What we learned from getting ready every day for a month

Whew! Turns out there are 95 days in January, or at least it felt like it. This was a long month and a long challenge, but we are so proud of ourselves for finishing it. Thanks to all of you who joined in, you made it way more fun! It sounded like the most simple idea – just get ready every day. Turns out, sweats and leggings were super tempting many days. Waking up and seeing others take part in the challenge kept us going until the end!

Here are some snapshots of the past month…

We love the words of Katrina Lake, founder of StitchFix:

“Every day, every one of us sets the stage for our sentiment, our confidence, and our success by getting dressed. When you feel great, when you feel your best, it opens up a world of possibility. Feeling confident and self-assured are important inputs into good days, successful days, and happy days.”

Making the effort to actually get ready was definitely deliberate and purposeful.

We ended up learning a few things:

1. We were WAY more productive. This was the whole reason we decided to give it a try. Studies have proven (read more here) that you get more done when you get dressed and ready for the day. Well, it turns out they are right! You are ready for anything and you get stuff done.
2. We took fewer naps. It’s just harder to nap when you’re wearing jeans rather than sweats 🙂 But, truly getting ready for some reason I felt less tired when I was getting the same amount of (not much) sleep.
3. I felt more confident. Sounds dumb, but putting on an outfit I like, doing my hair and makeup and feeling put together made me feel better about myself. It was a reminder that taking pride in your appearance requires taking care of yourself.
4. I wore clothes I haven’t in years. Turns out I actually have plenty of clothes to wear, they were just hidden in the back of my closet collecting dust.
5. I cleaned out my closet! I also realized there are clothes in my closet I am just never wearing again, which meant I got rid of them. I narrowed it down to clothes I actually want to wear and either donated or posted the rest on Poshmark.
6. I got organized. Planning my outfit the night before made a huge difference. That way, I could think about it for a little while after the baby went to sleep rather than running around in the morning grabbing whatever I saw first.
7. Done is better than none. There were quite a few snow days and a couple sick days when I really didn’t want to get dressed. So I pulled on my coziest “get ready” clothes and called it a day.
8. Getting ready made me want to make plans more often. When you’re ready, you feel like you need somewhere to go, so I actually did that and it’s made this month so much more exciting.
9. Realized monthly goals make a lot of sense. They are easy to stick with because the endpoint seems so much closer. Which is why we decided to make a monthly goal for the rest of 2019. Stay tuned to see what our goal is for February!