Some of the hardest things to change are our habits. We may WANT to live better, more sustainable, more resilient, more eco-friendly lives but the siren calls of our habits can drag us back to our old way of living. I know this is true because I have felt it and succumbed myself.
Some people go best with a ‘cold turkey’ approach while others such as myself do better easing into new ways of thinking, being and doing. That was the original idea behind the ‘one-day-a-week’ challenge. You commit to doing something which improves your environmental performance (or not doing something which reduces it) for one day a week. Then you can move on to more days per week as you want. We started out eating vegetarian one day a week, but now only eat meat one day a week.
Anyway, there are some things that don’t work well on the ‘one day a week’ challenge but work well for the new type of challenge: the ‘50% challenge’.
Some examples of a 50% challenge which you can take include –
- Using 50% of the cleaning products you would normally use in specific situations such as clothes washing powder, hair shampoo (and conditioner) and dish washing detergent. This will not only save money, less chemicals will be pumped into the environment.
- Going shopping 50% less than you usually do. Most people shop at some point and we used to do grocery shopping once a week. We now do it every two weeks and find that it reduces the opportunity for impulse buys, reduces travel costs and gives us more time for other things. As a bonus it also reduced our Covid exposure!
- Wash items such as sheets, tea towels and bath towels 50% of your current frequency. There may also be other items which could be washed less often as well and for a more detailed discussion of clothing washing and its frequency, check out the article here.
- Reduce your current level of food waste by 50% using improved planning, storing correctly, getting creative with scraps etc.
I’m sure you can think of other examples where you can improve your life 50% of the time.
There are also crossovers between the 50% challenge and the ‘one-day-a-week’, so that if you have your challenge down pat for one day a week, you can improve your performance by rising to the 50% challenge.
Such crossovers include – using alternative transport (biking, walking or using public transport) instead of your car, making your food from scratch (as opposed to takeaway or ready meals), or reducing your meat intake by 50%.
The whole idea is to challenge yourself to improve an aspect of your life without having to go the whole hog straight away. It may be that you find the challenge is no challenge at all and you feel you can even increase the percentage or you might remain comfortable at 50% and don’t want to go higher. It is all up to you.
It can also be fun to engage your family, friends and/or workmates in your challenge, or even try a team based approach. There are many opportunities, work out one that suits you and give it a go!
