Here are mine:
Get up at the same damn time every day. I am a hardcore nightowl, love to stay up to all hours, and get up very late. As an academic/scientist, I have been able to make this work to a certain extent, as I have a pretty flexible schedule. However, over the years, there have been countless miserable days in which I scraped by on two or three hours of sleep, trying to grab a little nap here and there throughout the day. I would often allow enough hours for sleeping, but then suffer from terrible insomnia. I tried all the usual advice--keep the bedroom cool, dark, no screens, caffeine, or exercise before bed, etc., etc. However, when you sleep in until 2PM some days, and have to get up at 8AM other days, none of that stuff is enough. All of those things pale in comparison to maintaining a regular schedule. This year, we took a three week vacation in Ireland (facepunch me? No not really, LOL) and I got into the habit of going to bed around midnight and getting up around 7 or 8. The habit stuck, and now--even though the temptation to stay up late and get up late is strong--I have FINALLY gotten into a good, regular schedule, in which I nearly always get enough sleep. I have defeated insomnia to a very large extent. This has freed up so much time and given me so much more energy, I would say it is just about the best new habit I have ever formed.
Stop wasting so much time online. I am not on Fecebook, Twitter, Instagram, but I do enjoy internet discussion forums (e.g., this one!), various news magazines, blogs, funny stuff, a little sports (NBA only), The Onion, Jalopnik, etc. However, they become such a time sink, I have decided to cut waaay back. It is like candy--the more you eat, the more you crave, and the temptation is to fill all the cracks in my day with web browsing instead of going for a walk (I am religious about going for walks every day), daydreaming (a VERY useful activity actually), reading, working on hobbies, investing, exercise, meditation, etc etc.
(I have come to the realization that so much of what passes for news is little more than idle speculation and clickbait-mongering, and is essentially little more than mindless entertainment. How much value will any of these articles have in a week? I am reminded by a quote by one of my favorite authors Nassim Taleb: "To cure yourself of newspapers, spend a year reading the previous week's newspapers.")
I have pushed most of my recreational web browsing to late in the day after most of my work is done, and after I have accomplished (or at least attempted to accomplish!) what is important for that day. If I allot an hour or so for this, it really makes me prioritize what sites I really want to visit, and what articles I want to read. It takes a bit of willpower, and a few other tricks--I have a folder with all of my discussion forum bookmarks, but I have located it inconveniently!
What about you? What are your best new habits for 2017?