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I think many of the habit creating methods tend to forget that habit creation should be easy and not test your willpower. For example, I spent years trying to

I think many of the habit creating methods tend to forget that habit creation should be easy and not test your willpower. For example, I spent years trying to reduce my weight and in spite of balanced diets, group motivation etc I failed a lot. Then one day I read about keto. I enjoy eating fatty foods a lot, so relying on fats as energy seemed easy. Eventually when I started my diet, it was like a walk in the park. I enjoyed my every meal and never felt like I was being forced to do something. On the other hand, for stuff like mediation I tried the method mentioned in the thread. Complete the habit, mark it in a habit tracker. It worked great. But, later due to a family emergency I had to travel and those were two stressful weeks. In those weeks, completing the habit and then tracking felt like a chore. It was at that time I realized for better or worse I saw these things as checklist items and not habits. Lately, I have been trying the Tiny Habits method from BJ Fogg. The premise of this method is to make habits automatic and not rely on trackers or alarms to complete them. And instead of relying purely on will power day by day to complete them think of the smallest step possible. It works great for the three habits I have started with.

Swizec 8y ago
> In those weeks, completing the habit and then tracking felt like a chore. I've noticed this with a lot of my habits. At some point you have so many amazing and useful daily habits that doing the habits becomes a massive drain on time and attention. That means the habits are no longer beneficial. Time to drop some of them. Pruning is important and not often talked about in the self-improvement literature. The first one I dropped is meditation. I get much better benefits from a 30 minute run than I do from 10 minutes sitting still in a chair. And it's easier to make time for running than it is for sitting in a chair. Plus running is meditative too. And so on. I find that habits that are getting harder and harder to stick to are telling me "Hey psst, I'm not useful anymore"
brian_cunnie 8y ago
> ...habit creation should be easy and not test your willpower. I couldn't agree more. I tried going to the gym to stay in shape, but it was touch-and-go. Then I discovered that I enjoyed rugby and open water swimming, and that changed everything: exercise was no longer a chore, it was fun! And that makes a world of difference.
mszcz 8y ago
What worked for me was making the habbits as small as possibile, at least in the beggining. Want to medditate in the morning? Start with 1 minute for 90 days. Streching after waking up? Sure, do 1 rep of 1 exercise for a week and then add another rep etc. Turns out that for me the most difficult thing to do was to smart small so that I do not stop when my initial optimism fades. I got around it by thinking that I would still be better off after doing 1 rep of a single exercise a day for a year then not doing any at all (which was what happened at earlier attempts).

Swizec 8y ago

> In those weeks, completing the habit and then tracking felt like a chore. I've noticed this with a lot of my habits. At some point you have so many amazing and useful daily habits that doing the habits becomes a massive drain on time and attention. That means the habits are no longer beneficial. Time to drop some of them. Pruning is important and not often talked about in the self-improvement literature. The first one I dropped is meditation. I get much better benefits from a 30 minute run than I do from 10 minutes sitting still in a chair. And it's easier to make time for running than it is for sitting in a chair. Plus running is meditative too. And so on. I find that habits that are getting harder and harder to stick to are telling me "Hey psst, I'm not useful anymore"

brian_cunnie 8y ago

> ...habit creation should be easy and not test your willpower. I couldn't agree more. I tried going to the gym to stay in shape, but it was touch-and-go. Then I discovered that I enjoyed rugby and open water swimming, and that changed everything: exercise was no longer a chore, it was fun! And that makes a world of difference.

mszcz 8y ago

What worked for me was making the habbits as small as possibile, at least in the beggining. Want to medditate in the morning? Start with 1 minute for 90 days. Streching after waking up? Sure, do 1 rep of 1 exercise for a week and then add another rep etc. Turns out that for me the most difficult thing to do was to smart small so that I do not stop when my initial optimism fades. I got around it by thinking that I would still be better off after doing 1 rep of a single exercise a day for a year then not doing any at all (which was what happened at earlier attempts).