It's true that to achieve anything in life, you need to be consistent at something to get good at it. Most people know that, but even though they wish to be successful, they struggle to stay consistent at whatever they need to do. I used to jump from one thing to another without really sticking to anything. Although it's good to try different things, it is not practical to do everything at once. I believe building habits in a slow but consistent way is an effective approach to make them stick.
And part of that approach involves reducing the friction in those activities, which means designing the easiest version of your desired habit. Here are four ways to do that.
Make Sure It Is Easy To Get Started
There's a common belief that motivation is the key to make a new routine or habit stick, but that's not true. Our willpower throughout the day is limited, and we can't rely on it to get things done.
We're more likely to do something that is easy and requires less energy. That's human nature. We don't like doing hard things unless we get some immediate or apparent reward.
If you invest time in something, you expect to see quick results, and when you don't, you quit.
Unfortunately, it takes time to see results after you've adopted a new routine or activity. You won't notice any significant changes if you've only meditated for a few weeks or notice big results in your body if you only went to the gym for one month.
To avoid quitting, you need to design an environment where performing your new habit is as easy as possible.
Make sure it is easy to get started. Simplify your preparation process, which means reducing the number of steps you need to take before performing that activity.
For example, to make sure I run every day, I have a pair of shoes and clothes ready the day before.
The less friction there is, the more likely you're to perform your desired habit, even if you don't feel like it.
For my Japanese language studies, I already know what I need to work on in every study session. I divided my study sessions into many sub-activities:
- Learn five new words and write at least two sentences with each word
- Read my hiragana book for 15 minutes
- Take grammar notes from class
- Listen to podcast for 20 minutes
Habit Stacking
This strategy first appeared in the book Habit Stacking by S.J Scott. Essentially, it makes it easier to adopt a new habit once you add it to your already existing routine.
According to Paul Brewerton, the habit stacking strategy comes from the idea that by clustering the practices we want to sustain, we increase the odds of remembering them.
Suppose you already have an established routine with a set of activities. In that case, you only need to stack your desired habit on top.
You are using one of your daily activities as a trigger. For example, if your goal is to read more, you can set yourself the goal to read your book after eating breakfast.
Personally, I found that you can also put a new habit before one of your daily activities. For example, you can choose to journal before or after your workout or any other activity you have.
You don't need to carve out time for your new activity each day because it is already embedded into your daily routine.
Use The Two Minute Rule
Most people have sometimes felt bursts of motivation to start doing something new. They may start a project or adopt crazy routines, but after a few weeks, they quit.
Maybe you tried reading a book per week, or eating healthy meals every day, only to find yourself giving up the next month because you've lost motivation.
I've been there, and I know how much it sucks. Giving up or quitting doesn't make you a failure. It only means that you've been using the wrong strategy or approach.
According to James Clear, if you're serious about staying consistent at something, you have to start small, really small. Repeating tiny and daily behaviors will make success inevitable.
David Allen created the 2-minute rule, and it is pretty simple: Starting a new habit should never take you more than two minutes to do.
To do this, design the easiest version of your habit that only takes you two minutes (or any amount of time you feel comfortable with) to complete. Here are some examples:
If you want to exercise more, start running for 2 minutes in your backyard
If you want to read more, start reading one page of your book in the mornings
Do It In The Morning
Here's something you might not know: we are all "morning people." Less than 1% of the population is genetically programmed to be night owls.
Robert Carter, Ph.D., argues that those who consider themselves more productive at night probably suffer from a reduction in cognitive performance and emotional regulation.
In the mornings, we experience low levels of fatigue, irritation, and frustration. We feel more proactive and persistent, which explains why people seem to get more things done in the morning.
When trying to implement a new activity into your routine, it's crucial to decide when you will do it.
Research says that you are more likely to stick to a habit if you do it in the morning. I started meditating at night after finishing all of my tasks. But that was a mistake. Meditating with a tired body and mind will make you fall asleep, and you'll not be able to rip off its benefits.
After some months, I quit because I couldn't force myself to sit down in a chair when all I wanted to do was sleep. And I didn't think it was worth the effort because I wasn't seeing any significant results.
I decided to give meditation another try a few weeks ago, but this time I'm doing it in the mornings.
It's so much easier to stay consistent with new activities by doing them in the mornings. The hard part is finding an excuse not to do them. You feel more active, and there's less resistance than if you were to do the same activities at night.
All four of these strategies complement each other, but try implementing one or two when you first start out. Once you put them into practice, you'll discover which ones are more suitable for you.
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