5 tips to build solid habits
It's July 1, 2020, which means there are only six more months in this crazy, unexpected year. While there are a lot of events going on in the world right now that are out of our control, we still have control over our routines and habits.
We are creatures of habit, and performing the same tasks over and over again strengthen neural pathways and also lessen the cognitive load on our brains. There's a reason why Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs wear pretty much the same thing everyday - they have bigger decisions to make during the day and using up their decision making power early on in the day leads to fatigue.
After reading James Clear's book, Atomic Habits, as well as the highly recommended Power of Habit, here is a collection of my top tips on building habits that last.
Why power
Before starting a new habit, it's important to think about why we want to develop that habit. We have limited self-control, so while it may be easy to force ourselves to go to the gym for the first few days (maybe weeks), this is not a long-term strategy.
When we take some time to reflect, be sure to think about why we're pursuing those habits. Are we going to the gym just because we see everyone else doing it? Or are we going to the gym to build strength and feel good for ourselves?
With a strong enough why, we can overcome the how. Continuing on the example above, if we want to go to the gym but can't afford it or don't have the time, we could mope around and have everyone feel sorry for us - or we could start small (i.e. no equipment exercises at home, see tip #4) and accomplish at least something.
Change your identity
In Atomic Habits, Clear talks about the layers of habit change.
Let's take the idea of someone that wants to quit smoking. When offered a cigarette, instead of saying "No thanks, I'm trying to quit," saying "No thanks, I'm not a smoker," is a change in identity.
The deepest level of getting habits to stick is at the identity level - we decide the type of people we want to become and then prove it to ourselves with by small wins.
Another identity shift we can use is by the choice of language - instead of using the words "I have to", say "I get to".
This helps in a number of areas, not only in building motivation to execute the habit, but also in practicing gratitude. For example, "I have to go to work" turns into "I get to go to work", which then makes me feel gratitude at the fact that I have a job and am able to travel safely to get there.
Habit tracking
Checking off that box or colouring in that square after we complete that new habit might feel super exciting and rewarding - which is how habits stick. We are more likely to repeat a habit if it is satisfying and leaves us feeling accomplished.
However, a caveat to this is that tracking the habit should never feel like extra work, because then it becomes an additional step.
With the rise of technology, there are apps for everything - tracking sleep, tracking water intake, tracking steps, tracking moods, tracking foods, and the list goes on. It gets strenuous and tiring to track all these different things, which is why it's important to establish what our main focus areas are, and track only those.
In my case, I wanted to ensure that I got some sort of movement in for the day (I defined this as 30 minutes of activity) and that I was entirely plant-based for the day. Instead of logging this on an app, I opted for an old fashioned manual tracker which I hung on my cork-board and coloured in at the end of each day.
This was just the right level to keep me satisfied when I completed the habit at the end of the day, but not too challenging that I stopped tracking. It's also really rewarding to look back at all of complete trackers and know how far I've come!
However, this is not an all-or-nothing approach, if we fall off track, don't give up. Instead, try not to skip more than two days in a row.
Two-minute rule
I tried to get into the habit of practicing yoga every day - I would get so excited finding the perfect hour-long Yoga with Adrienne video, but then the day would come and go, and no yoga would be done. Why? Because I didn't make time for an hour of yoga during my day, because I started too big.
The two-minute rule states that when introducing a new habit, start small. Yup, you guessed it - it should take less than 2 minutes to do.
If you want to get into the habit of cleaning your room, do 2 minutes of cleaning at the end of everyday where you put everything away.
If you want to get into the habit of doing yoga every day, start with a single sun salutation flow and build from there.
Oftentimes when we tell ourselves "okay, 2 minutes only," we'll end up doing the activity for longer, because that's just how our brains works.
Habit stacking
So by this point, we've thought of a new habit that takes less than two minutes to start, we know why we want to develop a new habit and how we're going to track it.
This leaves a big part missing: When are we going to perform this new habit?
In order to increase the chances of this new habit sticking, we must make the cue of the good habit obvious. A few examples include:
For eating healthier: taking some time at the start of each week to pre-slice some of our favourite fruits and veggies and keeping them at the front of fridge, making them more likely choices when we're craving a snack
For taking vitamins: keeping the vitamin bottle near the sink so that it is in plain sight every morning
Additionally, stacking our new habit onto an existing habit is the easiest way to remember to do it as well as follow through.
The formula goes: Before/After [current habit], I will [new habit]. Simple right? A few ways I've used this is:
Before I turn off the lights at night, I will colour in my habit tracker for the day
After I brush my teeth, I will use my tongue scraper
After I do my morning skincare, I will take my Vitamin B12 supplement
Concluding thoughts
If you're feeling super inspired and ready to take on some new habits, I'm excited for you. There are so many little ways we can elevate our lifestyle, and these micro-wins free up so much more time and mental capacity to focus on the bigger things in life.
For a while, we might not be seeing any progress which might feel demoralizing. However, habits often make no difference until we cross a critical threshold and unlock that next level of performance.
Keep going, because even a 1% daily improvement leads to a 37% improvement by the end of the year.
Learning about habits and ways to be more productive is definitely something I really enjoy, so this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to blog posts like this!
Sending you good vibes and lots of light!
-Reina xo
p.s. here are the original notes that I took after re-reading Atomic Habits for the second time! 😊