Building better habits

Hey friends,

Why do our habits sometimes not stick?

It’s not news that goals are best achieved by stacking habits and routines. Check out the many habit books, Atomic Habits, Morning Routines, etc. So why do we fail when we know we should be doing them consistently to achieve our goals?

You’ll doing to much at once

The main reason is that we try to do too much in a short period of time. By this I mean we take on too many habits. If you started your month with 20 new habits but only managed to do 3 of them regularly, then you did REALLY well doing that as it was. You can’t expect yourself to start so many new things each month and stick to them. It’s better to space out those habits and focus on a few at a time. For example, if you want to build a better morning routine, start by waking up early consistently, then add on the other habits you want after. It’s much easier to focus on doing one new habit at a time than 5 or 6.

You’re not keeping time

It’s also important to note, you may not be calculating the time that habit may take in your already busy days. If you want to work out for an hour a day, does that include prep time? Travel? Shower after? Snack after or before? It’s a good practice to time yourself on various tasks each day, to see how much you can actually get done in a day and where you have space to add these new routines you want. Time blocking is a huge help for busy schedules and keeping it realistic.

The best way to ensure you are doing said habits is to schedule into your day, set an alarm and try to do it consistently at the same time each day.

Is it really that important to you?

If you find yourself skipping this habit, even after your schedule it and remind yourself-you might need to step back and ask yourself – do you really value this habit? Did it just sound cool or healthy? It’s so easy to get onto trends for productivity – a morning routine, for example, was all the things years ago and many people still stick to one, but do you want to?

It’s important to have a way for you to have a method to call your new habit a success. Match you habits to a specific goal that inspires you to keep going for it. If it’s just unpleasant for you, such as working out (looking at myself here), it might be a good compromise with yourself to add a reward or a friend to do the habit with. These can help keep you on track if it is just hard. Having a deadline sometimes helps too-so maybe if it works out, you could do a 5k at the end. It gives you a deadline, and you may surprise yourself with your progress in a short time with an end date in sight.

Taking small steps helps you achieve more by building routines you both like and can keep at.