How To: Building Your Ideal Morning Routine
How did you wake up today?
For many people, the first few minutes after waking involve hitting the snooze button several times. After finally getting up—often later than intended—they spend a dozen or more minutes scrolling through social media or responding to messages and notifications from the night before.
However, research suggests that starting your day in such a reactive state can have serious downsides. It affects not only your attitude towards the rest of your day but also your health and mental well-being.
Beginning your day as described above can worsen your mood from the start and unnecessarily stress your body and mind in that crucial first hour. This can lead to lethargy throughout the day, increased susceptibility to triggers, and a generally unfulfilling day—all because we didn't start our morning in an energizing and fulfilling way.
It's therefore important to build a morning routine—however long or simple—that works well for you and your lifestyle.
Everyone has different lives, time constraints, and duties, so naturally, not every routine will work for everyone. The key is to focus on those components you value and that make a big difference in your morning. Incorporate these into your mornings as regularly as you can. The goal is to make your routine functional, practical, and energizing for you.
My intention today: I want to provide you with a variety of ideas you can mix and match for your own morning routine, helping you truly elevate the start of your day according to your preferences and needs.
I hope you'll find something useful here to help you build a morning routine that will inspire and prepare you well for the day ahead.
15 IDEAS FOR WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR MORNING ROUTINE
Getting a good night of sleep the night before: Paradoxically, one of the best things you can do as part of your morning routine is to ensure you're getting a good night's sleep. This makes waking up at an earlier time much easier and helps you feel energized the following day.
Waking up early: Rising early allows you to get the most out of your day and enjoy some unrushed personal time before heading out.
Making your bed: This simple habit helps start your day off right. By making your bed first thing in the morning, you've already accomplished something worthwhile, which helps you tackle the rest of your daily tasks.
Movement: Incorporating some form of movement into your morning can be very helpful, waking up your body and stretching out any sore or tense spots. You don't necessarily need a rigorous workout; even a few effective stretches or a stroll around your neighborhood can be great options.
Eating a nutritious breakfast: While not everyone enjoys breakfast or makes time for it, if you're someone who does, including a nutritious meal in your morning routine can aid digestion and fill you with valuable energy and nutrients for the day.
Planning your day: Taking a few minutes in the morning to plan your day and set your intentions can have an incredible effect on your productivity. It helps you get more done efficiently and ensures you're approaching your day with the right attitude and mindset.
Making time for a hobby or creative pursuit: Another idea is to dedicate 10 or more minutes to a hobby you enjoy or a creative project you're working on. Many people find they're highly creative in the mornings, so if you can take advantage of this by fitting in some creative time, you might be surprised by how much you can learn or improve.
Spending some time outdoors: If possible, spend some time outside or get natural sun exposure in the morning. This can help give your body the cue to wake up naturally and allow you to get some fresh air.
Meditation: Many people find it helpful to dedicate a few minutes of their morning to some form of meditation. This can provide greater clarity of thought and help you approach your day in a more objective and calm state.
Connecting with loved ones or pets: Making time in the morning to talk with someone who means a lot to you—whether in person, over the phone, or via text—can add grounding value to your day. Similarly, if you have a pet, spending a few minutes with them can elevate your mood and make you feel more connected to the world around you.
Listening to a podcast or good music: Putting on music you enjoy or an interesting podcast can empower you to have a great day, spark new ideas or ambitions, and generally elevate your mood.
Drinking water: While it's important to drink water throughout the day, having 1-2 glasses in the morning ensures you rehydrate after a long night's sleep and helps boost your energy levels.
Not rushing: If possible, give yourself enough time in the morning to do everything you want without feeling rushed. A hurried state can add stress and put you in a bad mood.
Learning something new: Taking a few minutes in the morning to practice a skill or learn something new is always valuable. You might have less control over your schedule later in the day, so morning can be an ideal time for this. Expand your knowledge on a topic of interest by reading, solving a quiz, listening to an intriguing podcast, or watching an educational video.
Limiting screen time: Many people start their day by checking their phones and social media. However, this puts you in a reactive, almost autopilot mode, which isn't ideal for your self-esteem or motivation. Instead, try to completely avoid checking your phone and social media for at least the first 30 minutes after waking up. This gives your body proper time to wake up naturally, rather than immediately consuming media.
SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER
Now that you have some ideas for what to include in your morning routine, here are additional factors to consider for further refinement:
Amount of sleep you need to function best: This will determine the optimal times for you to wake up and go to sleep.
Your living situation: Your routines and daily flexibility will differ greatly depending on whether you live alone or have a family or others to care for. Determine when it makes the most sense to do each part of your morning routine based on your situation.
Breakfast: Not everyone enjoys or makes time for breakfast in the morning. Consider whether you want to include it in your routine and plan accordingly.
Getting ready: Realistically estimate how long it takes you to get ready in the morning—from waking up to leaving your home. Ensure your morning routine allows enough time for preparation to avoid constant rushing.
Time allocation: Consider how much time you want to dedicate to your morning routine from start to finish. This will allow you to perform everything you want in a relaxed manner while still keeping it time-efficient to fit your other daily obligations.
RESOURCES
Asana, T. (2024, January 10). Best Morning Routine: 21 steps for a Productive Day [2024] • Asana. Asana. https://asana.com/resources/best-morning-routine
Monroe, J. (2024, July 24). Morning Routines: 17 Ways to Jump-Start a More Productive Day. https://www.usemotion.com/blog/morning-routines?utm_source=google&utm_medium=18200160675&utm_campaign=149527366798&utm_term=morning routine&utm_content=657107900284&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwoJa2BhBPEiwA0l0ImATMVXTN3YmOgA-43MMqCTr7zf3HCT8LmdUIVGM0eC0vZII5lVaLERoCG1MQAvD_BwE
Chatburn, B. (2024, August 15). 30 Morning Routine ideas for energy and productivity. Camille Styles. https://camillestyles.com/wellness/morning-routine/morning-routine-ideas/
Building Consistency - Finding Something And Sticking To It
Everyone struggles with being consistent.
It is no easy task. Staying consistent doesn’t only entail starting something but requires exactly what it says: consistency. Some sort of rhythm or routine which allows us to perform an action on a regular basis.
While consistency is hard to cultivate and even harder to maintain, there are some ways which I talk about below, that can make this process easier for ourselves in the long term.
Before we get into discussing a more hands-on approach for how you can build your consistency through any activity that you want to pursue, I wanted to first also briefly touch upon how we can benefit from staying consistent with something in the long run and what actually are the main reasons for why we fall out of being consistent with something.
I hope you find something useful and worthwhile in today’s post :)
Today’s intention: Realize how a steady-paced consistency can benefit you in the long run and practical tested advice for how to keep consistent with something.
WHY IS CONSISTENCY IMPORTANT ANYWAYS?
Here it is important to firstly clarify, that you do not have to be consistent with every single activity that you do, but rather to focus your consistent energy and intention on an activity or set of activities which you would like to build consistency with in the long run.
What you decide that you want to become more consistent at will depend entirely on your personal goals and passions.
For example, if your goal is to improve your endurance and perhaps one day be able to run a marathon, a useful activity to become consistent at would be going on a daily run.
Similarly, if you have always dreamt of publishing some sort of written text or book, then adopting a daily routine of writing or scripting can directly benefit you towards getting closer to your goal.
Consistency or in other words, having a set yet functional routine when it comes to performing an activity (whatever that may be), is extremely impactful in the long run because over time instead of purely relying on motivation or willpower to get to doing that activity, it will bit by bit become a habit of common practice. Over time, the activity will be easier to perform and you will face less friction when it comes to getting started with it.
Now why is this useful?
By building consistency and discipline with a certain activity, you are able to become a prolific goal achiever.
You are able to grow and improve in your areas of weakness and with consistent practice, get closer to your goals in whatever area of your life they may lie in, whether it be health, finances, education, career, relationships or personal interests. With consistent practice you are able to sharpen your skills and expand your knowledge of something to new dimensions, while adopting strong and healthy habits to support you in the process.
In short, consistency is important because by being consistent you can improve at anything you wish to work on and reach the goals you set yourself at a much faster yet reliable rate. And best part is, it can be applied to any area of your life that you would like to work on.
SO WHY IS BEING CONSISTENT SO DIFFICULT THEN?
That's a good question.
A critical study within social psychology from 2009 found that on average, it took the participants of the study between 18 and 245 days to develop a daily habit of doing an activity in relation to eating, drinking or movement.
While this range is certainly quite large, suggesting that the different kinds of habits that we want to form will require different levels of input and consistency. For example, the goal of starting to drink at least 2 liters of water a day will most likely require a different level of effort and technique than when it comes to wanting to adopt a habit of exercising each day for 30 minutes.
This is one reason for why we often fail at being consistent with something.
The other reason is that before an activity becomes of habitual nature to us, it takes a lot of willpower and energy for us to motivate ourselves to perform the activity and this accumulated over a long spread of time can be energetically demanding, not to mention demanding of our attention span which at its best on average can hold between 10-15 minutes focus (Bradbury, 2016).
Biologically, our brain is built to prefer the path of least resistance which translates to performing the activity that requires least effort. Therefore if we really want to develop a steady routine at an activity, we have to do some careful planning to ensure that the process will be an enjoyable one for us, since the consistency itself will at least initially, require quite a lot of our energy.
Therefore to sum up, being consistent at something is difficult because some activities naturally take more effort and time for us to make them into a consistent habit and secondly, before we turn an activity into a habit, it requires of us a considerable energetic investment to get us to perform the activity.
HOW TO BUILD CONSISTENCY
Now let's talk about some practical advice on how we can become more consistent at something.
Here are some things which have worked well in my experience:
Decide your what and why: The first step is to determine which activity you want to become more consistent and also fundamentally consider why you are choosing to focus on this activity in the first place. You want to make sure that this activity that you want to pursue in the long run is aligned with your goals, priorities as well as your values since this will at your core, be your main source of motivation for performing an activity, especially during the times when it might get hard to keep up the consistency.
Building routines that work: To help with your transition from using willpower to building a functional habit, it is useful to build routines that will make this transition more effortless. For example, if you want to become more consistent with wearing sunscreen especially in the summer months, it can be useful to keep your sunscreen in a visible place in the bathroom and to apply it during your morning skincare routine. Similarly, if you would like to adopt the habit of reading each day, you can tie it to an activity which you currently already do such as reading during your morning breakfast or coffee.
Find how to boost your motivation: In the initial stages before something becomes a habit, it is useful to look into ways to keep yourself motivated. One way of doing this is to measure your progress of performing the activity to show yourself that you can build consistency at something and to boost your esteem in a healthy encouraging way. A way to measure your progress could be to build a simple table like progress tracker or to have a calendar printed on your wall where you cross off a day or week of completing something.
Create accountability: To further help you in keeping consistent with something, it is critical to also build a system of accountability to further keep yourself on check and to ensure you are moving in the right direction when it comes to building consistency. Ask a close friend or family member if they would be willing to be your accountability partner to remind you to do your stated activity and to check up on your progress. Alternatively, you can get a similar effect from various apps that allow you to digitally track your progress while offering you access to a wide community of users that can provide you with the needed accountability.
Perfection isn't the aim: One last note which I wanted to emphasize is that in this process of habit and consistency building, we are not striving for perfection, meaning that if we occasionally miss a day or slightly fall off track, it is of no use to beat ourselves up about it. Instead, it is much more useful if we consider why we fell off track in the first place and to simply just pick ourselves up and start again. Not doing something for a day won't cause the world to end, so just give it another go. Doing your best is already enough.
REFERENCES
Lally, P., Van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., & Wardle, J. (2009). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998–1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674
Bradbury, N. A. (2016). Attention span during lectures: 8 seconds, 10 minutes, or more? AJP Advances in Physiology Education, 40(4), 509–513. https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00109.2016
Hacking Your Negative Exercise Habits
Exercise; We either seem to love it or hate it. It seems like some people are just naturally born as being more athletic and sports-driven while others simply just don’t fit into the category of “athletes” and rather find exercise annoying or treat it as a chore they know they should do but don’t like to do. Well, I believe that both of those assumptions are wrong. I believe that through the right shit in mindset, the implementation of correct habits and tailoring exercising to our preferences is the correct way forward in making people believe and understand that everyone is able to become physically fit - while also enjoying the process.
Proven by a multitude of existing studies and more that are in the process, scientists are now starting to unravel the array of benefits exercise can bring to our physical, mental, and emotional well being, so it is our job to implement a sustainable exercise habit/routine into our life.
Want to know how? Keep on reading to find out.
I want to first begin by defining what “exercise” even means, because from the majority of people that I have encountered in my life, they seem to have a misconception of what exercise actually is. Exercise, for many, is associated with going to the gym, more specifically either running on the treadmill for hours on end or lifting heavyweights. Now, I am a big fan of going to the gym and if you are too, then great, but exercise is most definitely not only just defined by going to the gym and doing endless cardio and weight training. The gym can be so much more, and so can exercise.
Exercise can come in hundreds of different forms and types, ranging in intensities, time lengths, techniques, and results. Below I have listed four of the main categories of exercises we usually sort exercises in.
TYPES OF EXERCISE GROUPS:
Endurance exercises: These are high-intensity cardio-based activities such as running, sprinting, high-intensity workouts, dancing, aerobics, and swimming that use up a lot of energy and increase our stamina and coordination skills.
Strength training exercises These exercises are specific for toning our muscles and focusing on slower and more controlled movements, such as weight lifting, using resistance bands, walking up the stairs, and carrying heavy objects.
Balance exercises: These are slow and controlled movements that target our main balancing muscle groups, and involve using a balance ball/board, doing exercises on one leg, yoga and many martial arts.
Flexibility exercises: Usually implemented before and after endurance and strength training in order to warm our bodies up or to stretch out and dissipate the lactic acid that has gathered in our muscles after an intense workout (Which usually results in muscle soreness the following day). These types of exercises include dynamic (before activity) and stationary (after activity), as well as gymnastics and martial arts.
The reason why going to the gym is usually associated with the word “exercise” is because, at a place like a “gym”, we have the chance to do all four of these types of exercise groups, which makes it very convenient for people and one of the reasons why gyms are so popular. Some physical activities can fall into two or even more groups depending on the intensity and pace we do them at. For example, swimming done at a slower pace is a great exercise to focus on specific muscle groups but done at a faster rate it becomes much more of an endurance exercise
WHY WE FACE RESISITNCE TOWARDS EXERCISING:
Often when wanting to implement a positive change into our lives, we faced what is called “resistance”. Resistance is a nonliteral obstacle in our life, something that prevents us usually from starting or continuing something, but it is something that we all battle with.
Resistance in our lives usually arises because we see the action that we are trying to implement, as something foreign. The resistance that we encounter at times where we are potentially putting ourselves in an unknown territory, is there to act as a safety caution, where it is warning our bodies that whatever we are wanting to do will likely be hard, dangerous, and uncomfortable. Once we get used to staying within the walls of our comfort zone, our comfort zone actually stars to shrink so we become comfortable with doing and trying fewer and less things in our life - which is exactly what happens to us with exercise. We want to start a regular exercise routine, however, we face resistance towards it because a) it is hard and requires effort and discipline, b) we are maybe not yet at a level where we feel comfortable at executing the exercise and c) we may feel like we don’t have the self-esteem or needed abilities and capabilities to start it. But guess what? All of those 3 doubts are removed once we start what we want to start.
By starting, you learn along the way, adjust your goals, master new skills, and practice new knowledge along while expanding your comfort zone.
Isn’t that what we all want to do?
Below I have listed some common excuses we may come up with to avoid us starting to exercise, even though most us realize and acknowledge that exercise is good for us. It is in human nature to face resistance to anything that is harder or more strenuous than what we are currently doing, as it requires more thought and energy, but overcoming that resistance can have profound and positive long term benefits on all aspects of your health.
EXCUSES FOR NOT EXERCISING:
“I don’t like exercising”
Identify what about the idea of exercising you don’t like and how you could change it. For example, if you don’t like hard physically intensive exercises, perhaps try starting out with something like slower and more controlled strength/resistance training, or maybe you like yoga that is both good for your mind and body.
Pick an exercise or pick several exercises that you enjoy, whether that is a sport like football, basketball, hockey, or tennis or pick another activity like dancing, running, hiking, martial arts, or rock climbing. There is something for everyone, and it’s up to you to find what you enjoy and focus on doing more of those things, while also gradually improving in your skills in exercises you are less comfortable with doing.
“I don’t have the time to exercise every day”
This is often the result of the idea that exercise has to take a large chunk of our every day, but that is simply not true because even just 30 minutes a day can have profound impacts on our health. A small amount is always better than nothing.
Another cause of not having “enough time” to exercise because exercising simply is not high enough on your priority list. I firmly believe that whatever you prioritize in your daily life is what is most important for you to get done that day, so by doing the same with exercise whether that is on a daily or weekly basis, we are on the right path to creating positive change in our wellbeing.
“I am too tired to exercise”
Everyone has moments where we feel tired and exhausted, but how often do we ask ourselves what caused us to feel this way; was it our own actions or something else, and what can we do to get out of the trap of exhaustion. These are important questions to identify.
Some of the most common causes of lethargy or a lack of energy are insufficient sleep/poor quality sleep, an unbalanced and highly processed food diet that makes our blood sugar levels fluctuate, thinking too much all the time and dehydration. Exercise, even though it is seen as an energy-consuming activity, actually recharges our bodies with more energy during the day and makes us more tired in the evening, meaning that we will sleep better at night and have more energy the following day. As counterintuitive as it sounds, exercise can wake you up from a state of drowsiness and fatigue, powering you up with energy.
“My health is not good enough right now to exercise”
We often have the idea that “When we will be….” or “when we will have..:.” then we will be able to pursue whatever is in our intention of doing, however, that in other words, is simply just a method of procrastination.
The same concept can be applied to exercise, where we make unnecessary excuses such as “I am not fit enough to do that”, “I am not flexible enough to try that” or “I can t exercise because I have pain in my arm”. Here it is crucial to realize that in the case that “we are not strong enough” to do a certain exercise or sport, that we will get stronger by doing more exercise, so if we don’t start with any exercise, we won’t get anywhere to a position where we will have a chance to improve our strength.
While it is important to respect our bodies needs when we are ill and listen to it regarding what feels right for it and what doesn’t, it doesn’t mean that we can’t do any exercise at all during this period. Perhaps if our ankle hurts, we might not be suited for running at the moment, but maybe we could replace running with walking or something less intense. Adjust exercise to your current needs and abilities.
HOW TO BUILD A CONSISTANT EXERCISE HABIT
Things to consider, which will help you stick to your exercise habit:
Changing your exercise mindset
Start treating exercise as a gift: It is important to realize that the ability to be able to move your body and to be in a healthy state, is not something that should be taken for granted. There are so many people in this world who are physically ill, missing a limb, mentally unwell or unable to move by themselves, so if you are lucky enough to that your body and mind are well, use that and invest it in exercise because it is something, not everyone can afford to do.
Identify, why you want to start exercising: Everyone has different goals for wanting to start something and the same, goes for exercise. Some people focus on physical results such as losing or gaining weight, more muscle definition, etc. , while others prefer to integrate exercise into their life because of the mental benefits that come from it such as increased energy, clarity of thinking, and having a more positive mindset.
Starting with what you have: We often think that we need to have the newest running shoes and most prestigious gym membership or that we have to be in a certain shape for us to start exercising, but all of those thoughts are just a form of procrastination that is preventing us from starting. The best way to combat this is to just start with what you have around you; furniture, outdoor space, indoor space, and people that you can be active with.
Not being too harsh on yourself: Everything that is usually worthwhile to implement requires time, energy, and effort making it hard. While doing any action that is hard for us, we will likely have moments where we will struggle keeping on track and even experience thoughts of quitting, it is important that in the case that we do go off track, it doesn’t mean that we completely quit, but we simply pick ourselves back up and continue onwards. Stopping temporarily and continuing is better than stopping permanently.
Personalizing your workout
Type of exercise: Chances are that if you like and enjoy your exercise regime, then you are much more likely to stick to it. So it is up to you to identify what kind of physical activity you enjoy thinking, and again don’t only feel constrained to the idea of going to the gym. Feel free to add variety into your exercise regime and keep it exciting but also challenging for yourself.
Clothing: Perhaps you are the type of person who gets motivated to exercise by the clothes you wear or the gear you use, which is great. Find something you feel good in while allowing you to stay practical and flexible.
Audio: Some people enjoy listening to music during their exercise, however, it doesn’t end there. Instead of music, you also have the option to listen to audiobooks, podcasts, and speeches - all of which can add value to your life alongside being physically active.
Scheduling your exercise
When will you do it: it is important to in advance roughly determine the time we plan to be active because it is up to us to set exercise as a priority for ourselves and whatever we prioritize in our day, we will usually get done.
What sort of exercise will you do: This is another decision that is good to make in advance because believe it or not, but our brain can only make so many well thought out decisions in a day before it starts resorting to irrational choices. Therefore, by picking our workout in advance, we save our brain energy and time, which can instead be spent on making more important and impactful decisions during our day.
How long will you exercise for: When deciding on the duration of our exercise, it is important to be realistic with ourselves and also not to start to overwhelmingly huge, since our goal is to gradually build progress and increase our performance through regular practice.
Rewarding yourself afterward
Exercise really becomes a repetitive habit once we fall in love with the process of doing it, because we get pleasure from its results. In the case of personal benefits, exercise offers a myriad of health benefits for our mind and body, both of which can act as rewards to continue the habit.
Mental benefits of exercise: Exercise releases chemical endorphins into our bloodstream, which are known to stimulate a more positive outlook on life, thus increasing our self-esteem, as well as reducing stress, anxiety, and depression rates on a long term basis, as was proven by several studies. Apart from endorphins, exercise recharges our mind with more energy, greater clarity of thinking, as well as showing vast improvements in sleep quality which has been scientifically shown to greatly improve our memory.
Physical benefits of exercise: Several studies have shown that people who exercise have lower rates of chronic diseases are generally at a healthier weight, have a greater bone density as well as having increased flexibility and strength.
Having accountability
Social connectivity: Through a social basis you can stay accountable and on track with your fitness goals by working with someone else or a group of people that encourage and care for your progress, as well as perhaps getting involved with a personal trainer that will make your health and progress their priority.
Progress tracking: Nowadays there are plenty of fitness tracking applications and gadgets you can buy to help keep you on track with your exercise habits as well as connecting you to an online community of people that will keep you motivated to exercise.
Designing your environment accordingly
Our environment plays a huge role in either the continuity or cessation of our habits, so it is important as to how we design it so we enforce the correct habits.
Examples of environmental design: Preparing your exercise clothing and gear in advance, keeping around a gym bag or running shoes in convenient places such as a car or in a hallway, preparing healthy meals and snacks in advance, and fueling your body with the correct food.
DISCRETE WAYS TO BE MORE PHYSICALLY ACTIVE
Using your cleaning chores as a way to be active
Opting for stairs when we can, instead of the escalator or elevator
Opting for walking, biking or any other nonmotorized transport method, instead of relying on vehicle transport like cars and buses
Taking breaks during work, to get up for a quick stroll and stretching our legs, especially if we sit at a desk for the majority of our day
Try seeing if there are any lunch break or coffee spots next to your workplace, that are within walking distance
Organize or propose ideas for active team-building with your coworkers, that can be either indoors or outdoors
CONNECT THROUGH INSTAGRAM
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Habits Are The Key To Your Success
“Success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.”
There is a reason as to why habits get so much praise in the “productivity world” today, and that comes with very good reasoning behind it. Habits, when implemented correctly over time, can have massive and incredibly positive effects on our life and well being, but that also means that if they are not used correctly, they can quickly lead us to stumble down negative habit loops that do us no good.
So how exactly do we make the most out of our habits and implement them in a way that we will derive the most benefit from them? Read on to find out.
Before we delve into the topic of habits and how exactly they are able to transform our lives, I would like to mention that the information in this post is partly based and built upon from the points that James Clear has made in his best selling book, Atomic Habits, that explores the science behind habits and how we build new ones and break bad ones. I would highly recommend the book to anyone interested in improving their life by using habits.
I would like to first begin by giving some introductory information on the topic of habits, that will enable us to grapple and understand the forthcoming content with much more ease.
WHAT ARE HABITS?
In basic terms, a habit is any automatic behaviour that we execute without having to put mental thought into doing it, meaning that it is largely unconscious. We all perform habits, however, most of the time we do not even realise that something is habitual behaviour since we are not applying conscious thought while executing the action.
A prominent study done by Duke University has concluded that about 40% of our daily actions are said to be habits, meaning that habits form a large chunk of our daily behaviour. What is the reason behind this? Why such a big percentage?
ROLE OF HABITS
Well, the answer quite plainly lies within our brain, that functions, in simple terms, like a big energy conservation machine. Even though our brain only takes up about 2% of our total body weight, it uses an astonishing 20% of our total energy intake for performing its daily functions. Because of its large energy use, the brains main goal is to use the energy it receives with as much efficiency as possible, meaning that not much of it goes to waste. And that is exactly what habits are here to do. They are unconscious actions, meaning they do not require thinking - or the use of mental energy - for them to be executed, allowing our brain to save this precious energy and use it for more important matters.
Apart from the fact that habits allow our brains to save energy, they also save our brain time, as habitual behaviour happens subconsciously and is in a way almost predetermined, meaning that we lose less time with coming up with a final decision, that would otherwise lead to the commonly known “decision fatigue”.
Therefore, because habits form such a large chunk of our behaviour, they can have very large and noticeable effects on our lives and well being, either being good or bad, depending on which ones we prioritize.
BUILDING BLOCKS OF HABITS
In order for us to understand how we can build long-lasting positive habits and break negative habit loops for good, we have to first understand the actual structure of a habit and what causes them in the first place. The first two components (the Cue and the Craving) are part of the problem phase that are based on input actions of the habit, while the last two components (Response and Reward) form the solution component as they focus on the outcomes of a habit.
CUE: This concerns an exterior stimulus in our environment that acts as a trigger to our habit. This is exactly why our habits are based so much in our environment because our environment provides most of the triggers to those habits.
CRAVING: The carving is all about the emotional drive behind a habit, and acts as a main reason of power for our brain to execute the action automatically. After all, if an action was not being craved by our brain, then why would it be done? While the craving is all about wanting the action, the response concentrates on performing the action.
RESPONSE: In other words, the response is the action that is triggered by the cue and is accelerated by the craving. Over time this repetitive response will form a habit loop, however, your responsibility to a cue is determined by a) how determined you are to complete the action and b) your level of ability to perform the action.
REWARD: Finally, the reward focuses on stimulating our brains with a positive reward that will encourage the repetition of the same behaviour later on, because the action will become associated with the same reward.
EXAMPLE OF A HABIT LOOP:
CUE: The sweet smell of a doughnut shop that you walk by on a street.
CRAVING: The sweet smell of fried doughnuts makes it hard for your brain to resist it because if something smells good it makes us want to eat it, as it will likely also taste good.
RESPONSE: You walk into the doughnut shop, purchase a doughnut and eat it, as a result of the initially enticing smell.
REWARD: Your taste buds are immediately rewarded by the sweet and fatty taste of the doughnut, so now walking by a doughnut shop will become associated with a sweet-tasting reward.
BUILDING NEW AND POSITIVE HABITS:
GENERAL TIPS:
Starting small and easy: When trying to implement a new habit into our routine, we have to start small as otherwise we feel overwhelmed as to how to start or we simply lose motivation to keep executing the action that has not yet become automatic, meaning that we will face more resistance to it.
Small daily imprvements: In his books Atomic Habits, James Clear often emphasizes the point that if we improve for even juts 1% each day, that over the course of months and years can accumulate to a large and noticeable improvement. The same can be said if we decide to pursue a negative habit and get worse for 1% each day. Small changes add up through consistency and effort.
Breaking down your habits: To once again not get too overwhelmed with the expectations that implementing a new habit brings, it is very useful to break up a large and hard to do habit into smaller easier to do actions. For example, if you want to start running every day, you can split this large habit into two smaller habits of fueling your body the right food to have enough energy and to get into the habit of finishing your work quickly to have more time to run, both of which will contribute towards your overall habit.
Getting back on track and tracking your progress: Many of us, when trying to start a new habit we wither forget about it rather quickly or we fall back into our previous habitual actions. These situations are completely normal, which is because when we try and introduce a new habit, old habitual neural pathways never get deleted, because they are only replaced by new habits, which explains why we often slip back into our old routines. To remain consistent with our new habit, I would also recomed tracking our progress, whether that is from a visual, numerical or emotional perspective, that when seeing positive results, will motivate us to continue the habit.
Have patience and consistency: Humans are wired to function based on instant gratification which allows us to receive immediate benefits from doing something but with habits it takes more time for the results to show, which is why it is important to keep trying our best, be consistent and be patient as the results will eventually come as long as we work for them.
RULES FOR STICKING WITH NEW HABITS:
Make the habit:
Have an obvious trigger (Desing your environment accordingly)
Attractive (Increases our likeness to do it)
Easy to do (Makes starting less daunting)
Satisfying (Ensures that we will repeat it)
QUITTING BAD AND PERSISTENT HABITS
GENERAL TIPS:
Replacing your habits: By replacing a bad habit with a good one that brings about the same reward or feeling, we will find it less tempting to slip back into our old habit routines as by doing the habit that is good for us we will still be getting the same or at least a similar reward as previously with the bad habit.
Social environment and Accountability: By working or partnering with another person or a group of people who support you in your habits and motivate you to keep persistent, that will greatly increase the chances of you a) sticking to the new habit and b) quitting a bad habit, as someone can hold you accountable for how much time has passed since you last did the bad habit. Accountability does not only have to wor with real-life people but can also be done with digital applications that help track your habits if you prefer.
Environmental design: Our environment is the largest sources of our, good and bad, habit triggers, therefore it is important to surround ourselves in an environment that will promote the formation of good habits while preventing the continuation of bad habits.
New identity: By adopting or quitting a habit, we essentially want to become a new person. For example, someone who might want to start eating healthier could identify themselves as a “healthy eater”, while someone who is trying to quit smoking will refer to themselves as a “non-smoker or ex-smoker”. By giving ourselves a new identity based on our habits, we become more intentional behind our habits as to why we would want to start or quit one, in order for them to align with our new persona.
RULES FOR BREAKING BAD HABITS:
Make the habit:
Have a non-obvious trigger (Designing your environment accordingly)
Unattractive (Decreases our chances of doing it)
Difficult (Requires more effort to do it)
Unsatisfying (Ensures we will not repeat it)
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