A couple days ago, when I posted about adding “backups” to our schedules, I said that, “if you know that there are certain portions of your routine that aren’t – well, routine – yet, be sure you plug in these “backups” during portions of your day that you are pretty consistent with.”
The principle behind this is pretty simple, but very effective. It’s very hard to eliminate or add a habit; it’s not nearly as difficult to alter an existing habit. Putting this information into practice can be very powerful.
Build a Habit
If there is a new habit you want to develop,tie it to something you already consistently do. You want to start having quiet time every morning? If you just randomly decide to do this, it might stick. If you “attach” this activity to something that’s already a consistent part of your schedule – put a reminder in your email, or read your Bible at the breakfast table – you’re much more likely to remember (at least in the beginning).
Lose a Habit
Conversely, it’s pretty difficult to eliminate a bad habit. But you might have greater success replacing it. (This is the general idea behind chewing gum when you’re trying to quit smoking.) If you have a bad habit of complaining (I’m stepping on my own toes here), it’s easier to get rid of this by saying something good than by trying to simply keep your mouth shut.
I’d love to hear your ideas/examples of new habits to attach to existing activities, or good habits to replace bad ones!
Great suggestions! I’ve been adding new habits lately, and it definitely helps to have it associated with something – for instance, I wash the dishes right after lunch but before I take the baby out of his high chair. That way he won’t be needing his diaper and nap while I’m needing to wash the dishes. Before my husband would come home and the dishes still weren’t washed because we had jumped over that part of the schedule.
Thank you for this good advice. Building new habits has always been a great struggle for me, as it has been for many others. In fact, I have become very good at ignoring reminders that I set for myself to work on a new habit, so I decided to write an app that would remind me to work on them at random times: not knowing when these reminders come helps me pay attention to them.
If I may, I would like to share the link to the app, in the hope that it will help some of your readers conquer some of these bad habits and replace them with better ones: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mind-jogger/id409841508?mt=8