On Forming Habits

As previously mentioned, I'm challenging myself to read 52 books this year. I thought it was only fitting that I start off the new year by reading Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project. In this book, Rubin details her yearlong happiness project, for which she chose one resolution to keep each month of the year---remember love, make time for friends, and pay attention, for example.
This book got me to thinking about what twelve resolutions I'd like to work on and keep this year. I currently have eleven (gotta figure out just one more) and have decided to call them habits rather than resolutions. Some of the things on my list aren't life changing, such as make my bed every day for a month and forgo retail therapy for a month. But others will have a lasting impact on my health and life in general, such as focus on good posture for a month and refrain from eating out on weekdays and weeknights for a month. Some will be more difficult than others, of course, but my ultimate goal is to make these twelve things habits so that I continue to do one thing even when starting the next and so on until, by the beginning of 2013, I will have filled my life with twelve good habits.
I'm under no delusions that I'll be able to give up fast food and shopping altogether, of course (nor do I particularly want to), but I do hope to slow down these bad habits.
All this is to say that I have chosen and been following January's habit: leave the TV off every night. I know this doesn't seem like anything major, but for me it represents a couple different things. First of all, I used to sleep with my TV on as a sort of security blanket. When I moved into my house, it was too quiet at night, so I had to sleep with the TV on. Even with Deuce in the room with me, and now Chance living with me, I couldn't seem to shake the habit.
But I want to do so in order to conquer my fear, save on my electricity bill (although I know it won't be a noticeable difference), and get better sleep at night, which is the other reason I made this a habit of 2012. With the TV on at night, I was more inclined to stay up later to watch (or actually listen, since I'm blind as a bat without my contacts) Frasier, a basketball game, or The Golden Girls. So even if I got in bed at 10:00, I'd be up an hour or so watching/listening to the TV. In addition, the light and noise from the TV would often wake me up a few times a night. So by keeping the TV on at night, I was forfeiting good sleep.
I have seen improvement since I began sleeping in complete darkness and silence. I fall asleep faster, I haven't woken up in the middle of the night yet, and I do feel more rested in the mornings. I will certainly be tested on nights that Chance isn't home, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
Stay tuned for the rest of 2012's habits!