Being Sustainable

I have been adapting to my new habits rather well. It is not easy, especially since there are many I signed up for, to always remember. I am trying something new, I decided that every week I am going to focus on at least three actions. For example last week I focused on taking the stairs, not using the dishwasher, and turning the lights when I exit the room. After a week of practicing what seems to be simple changes, I created a habit. I got used to not turning off the lights constantly, taking the stairs, and washing dishes by hand. It easier for me now to focus more on other changes without worrying about the others too much because they are becoming a habit. Now this week I am focusing on turning off the TV when I am not really watching it, washing only full loads of clothes and I set my computer to automatically hibernate after 3 minutes. My most common problem is I fall asleep watching TV. To avoid this problem I set the TV sleeper for 20 minutes. This has allowed me to keep track of how much TV I watch before going to bed or not falling asleep with the TV on. Now, I don’t wake up with the TV on or even if I am awake when the TV shuts off, I tend to just go to bed instead of turning it back on.

Controlling the TV has not been very challenging; all I have to do is remember to set the timer. Washing full loads of clothes on the other hand, has been a bit more challenging. When I wash my clothes I separate them by color, whites, brights, darks.  When I do laundry I like getting it all out of the ways at once, I do not like having to wait longer to wash a load.  Now I have to wait until I have enough white color clothes to fill a full load, and I must admit it’s a little frustrating.

Lastly , I set my computer to automatically hibernate after 3minutes. This is not so bad, the only frustrating part is when I am concentrated in something for more than three minutes and I don’t realize it, my computer shuts down on me. It is not a big deal, but can get annoying.  Keeping this action up next week will be more challenging that last week’s task because they require more thought. I believe that the one that will be more challenging for me is turning off the TV. I now find myself turning off the lights out of habit, but I still have to keep reminding myself to set the TV timer.