deepstash
Beta
Deepstash brings you key ideas from the most inspiring articles like this one:
Read more efficiently
Save what inspires you
Remember anything
Stop Confusing Habits for Routines: What You Need To Know
5
Key Ideas
Save all ideas
Habits and behavior change
1.58k SAVES
4.28k READS
Habits are a type of learning
They generate an impulse to do a behavior with little or no conscious thought.
By forming a habit, the brain frees the mind to do other things without deliberation. So behaviors that require concentration, deliberation, or extended effort, are not habits.
1.92k SAVES
3.67k READS
What drives motivation
Motivation is not driven by pleasure and pain, but rather by the desire to escape discomfort.
Our brains get our bodies to do what they want through discomfort. And the same rule applies to psychological discomfort.
2.04k SAVES
3.79k READS
Habits, routines and effort
- A habit is an impulse to do a behavior with little or no conscious thought. Not doing a habit feels uncomfortable, like not washing your hands after using the toilet or not flossing your teeth before bed.
- A routine is a behavior frequently repeated. Unlike a habit, skipping a routine doesn’t feel bad and without proper forethought, can be easily skipped or forgotten.
2.08k SAVES
3.55k READS
Forming habits
- Start with a routine and stick to it.
- Make time in your schedule for your routine. Without this, chances are it’ll never get done.
- Learn to manage discomfort. New routines won’t be effortless, so you can learn coping techniques to deal with discomfort in a healthier manner.
- Find ways to pre-commit. You can find someone to hold you accountable, for example.
- Remember not to try and turn hard-to-do behaviors into habits. Doing so risks frustration and failure.
2.38k SAVES
4.44k READS
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
5
Key Ideas
The Confusion Of Habit and Routine
Habits are programmed human behaviors with little or zero conscious thought. Habits free our minds to other things, but our behavior isn’t always on autopilot. There are many tasks that require con...
Understanding Motivation
Neurologically speaking, motivation is the desire to escape psychological discomfort or a life situation that is not giving us any kind of ‘pleasure’.
Most behaviors are prompted by discomfort. If we are hungry, we eat. If we are lonely, we call up a friend. If we are bored, we turn on the TV.
The Test
If we are procrastinating instead of doing a certain task, telling ourselves that we would it later, it is a sure sign that the task isn’t a habit which can be done on autopilot but is, in fact, a routine.
Anything that requires effort is easy to forget or postpone.
7
Key Ideas
“Few things are sadder than encountering a person who knows exactly what he should do, yet cannot muster enough en..."
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Intense focus
It happens only when:
- You define your goals clearly
- You have the capacity to complete the tasks necessary to achieve them.
You can't blame technology
While endless scrolling on your phone is a symptom of the problem, it is not the root cause of why you find it hard to focus.
To learn how to focus, you must adopt new skills as well as understand the most common causes of distraction.
5
Key Ideas
A compulsive behavior
It involves actions a person feels driven to do over and over again.
Compulsive actions may appear to be irrational or pointless, but the individuals may feel incapable of ...
Compulsion vs. Addiction
A compulsion is an overwhelming desire to do something. An addiction is a physical or chemical dependence on a substance or behaviour.
Two key differences between compulsion and addiction:
- Pleasure. Compulsive behaviours rarely result in feelings of pleasure. People with addictions desire the substance or behaviour because they expect to enjoy it.
- Awareness: People with compulsive disorders are typically aware of their behaviours and bothered by the lack of logical reason for doing them. People with addictions are unaware of or unconcerned about the negative consequences of their actions.
Compulsion vs. Habit
- Habits are repeated actions that must be consciously initiated. Eventually, the process becomes subconscious and automatic: for example, when you are brushing your teeth.
- Unhealthy habits can become a compulsion or even an addiction. For example, the good habit of regular exercising can become an unhealthy compulsion or addiction when done in excess.
The difference between a compulsive behaviour and a habit is the ability to choose to do them.