phone and “going dark” 7-10 hours a night (I usually put it up and away 1-3 hours before falling asleep) protects my sanity and helps me mentally slow down and reset.

But, I do sometimes have brilliant ideas at night. So I've adopted another habit — I keep these tiny little field notebooks (maybe more appropriately described as notepads...I'll use both terms going forward to keep things interesting) in each room that I frequent. I have one on my bedstand, just in case I'm awakened by a stroke of genius in the middle of the night (rare, but sometimes very important things come to me and I swiftly jot it down in shorthand). I keep one on my breakfast table – which is where I do most of my online training work on the laptop. I keep one on the little side table tray next to my couch where I watch TV. I even keep one in my truck (which I never use because I don't write and drive. But, it's there just in case I'm sitting, pondering in the truck and want to jot some ideas down).

Heck, I jotted down the idea for this little writeup in one of my notepads! That's a fun side habit that's developed from the no phone in the bedroom, but it's also led to me NOT having my phone on my person for random stretches throughout the day, so I can just be present, eliminate distractions, and if something comes up, I simply grab a little notepad and write it down like it's 1991. It's another pretty neat idea.

I've always tracked my workouts in a notebook. And, at every gym I've worked at, and every client I've trained in-person, I've infamously tracked all workouts in a notebook, as well. So I don't know why I waited so long to bring the notebook/notepad into the other areas of my life?….

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Last year I gave up drinking alcohol (about 2 months before 2024 ended, but I decided to make giving up alcohol my 2025 resolution). Another massive return on investment for me. If for nothing else – by eliminating the decision of whether and what I should or shouldn't drink at social settings. The ROI was so high, I'm never going to drink alcohol again. Almost 2 years now and I've had only positive results.

2026’s no phone in the bedroom is also going to be one I stick with the rest of my life. (But, Benen! What about in hotels? Well, friend, I already crossed that bridge 5 times whilst moving across the country 8 weeks ago. The solution is as simple as turning the phone off and leaving in the hotel bathroom. Where there is a will, there is a way).

I've never really done new year's resolutions before 2025, but I think it's because I never framed the resolutions correctly. In the last 2 years I've stacked 2 lifelong habits (with unintended sub-habits) that have proven to be nothing but positive.

I'm not saying you should adopt these same habits, by the by. I'm simply sharing my own experiences.