Tag: Habits

Want To Build Good Habits, Start With Routines

Neera

As I sat in my bed, earphones in my ears, listing to the calming music, I did my morning meditation.

Five minutes later, I opened my eyes, grabbed my journal and my favorite pen, and started writing the thoughts and the ideas I received in that short meditative state.

Twenty minutes later, after following an invigorating, productive, and short morning routine, I was ready to face the day.

I also had enough material to write an article later in the day.

The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine — Mike Murdock

We need routines.

When I wake up in the morning, I brush my teeth and then sit in bed and meditate. That is my morning routine. It starts my day.

When I start working, I open my computer and check my emails and Slack messages. That’s my work routine. It helps me get into a work mindset.

We need routines to guide us.

Journaling is one of the several routines I have developed to get me straight into the writer’s mindset. Writing in a journal each morning helps me collect my thoughts so that I can become more intentional with my time.

Ending my day with a personal daily debrief in the daily diary is a routine that helps me evaluate what I accomplished in the day.

In all these routines, I learn how to be efficient with my time and how to match what I do with what I care about.

The opposite of routine is chaos.

Chaos is a deep rut leading nowhere.

It is also known as bad habits such as giving up to distractions and procrastination.

It is letting your monkey mind take over and lead you in the wrong direction to reach unimportant goals.

When we feel stressed, tired, or derailed, a routine helps us get back on course.

“The right routine gives us the equivalent of an energy rebate. Instead of spending our limited supply of discipline on making the same decision again and again, embedding our decisions into a routine allows us to channel that discipline toward some other essential activity.”

There’s a sense of well-being that comes when we complete tasks.

Routines help us form habits.

Think about driving a car. You check and adjust your mirrors, put your feet on the brake, start the car, and release the handbrake. You do all these steps without noticing because they have become habits.

Habits form when we follow a predetermined routine.

The best routines lead to the best results.

Routines set a tone for developing good habits that last your entire life.

A good habit means you’re driving in the fast lane. Buckle up and hold on for the ride! You’ll reach your destination quickly and efficiently.

A bad habit means you’re in the slow land or, worse, stuck on the side of the road. Constant distractions and derailments keep you from making progress.

The more details of our daily life we can hand over to the routines, the more capacity our mind will have to do the proper work.

A good routine is not only a source of great comfort and stability, but it’s also the platform from which stimulating and fulfilling work is possible. — Ryan Holiday

You can follow the routine at any time or place during the day. I write my journal even on holidays. And if for some reason, I can’t write it in the morning, I will write at the first opportunity I get during the day. Because journaling has become a habit.

This month I started publishing an article a day. I am still setting up the routine. Some days I get it done early in the morning. On other days, life interferes, and I have to stay up late at night writing. Slowly, a routine will form, and I will be able to perform this task like several others without thinking much about it.

Back in mid-June 2021, I wrote and published a book in one week. That was an act of extreme productivity. But it was not sustainable.

Small changes to build a routine that leads to forming habits are more sustainable.

Like John Maxwell said, “You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret to your success is found in your daily routine.”

Build routines and turn them into habits.

Building Habits Is Hard—Particularly Good Habits.

Neera

Building habits is hard—particularly good habits.

How can I go to the gym every morning but can’t eat Healthy?

I have been able to nail many habits I struggled with previously, such as daily writing, morning gym, and weekly posting of the newsletter, but then there are other habits I haven’t been able to nail.

For ten years, I have been trying to reduce my sugar intake and control my weight, but I keep falling in and out of healthy eating habits.

Why?

Seems like I found the answer.

According to Gretchen Rubin, habit-building depends on how you respond to expectations. When we try to form a new habit, we set an expectation for ourselves. So it is crucial to understand how we respond to expectations.

There are two kinds of expectations:

  1. Outer expectations — meet work deadlines, observe traffic regulations, etc.
  2. Inner expectations — write daily, keep New Year’s resolutions, etc.

Our response to expectations determines our tendencies to build habits.

Knowing our tendency can help us set up situations in which it is more likely that we’ll achieve our aims. We can make better decisions, meet deadlines, meet our promises to ourselves, suffer less stress, and engage more deeply with others.

In the book The Four Tendencies, Gretchen Rubin hypothesized that to respond to expectations, just about everyone falls into one of four distinct groups:

  • Upholder
  • Questioner
  • Obliger or
  • Rebel
Image Source

Upholders

Upholders respond readily to both outer and inner expectations. They wake up and think, What is on schedule and the To-Do List for today? They want to know what is expected of them and to meet those expectations. They are self-directed and have little trouble meeting commitments, keeping resolutions, or meeting deadlines.

Questioners

Questioners question all expectations. They will meet expectations only if they believe it is justified. They wake up and think, What needs to get done today and why? They decide for themselves whether a course of action is a good idea and they resist doing anything that seems to lack sound purpose.

Obligers

Obligers respond readily to outer expectations, but struggle to meet inner expectations. They wake up and think, What must I do today? Because Obligers resist inner expectations, it’s difficult for them to self-motivate to build a habit. They depend on external accountability.

Rebels

Rebels resist all expectations and will meet an expectation only as an act of choice. They value their freedom and won’t tolerate it for anything. They wake up and think, What do I want to do today? They resist control, even self-control, and enjoy flouting rules and expectations.

You can take a quiz on Gretchen Rubin’s website to find out what is your tendency. It surely helps you know what tendency you are to figure out what measures to take to make sure you build the habit you are trying to build.

Seems like I am a rebel. I resist control. I set up routines and then break them because I get sick of them. I like waking up and asking myself What can I eat today?

It used to be the same with writing as well. I hated to stick with one niche. I wanted to write whatever I feel like. I still do. What kept me in writing and helped me develop consistency is the variety. The more varied topics I write about, the more excited I get.

I have applied the same approach to losing weight. I tried different diets. But that didn’t work. As you know, diets only want you to eat more when you come out of them. And then you gain all the weight you have lost.

I still have to find a way to build a healthy eating habits. And I think the answer lies in Identity Based Habit. I will write about it next.