How many times have we have made daily schedules and have failed at following them? First day we are fully motivated, by 3rd day we are negotiating with our mind and by 4th day we give up. Why does this happen?
There’s an easy answer. Our mind likes comfort, easy choices and laziness. So, we crash back to our previous routine before we know it.
Are you tired of making excuses to yourself? Well, not anymore- concept of microhabits can help you break the pattern. As the name says, its sticking to tiny habits, making small efforts instead of promising big deals to yourself. Its hard to get on to something new and even harder when the new task feels like a burden. So, best way is to start, start small but stay consistent.
If I were to tell you to finish reading a 100 pages book in 30 days. Your mind will just focus of 100 pages and think “that seems a lot”. You might be excited initially and try to finish 10 pages on first day….8 pages next day….5 next day….2…1….0 and with that dies your motivation to read altogether.
Instead of jumping onto the task with full swing, what if I told you to start with reading 1 page every day. That’s easy! it will hardly take you 10-15 mins to finish that. Then you can go and do something you really enjoy doing. But the only condition in this method is to do it everyday without fail, even when your brain tells you not to. By the end of 1 week, you notice a change in yourself, you’ll find yourself turning the page and reading 2nd page as well, gradually you’ll be wanting to finish a chapter in one sitting. If this goes on, finishing 100 pages won’t seem like a big deal. You’ll be craving to read more.
What we did here was simply sticking to a micro habit and letting in be the part of our daily routine naturally.
There are few more ways you can fool your mind and try to stick to new habits:
- Try to combine one old and a new habit- plan in such a way that after completing task A (old habit), you hop on immediately to task B (new habit)
- Prepare ahead- do a little preparation for the new task before you actually start doing it; eg- If going to gym daily is a difficult task for you, change into your gym outfit as soon as you get back home. This will prevent procrastination.
- Write everything very clearly- what are you going to do, when and where? This prevent making end moment decisions and wasting time. When you already have your routine planned out well, you can use your energy to compete to that task, instead of wasting time.
- Keep track of every activity- check off the boxes when you are done, this will keep things simple and give you a sense of productivity.
How will this transform your life?
It can be a game changer. Including tasks in a form of microhabits can gradually help you get into habit of doing something that you have been longing to do for a while. You will not even realise, but you will end up transforming your life with these micro changes.
Have you ever been in such position, where you wanted to form a new habit, but was always defeated by your mind? And will you be willing to try these methods of forming new habits?
MBH/PS