Self-awareness requires silence and space in your brain. A practical step to do this is to ignore your phone as much as possible. In those moments where you have nothing to occupy yourself with, you choose to either occupy it with other people’s thoughts or with your own thoughts.Choose your own more than others.

Mindfulness

Every time I see headlines like “How I read 200 books in 3 months” , all I want to do is ask the writer if they remember the lessons from each one.Reading is a life-changing habit. It has the power to free people. Reading for the sake of checking a book off a list blocks you from accessing those amazing benefits.The key point here is time. Allow time for each book to soak into your soul. Reading is not a race.

Reading

Gratitude not only helps you see the small things in life that are good, but it changes the way you act in life. It makes it easier for you to volunteer, lift others up, defeat ego, and give generously.A practical tip is to let that practice take you one step further in your day-to-day life. Be aware of moments in a busy day where you can serve someone.It really comes down to letting gratitude seep into and motivate your small daily actions.

Gratitude

If you’re having trouble making habits stick and bring real change, do only one. <a href="https://jamesclear.com/new-habit">Do it for 60 days </a>. And once it becomes automatic, add another habit. Then rinse and repeat.

An Experiment for making habit:

<figure><img alt="Man looking solemnly at you with half his face in shadow." src="https://miro.medium.com/max/500/1*0prjo7Gfd8Gakzstl_xDRQ.jpeg" width="680" height="382"><figcaption class="ih ii cy cw cx ij ik cd b fy cf cg" data-selectable-paragraph="" dir="ltr">Photo by <a href="https://www.pexels.com/@pixabay" class="cj il" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">pixabay</a> from <a href="https://www.pexels.com/" class="cj il" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure>I used to lie to myself every day.Each morning, I’d wake up and walk myself through a bunch of habits that promised to change my life. Meditate for 5 minutes? Check. Write down 3 things I’m grateful for? Coffee, books, and coffee. Check.Then when my day truly started, I’d spend all my free time on my phone, and the little things at work would still make me angry. Yet, on Sunday, I’d look back at all those little checkmarks in my journal and pat myself on the back.Doing those things and checking them off felt good, but did it also mean I was becoming good?<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">The Powerful Habits We Can Waste Time With</h1><BLOCKQUOTE>“How we spend our days, is, of course, how we spend our lives” — Annie Dillard</BLOCKQUOTE>Whenever we take the time to sit down, plan out a schedule, or write down goals, the question we are basically trying to answer is:How do we make the most of our time?It’s definitely an important question to answer because the scariest question of all might just be what if? Good habits are how we make the most of our time but we have to work hard to make sure they change us internally, instead of only on the surface.With that said, here are 3 powerful habits that can waste our time if we’re not careful:<h2 data-selectable-paragraph="">1. Mindfulness</h2><BLOCKQUOTE>“<a href="https://www.mindful.org/meditation/mindfulness-getting-started/" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">The goal of mindfulness</a> is to wake up to the inner workings of our mental, emotional, and physical process”</BLOCKQUOTE>Mindfulness is an active process, not passive. It’s about waking up, not going to sleep. It’s also supposed to be hard. I mean, truly understanding how you function mentally, emotionally, and physically? Just focusing on one of those things can be tough.Sitting down for a few minutes each day to notice how your thoughts wander isn’t a bad thing, it’s just the first step on a long journey.The next steps require deep thinking, and as Henry Ford said:<BLOCKQUOTE>“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it”</BLOCKQUOTE>How to not let it waste your time:I’ll let the legendary C.S Lewis do the talking here. This quote comes from him writing about the life of a Christian, but it’s applicable to mindfulness:<BLOCKQUOTE>“It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. The first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day”</BLOCKQUOTE>What it really comes down to is the ability to be self-aware even as the day gets busy.Self-awareness requires silence and space in your brain. A practical step to do this is to ignore your phone as much as possible. In those moments where you have nothing to occupy yourself with, you choose to either occupy it with other people’s thoughts or with your own thoughts.Choose your own more than others.As Lewis pointed out, those first steps in your morning routine set the bar for the rest of the day. Notice what it takes to get a firm hold on your thoughts, and let it guide those moments of possible silence as the day passes.<h2 data-selectable-paragraph="">2. Reading</h2>Every time I see headlines like “How I read 200 books in 3 months”, all I want to do is ask the writer if they remember the lessons from each one.You see, a friend of mine has recently discovered audiobooks. A great invention, but he’s fallen into the trap of listening (reading?) for listening’s sake. He recommended me a book to read, which I did, and I was looking forward to discussing it with him afterward. But when I started a conversation about it, he couldn’t remember a lot of the stuff I was mentioning.Reading is a life-changing habit. It has the power to free people, like how we’ve seen with figures like <a href="https://archinect.com/features/article/150143528/frederick-douglass-and-the-empowered-reader" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">Frederick Douglass</a> and <a href="http://accounts.smccd.edu/bellr/readerlearningtoread.htm" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">Malcolm X</a>. Reading for the sake of checking a book off a list blocks you from accessing those amazing benefits.How to not let it waste your time:Bill Gates, famous for <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/26/bill-gates-took-solo-think-weeks-in-a-cabin-in-the-woods.html" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">isolating himself</a> in the woods to read and think, sets aside a lot of time for each book. In an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTFy8RnUkoU" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">interview</a>, he said that he always needs a pen to write notes to help him internalize what he’s taking in.I mean, if one of the smartest dudes on this planet needs to do that when he reads, we probably should do the same.Amanda Gorman, a brilliant spoken word poet, said that her advice to aspiring writers was to <a href="https://forge.medium.com/amanda-gormons-best-advice-on-creativity-9c543cb41959" rel="noopener" dir="ltr">read things 3 times</a>. Once for pleasure, once to realize what’s good about it, and another time to think about how you could do better.And science backs this up. Whether you’re a writer or not, studies have found that we best internalize knowledge when we <a href="https://www.psywww.com/intropsych/ch00-chapter-zero/three-times-makes-easy.html" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">read something 3 times</a>.The key point here is time. Allow time for each book to soak into your soul. Reading is not a race.<h2 data-selectable-paragraph="">3. Gratitude</h2>The theme here is that those moments in your morning routine where you practice these habits are the first step on a long journey. This can’t be more true when it comes to gratitude practices.Gratitude not only helps you see the small things in life that are good, but it changes the way you <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/womensmedia/2016/07/08/8-ways-to-have-more-gratitude-every-day/?sh=170fb0421d54" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">act in life</a>. It makes it easier for you to volunteer, lift others up, defeat ego, and give generously.When I was doing those gratitude practices before, none of those actions followed suit. I was tricking myself into thinking I was grateful for the things in my life.How to not let it waste your time:<a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/gratitude/" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">Proper gratitude</a> is a state of mind that allows you to really see the beauty in your life. It’s the ability to consistently notice and appreciate the small things as your days roll by. It’s being present enough to notice the sun creeping through the window, the neighbor who always smiles back, and the feeling you get when putting on fresh, new clothes.A practical tip is to let that practice take you one step further in your day-to-day life. Be aware of moments in a busy day where you can <a href="https://www.drwaynedyer.com/blog/the-healing-power-of-service/" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">serve someone</a>.Buy someone a coffee, clean up after everyone without being asked, or do an intentional follow-up. (Not the business kind, but the friendship kind)It really comes down to letting gratitude seep into and motivate your small daily actions.<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">An Underrated Tactic: Take It One At a Time</h1>Now that I think about it, the perfect morning routine seemed to be better when I could fit more things into it. If I could read, meditate, do my gratitude practice, write and still have time for the gym? Well, that’s the dream, isn’t it?In hindsight, that idea is a bit too ambitious, and there are studies to back it up.James Clear, the habit god, wrote that a common reason for habit failure was that you were <a href="https://jamesclear.com/master-one-thing" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">trying to do too much</a>. He cited a study that found habits truly change you if you focus on them one at a time. The time it took to turn a habit automatic and make it an integral part of your life was 60 days.Here’s an experiment. If you’re having trouble making habits stick and bring real change, do only one. <a href="https://jamesclear.com/new-habit" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">Do it for 60 days</a>. And once it becomes automatic, add another habit. Then rinse and repeat.In a year, that’s 6 habits. And the intentional time spent on each one makes it much easier for real change to follow.<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">Mind Cafe’s Reset Your Mind: A Free 10-Day Email Course</h1>We’re offering a free course to all of our new subscribers as a thank you for your continued support. When you sign up using <a href="https://mindcafe.ck.page/fba9da7818" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">this link</a>, we’ll send you tips on how to boost mental clarity and focus every two days.

This article describes three powerful habits: mindfulness, gratitude, and reading. It's all about how to take each one a step further to feel real change.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

habits

Habits

I used to lie to myself every day.

Each morning, I’d wake up and walk myself through a bunch of habits that promised to change my life. Meditate for 5 minutes? Check. Write down 3 things I’m grateful for? Coffee, books, and coffee. Check.

Then when my day truly started, I’d spend all my free time on my phone, and the little things at work would still make me angry. Yet, on Sunday, I’d look back at all those little checkmarks in my journal and pat myself on the back.

Doing those things and checking them off felt good, but did it also mean I was becoming good?

The Powerful Habits We Can Waste Time With

“How we spend our days, is, of course, how we spend our lives” — Annie Dillard

Whenever we take the time to sit down, plan out a schedule, or write down goals, the question we are basically trying to answer is:

How do we make the most of our time?

It’s definitely an important question to answer because the scariest question of all might just be what if? Good habits are how we make the most of our time but we have to work hard to make sure they change us internally, instead of only on the surface.

With that said, here are 3 powerful habits that can waste our time if we’re not careful:

“<a dir="ltr" href="https://www.mindful.org/meditation/mindfulness-getting-started/" rel="noopener nofollow">The goal of mindfulness </a>is to wake up to the inner workings of our mental, emotional, and physical process”

Mindfulness is an active process, not passive. It’s about waking up, not going to sleep. It’s also supposed to be hard. I mean, truly understanding how you function mentally, emotionally, and physically? Just focusing on one of those things can be tough.

Sitting down for a few minutes each day to notice how your thoughts wander isn’t a bad thing, it’s just the first step on a long journey.

The next steps require deep thinking, and as Henry Ford said:

“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it”

How to not let it waste your time:

I’ll let the legendary C.S Lewis do the talking here. This quote comes from him writing about the life of a Christian, but it’s applicable to mindfulness:

“It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. The first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day”

What it really comes down to is the ability to be self-aware even as the day gets busy.

Self-awareness requires silence and space in your brain. A practical step to do this is to ignore your phone as much as possible. In those moments where you have nothing to occupy yourself with, you choose to either occupy it with other people’s thoughts or with your own thoughts.

Choose your own more than others.

As Lewis pointed out, those first steps in your morning routine set the bar for the rest of the day. Notice what it takes to get a firm hold on your thoughts, and let it guide those moments of possible silence as the day passes.

Every time I see headlines like “How I read 200 books in 3 months” , all I want to do is ask the writer if they remember the lessons from each one.

You see, a friend of mine has recently discovered audiobooks. A great invention, but he’s fallen into the trap of listening (reading? ) for listening’s sake. He recommended me a book to read, which I did, and I was looking forward to discussing it with him afterward. But when I started a conversation about it, he couldn’t remember a lot of the stuff I was mentioning.

Reading is a life-changing habit. It has the power to free people, like how we’ve seen with figures like <a dir="ltr" href="https://archinect.com/features/article/150143528/frederick-douglass-and-the-empowered-reader" rel="noopener nofollow">Frederick Douglass </a>and <a dir="ltr" href="http://accounts.smccd.edu/bellr/readerlearningtoread.htm" rel="noopener nofollow">Malcolm X </a>. Reading for the sake of checking a book off a list blocks you from accessing those amazing benefits.

Bill Gates, famous for <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/26/bill-gates-took-solo-think-weeks-in-a-cabin-in-the-woods.html" rel="noopener nofollow">isolating himself </a>in the woods to read and think, sets aside a lot of time for each book. In an <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTFy8RnUkoU" rel="noopener nofollow">interview </a>, he said that he always needs a pen to write notes to help him internalize what he’s taking in.

I mean, if one of the smartest dudes on this planet needs to do that when he reads, we probably should do the same.

Amanda Gorman, a brilliant spoken word poet, said that her advice to aspiring writers was to <a dir="ltr" href="https://forge.medium.com/amanda-gormons-best-advice-on-creativity-9c543cb41959" rel="noopener">read things 3 times </a>. Once for pleasure, once to realize what’s good about it, and another time to think about how you could do better.

And science backs this up. Whether you’re a writer or not, studies have found that we best internalize knowledge when we <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.psywww.com/intropsych/ch00-chapter-zero/three-times-makes-easy.html" rel="noopener nofollow">read something 3 times </a>.

The key point here is time. Allow time for each book to soak into your soul. Reading is not a race.

The theme here is that those moments in your morning routine where you practice these habits are the first step on a long journey. This can’t be more true when it comes to gratitude practices.

Gratitude not only helps you see the small things in life that are good, but it changes the way you <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/womensmedia/2016/07/08/8-ways-to-have-more-gratitude-every-day/?sh=170fb0421d54" rel="noopener nofollow">act in life </a>. It makes it easier for you to volunteer, lift others up, defeat ego, and give generously.

When I was doing those gratitude practices before, none of those actions followed suit. I was tricking myself into thinking I was grateful for the things in my life.

<a dir="ltr" href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/gratitude/" rel="noopener nofollow">Proper gratitude </a>is a state of mind that allows you to really see the beauty in your life. It’s the ability to consistently notice and appreciate the small things as your days roll by. It’s being present enough to notice the sun creeping through the window, the neighbor who always smiles back, and the feeling you get when putting on fresh, new clothes.

A practical tip is to let that practice take you one step further in your day-to-day life. Be aware of moments in a busy day where you can <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.drwaynedyer.com/blog/the-healing-power-of-service/" rel="noopener nofollow">serve someone </a>.

Buy someone a coffee, clean up after everyone without being asked, or do an intentional follow-up. (Not the business kind, but the friendship kind )

It really comes down to letting gratitude seep into and motivate your small daily actions.

An Underrated Tactic: Take It One At a Time

Now that I think about it, the perfect morning routine seemed to be better when I could fit more things into it. If I could read, meditate, do my gratitude practice, write and still have time for the gym? Well, that’s the dream, isn’t it?

In hindsight, that idea is a bit too ambitious, and there are studies to back it up.

James Clear, the habit god, wrote that a common reason for habit failure was that you were <a dir="ltr" href="https://jamesclear.com/master-one-thing" rel="noopener nofollow">trying to do too much </a>. He cited a study that found habits truly change you if you focus on them one at a time. The time it took to turn a habit automatic and make it an integral part of your life was 60 days.

Here’s an experiment. If you’re having trouble making habits stick and bring real change, do only one. <a dir="ltr" href="https://jamesclear.com/new-habit" rel="noopener nofollow">Do it for 60 days </a>. And once it becomes automatic, add another habit. Then rinse and repeat.

In a year, that’s 6 habits. And the intentional time spent on each one makes it much easier for real change to follow.

Mind Cafe’s Reset Your Mind: A Free 10-Day Email Course

We’re offering a free course to all of our new subscribers as a thank you for your continued support. When you sign up using <a dir="ltr" href="https://mindcafe.ck.page/fba9da7818" rel="noopener nofollow">this link </a>, we’ll send you tips on how to boost mental clarity and focus every two days.

3 Life-Changing Habits That Waste Your Time If You’re Not Careful

Mindfulness

Reading

Gratitude

An Experiment for making habit:

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