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Keystone Habits: Improve All Areas of Your Life with One Small Habit
Examples of Keystone Habits
Exercising regularly is for many people a keystone habit because when they do it, they also make healthier eating and life choices and procrastinate less.
Other keystone habits include: meditation, reading, writing and socialising. They provide a nice foundation for a healthy life in all domains
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Making Your Habits Stick
To make any habit stick in the long-term (keystone or not), do it regularly.
The more often you do the habit, the more you'll get used to it, and eventually, you'll do it without thinking—the definition of a habit.
Keep Track Of Your Habit Every Day
It helps to know how often you’re succeeding (or not). Use whatever works for you: pen and paper of habit tracking apps.
A simple way to keep track of your progress is to mark each day you complete your habit on a calendar.
Start Small
Do the minimum you can and be consistent in your behavior.
To create a new habit, you must first simplify the behavior. A good tiny behavior is easy to do — and fast.
Plan Ahead
Planning ahead is the trick to not getting thrown off by unfamiliar situations.
Because there are so many variables that can affect our ability to stick with new behaviors, planning ahead is the best way to build up the consistency we need for the habit to stick.
Keystone Habits
They tend to have ripple effects which change your behavior in unexpected ways.
The power of a keystone habit draws from its ability to set off a chain reaction that causes other patterns to change as well.
Identify Your Keystone Habits
Look for behaviors that have a ripple effect, and change your other behaviors without extra effort.
Also, pay attention to how you see yourself when you do a particular habit: Does it change your self-image? Do you feel better when you think of yourself as a person?
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Struggling To Build Healthy Habits
- We tend to bite off more than we can chew, go too fast too soon, and then get overwhelmed too quickly.
- We’re conditioned these days to expect and receive instant gratification.
Your “Big Why”
As you’re determining the habits or resolutions you’re trying to set, make the habit part of a bigger cause that’s worth the struggle.
You’re not just going to the gym, you’re building a new body that you’re not ashamed of so you can start dating again.
Healthy Habit Building 101
There are 3 parts to a good or bad habit: Cue (what triggers the action), Routine (the action itself), Reward (the positive result because of the action).
You have trained your brain to take a cue (you see a doughnut), anticipate a reward (a sugar high), and make the behavior automatic (nom that donut).Compare that to a cue (you see your running shoes), anticipate a reward (a runner’s high), and make the behavior automatic (go for a run!).
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Habit tracking
Is a simple and effective thing to do if you want to stick with a habit for good. No matter the format (calendar, journal, app), it provides immediate evidence whether you are making progress or...
The power of habit tracking:
- It creates a visual cue that can remind you to act.
- It is motivating to see the progress you are making. You don't want to break your streak.
- It feels satisfying to record your success in the moment.
To make habit tracking easier:
- Manual tracking should be limited to your most important habits.
- Record each measurement immediately after the habit occurs.
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The Habit Loop
The cue triggers a craving, which motivates a response, which provides a reward, which satisfies the craving and, ultimately, becomes associated with the cue.
Together, these fo...
5 primary ways that a new habit can be triggered
- Cue 1: Time - Most common way to trigger a new habit
- Cue 2: Location - Most powerful driver of mindless habits and also the least recognized
- Cue 3: Preceding Event - Many habits are a response to something else that happens in your life
- Cue 4: Emotional State - emotional state is a common cue for bad habits
- Cue 5: Other People - people you surround yourself with can play a role in your habits and behaviors.