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 need to change course.
In my book New York Times bestselling book Atomic Habits, I explain that the process of building a habit can be divided into four simple steps: cue, craving, response, and reward. The image below shows the habit loop and how these four factors work together to build new habits.
The cue triggers a craving, which motivates a response, which provides a reward, which satisfies the craving and, ultimately, becomes associated with the cue.
This article is an excerpt from Atomic Habits, my New York Times bestselling book. While researching Atomic Habits, I came across a story that immediately struck me with its simplicity and power. It was the story of Oswald Nuckols, an IT developer from Natchez, Mississippi, and his simple strategy for making future habits easy.
Whenever you organize a space for its intended purpose, you are priming it to make the next action easy. This is one of the most practical and simple ways to improve your habits.
To draw more: Put your pencils, pens, notebooks, and drawing tools on top of your desk, within easy reach.
To exercise more: Set out your workout clothes, shoes, gym bag, and water bottle ahead of time.
To improve your diet: Chop up a ton of fruits and vegetables on weekends and pack them in containers, so you have easy access to healthy, ready-to-eat options during the week.
If you watch too much television, unplug it after each use. Only plug it back in if you can say out loud the name of the show you want to watch. (Which prevents you from turning on Netflix and “just finding something” to watch.) This setup creates just enough friction to prevent mindless viewing.
New habits are very major life changes and should not be taken lightly. They require an enormous amount of discipline and mental energy to build, and you don't want to overwhelm yourself.
Your timeline is how often you want to practice your new habit; it’s your recurring goal.For example, meditate for 30 minutes per day.
A short timeline can be overwhelming, and a long timeline won't give you enough practice. For best results, use a weekly timeline: mediate for 3 hours per week.
A good weekly timeline isn't overwhelming and will give you some “wiggle room” in your hectic schedule.
Keep your goals extremely small at the beginning, and then gradually increase them every week. Your initial goals should be so small that it would be impossible not to complete them:
meditate for 5 minutes this week.
read 5 pages this week.
floss 1 day this week.
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