In Part 1 and Part 2 of “How to Not Be Terrible at Habits”, we covered giving up, showing up, the progress principle and ditching perfection.
Now it’s time for the tools and tricks!
Fair warning: If you’re a frequent user of the “if only I had more time” line, adopting any of these will expose that excuse to be the crap it really is.
Do it FIRST
What’s the very first thing you do upon waking? Email? Facebook? I plead with you to rethink this habit. If the first thing you do is check in with what the outside world thinks, expects or needs of you, then you will forever begin your day on that agenda, not yours.
Want to learn a language? Work on it FIRST. Want to start running? Do it FIRST. Do what’s important to you before the online world invades your brain. Turn the phone off and get to everyone else’s business AFTER you’ve tended to yours. (Extra credit: Consider this hardcore approach.)
Commit to delaying email for just one week and then tell me you can’t find 10 extra minutes to do something meaningful.
Break the Internet
Still think you don’t have time? I once thought I didn’t have time to write a little every day. Then there was a night – I wish I was making this up – when I scrolled through EVERY SINGLE photo on Carrie Brownstein’s Instagram. Not kidding. (Who can resist those dogs?)
Now instead of saying “I don’t have time” and then mindlessly wasting it, I use the SelfControl app to turn off the time wasters. SelfControl and other similar apps allow you to blacklist certain sites until your work is done. You start the timer and the Internet is effectively broken if you go to a blacklisted site before the time is up. So I can stare at the blank page, but I can’t decide to check in with someone else’s dogs while I’m thinking about what to write next.
Use a Kitchen Timer
What’s the one thing you wish you had time to do? Learn a new language? Practice handstands? I bet you have 10 minutes. Get a kitchen timer. (Tip: Don’t use the timer on your phone.) Once a day set it for 10 minutes and do that thing and ONLY that thing. You’ll be amazed at the number of 10 minute habits you can fit in when you’re not wasting time. Remember the progress principle tells us that everyday progress – even in small amounts – is what makes the difference.
A Sample Morning:
Here’s how I use these tools and tricks in my day. Perhaps you can use this template to create some of your own ideas.
The “do not disturb” on my phone is set from 9pm – 8am. I typically wake around 6:30 and I don’t touch the phone until the following is done:
- Setting my timer in 5, 10 or 15 minute increments – without interruption – I read, sit in silence, and do morning pages.
- I open my laptop (not email), turn on SelfControl, set my timer and write for 30 minutes.
- Most days exercise wraps up the morning, other days it happens later.
After I’ve done all this, external distractions may enter, but they won’t derail the whole day or replace the habits that matter to me.
At different times, there are additional habits I want to tackle on either a daily or weekly basis (mark my words, I WILL learn French) and setting timers helps avoid the “I don’t have time” trap.
Much of good habit formation – like everything – boils down to intentionality.
Are you going to live on purpose or be tossed about by circumstances and excuses? Prioritize your life or someone else will.
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