In the post, 1% Better Every Day, I discussed the best ways to form, and stick with, new habits. Then, in Breaking Free From Bad Habits, I discussed the ways to stopping bad habits. Here, I am going to tell you the habits I have built over the last four years, the small things that help improve my life. I’ll explain how I am able to stick with them, what I plan to do to stop my bad habits, and how to replace them by creating new, better habits.
Habits That Have Stuck
Over the last four years I have had two habits stick with me*: meditation and yoga. I have tried to create many different habits, from daily journaling to lifting weights. All of the other habits came and went. I was able to be consistent for a few months at a time, but once I lost motivation they were hard to hold on to.
Identity plays a crucial role in the formation of habits. While I identify as an athlete, I don’t identify specifically as a weight lifter. I do, however, identify as someone who enjoys meditation and yoga. I believe this to be the number one reason why these habits have stuck around while others have come and gone.
In the “Cue-Routine-Reward” loop, the third step is response, whether you take action or not. In order to take action the motivation must be more than the difficulty of the task. This can either mean the task has a low difficulty and needs little motivation, or the task is very difficulty, but the motivation to do it is unbelievably strong.
When I started forming these habits four years ago, meditation fell on the left side of the difficulty scale (more difficult), while yoga fell somewhere closer to the middle right side (not that difficult). My motivation for both however, was extremely high.
I started doing daily yoga when I had constant pain in both of my knees and I started meditating when I felt lost in life and was unsure of what I really wanted. Both saw a high rate of return for the energy I was putting in.
Habits That Come and Go
Some of the habits that don’t stick or only seem to stick for a few months every year include journaling, weight lifting, and running (There are definitely a lot more, but I cannot think of them at the moment).
These habits tend to come and go because my motivation for them starts to taper off as time goes on. Eventually this causes the motivation line to cross the difficulty line, meaning my motivation does not match or exceed the difficulty of the task and I no longer continue with it.
This graph shows the representation of motivation vs difficulty when it comes to habit formation. Motivation typically starts high and lessens over time. In this case, the difficulty of the task stays the same, while motivation falls. Once motivation passes under the difficulty line, you no longer take action, unless the habit is already formed. (See graph 2)
In this graph, motivation waivers, but ultimately does not go under the difficulty line. This is because once the habit is formed, the task generally becomes less difficult. When a habit is formed, it allows our brains to autopilot through it. This is the point of a habit, to allow the brain to focus on new tasks and rely on previous data to get us through the routine tasks.
Steps To Get a Habit To Stick
The new daily habits I am trying to stick with are journaling, exercising, reading and writing. There are four steps to the ‘Cue-Routine-Reward” loop that influence habit formation: 1. Cue, 2. Craving, 3. Response, 4. Reward. All four steps are influenced by the four laws of behavior change: 1. Make it Obvious, 2. Make it Attractive, 3. Make it Easy, 4. Make it Satisfying.
Using these four laws I can systematically follow through with the formation of my desired habits. Here’s how I am applying it to the habits I want to create:
1. Journaling
Make it Obvious: I am leaving my journal on my desk in plain view so I will see the cue first thing in the morning to journal.
Make it Attractive: I am pairing this habit with my habit of meditating (also known as habit stacking). After I meditate I always have ideas I like to write down, rather than reaching for my phone I will no reach for my journal. It is attractive because I am not someone who enjoys being on their phone. Writing in a journal aligns with my identity.
Make it Easy: Journaling doesn’t have to be writing a long essay. It can be something deep and meaningful or it can be writing a joke I thought of during the day. I am making it easy by having no goal for my journaling other than to write at least one word (or no words and draw something instead).
Make it Satisfying: I will provide a reward for my effort by having breakfast after I have journaled.
2. Exercise
Make it Obvious: The cues I am leaving for myself include bringing a gym bag to work and leaving it in my car to go straight to the gym or leaving my workout clothes on my bed if I am doing something other than weight lifting (volleyball with friends, bike ride, etc.).
Make it Attractive: As vain as it is, I enjoy looking at my muscles after a workout. Working-out is attractive because of the pump I get.
Make it Easy: Not every workout needs to be a go-all-out effort. I am making an effort to show up every day and do a light workout. Some days I will feel like doing a harder workout, some days I won’t. Allowing myself to have easy days makes it easier. Also, by streamlining my environment so I can head straight to the gym after work or already having the clothes out, I reduce the friction in the system, making it easier.
Make it Satisfying: The satisfaction comes from having a clearer mind and higher endorphin levels after a workout. Also, like with the attractiveness of the habit, the satisfaction comes in the form of a pump.
3. Reading
Make it Obvious: I am leaving my book on my bedside shelf (full of books) in plain view so I will see the cue throughout the day.
Make it Attractive: I enjoy reading, there is nothing more attractive I need about it. I already have a habit of reading, but this is a conscious decision to increase the volume of which I read. Part of this habit is a challenge to myself to read a book a week for the remainder of the year. This challenge also factors into the attractiveness.
Make it Easy: I bring my book with me anywhere there is a chance I might have time to read. This increases the likelihood that I will read at a time I might not have thought to bring my book.
Make it Satisfying: With the goal to read one book a week I get satisfaction by completing the challenge I set for myself.
4. Writing
Make it Obvious: I write this blog primarily on my laptop, which charges on my desk in plain view.
Make it Attractive: I enjoy seeing the post go up immediately after hitting publish.
Make it Easy: I am not committing to writing a post a day, just making some progress on the latest one every day.
Make it Satisfying: It is satisfying to hit publish and send my work out into the world where it has the potential to help others on a similar path.
Common Themes
Whether it is old habits or creating new ones, there are common themes I use to improve my odds of creating a successful habit.
Environment Design: I use cues to remind myself of the things I want to do. I have my yoga mat on the porch ready to go in the morning. I have my journal sitting on my desk and my gym bag in the passenger seat of my car for when I get off work.
Using cues forces me to acknowledge what I should be doing, even if I don’t want to. Then, when I ultimately skip a day, I am conscious that I am skipping a day and feel guilty.
Habit Tracker: I also use a habit tracker to keep me honest when I hit my goals and when I fall short. This makes it easy to look back at the week or month and see how I did. An important tip to keeping your habits is to never skip more than two days.**
Breaking Bad Habits
Not only am I trying to create new, good habits, I am also trying to break bad ones. My worst habit is coming home from work and watching YouTube. The way to break bad habits is the inverse of the way to create new ones: The Inversion of The Four Laws of Behavior Change. 1. Make it Invisible, 2. Make it Unattractive, 3. Make it Difficult, 4. Make it Unsatisfying.
Here’s how I am breaking my habit of excessive YouTube:
Make it Invisible: Deleting the app off of my phone and closing the tab when I am done watching on my computer.
Make it Unattractive: I have changed my identity from someone who watches a lot of YouTube to someone who watches one or two videos a day, but primarily gets there entertainment from books.
Make it Difficult: Setting time limits on my devices that make me enter a passcode to continue watching. (Bonus tip: Have someone else set the passcode so you don’t know it.)
Make it Unsatisfying: I don’t currently have a system in place to make it unsatisfying yet, it is a work in progress. A good system I might use is having to skip dessert after dinner if I watch more than an hour of YouTube a day, and I really love dessert.
*This does not include things like brushing my teeth in the morning, although that is a habit.
**There are a number of different sources that all differ on how long it takes a habit to form – two weeks, thirty days, two months, etc. – but most people generally agree it only takes two days for a habit to start to deform.
