How I’m Building Habits in 2021
2020 has been a challenging year for all of us.
One major area I think it has affected us all has been our productivity. Our routines. Our daily lives, have been flipped upside down as the world responded and adapted to fight the global pandemic.
And I don't feel too bad about it. I don't think you should either. This has been a once in a century event. However, when I reflect upon my own experience from this year, I realise the power of habit in our lives.
Ask yourself right now, in the midst of society, and your life, changing week to week, what remained constant?
I'd hazard a guess, that shortly after you woke up, you showered. You grabbed your morning coffee. Yes perhaps it wasn't at your local Starbucks because of lockdown, instead you used your home coffee machine. You ate lunch at 1pm on the dot, because. You watched Netflix at 8pm on the couch with your partner.
While the world was in a state of flux, you still kept doing some things day in day out. That is the power of a habit. If you yield it for good, it can accelerate progress, in good times and in bad.
And so with this knowledge, and drawing upon the motivation that comes with the advent of a new year, I want to share with you how I'm renewing my efforts to build strong habits in 2021.
Laws of Behaviour Change
My focus right now, is on the 1st Law of Behaviour Change, as defined by James Clear in his book Atomic Habits.
Let's take a quick moment here to summarise what James Clear's laws of behaviour change are, using doing a morning run as an example:
Make it obvious - Lay your running clothes out at the bottom of the bed
Make it attractive - Maybe you like competition, so join a running group on Strava that has a leaderboard?
Make it easy - Start with only having to do 5 minutes
Make it satisfying - Treat yourself to your morning coffee afterwards!
Right, now you know the laws, lets talk about why I'm focusing on Making it Obvious.
Making it Obvious
In a video I posted earlier this year, I spoke about how I was using an app called "Habit Tracker" to track my habits. To be honest with you, I was fairly unsuccessful with using it.
Upon reflection, I believe a big failure of mine was that I broke the 1st law of behaviour change - Make it obvious.
Think about how I had my tracking setup earlier this year. To track my habits, I had to unlock my phone, click on the app, wait for it to load, and then consult my progress. It turns out, that is not obvious enough. If I don't open the app, I'm never reminded of the habits I wanted to work on. It's NOT OBVIOUS.
And so to resolve this, I've come up with 2 ways I can make my habits more obvious.
Paper as a Physical Reminder
I'm returning to paper tracking.
For those of you who don't know, on Reddit there is a concept called theXEffect. The idea is simple but powerful. You make a grid for each day of the week, for a long period of time, perhaps a month, and your goal is to not break the chain. Cross off each day as it comes. Each tick is progress in building and cementing your habit.
However, this "XEffect" was hidden to me. I would only be reminded to not “break the chain", if I went out of my way to open the habit app.
This is where I believe the power of paper can yield results. At least this is what I'm hoping. Think about it, paper is so obvious. It is literally a physical reminder of my habits, when I wake up every single day. I will stare at that and see the whitespace waiting to be crossed off. I will stare at it and remember my intentions to become a better person.
Widgets to make Digital obvious
If you prefer a digital approach though, there are ways you can make it more obvious.
Fortunately for iOS users, in 2020 Apple brought us the advent of widgets for our phones (Android has had this for many years). These are essentially blocks of information displayed on our phones.
Why is this important? Well it means that I can display my habits, and the progress, the chains, the streaks, right on my phone whenever I unlock it.
Whenever I use my phone, I can't avoid looking at it and being reminded of my desires and goals. And let's face it, what is the one thing you see 5 dozen times a day? Your phone. Now that is OBVIOUS.
If you're looking for app recommendations here. I'd strongly encourage you to download a few, play around with them, as it can be a very personal preference. However, I will state that for me on iOS, i'm going to be trialling using Streaks. This is because their interface is so simple, and I can make a HUGE widget. Every-time I open my phone, I'm confronted with these massive circles uncoloured if I haven't fulfilled them today. You cannot deny, that is obvious.
I don't personally have an Android device, but having done some reading on Reddit, an app called Loop Habit Tracker looks like a good contender, and has widgets just like Streaks does on iOS.
Summary
In the midst of a turbulent 2020, the one thing that remained constant in our lives this year were our habits
Let’s use this knowledge to build good habits in 2021
It can be easy to fall down on the first law of behaviour change - Making it obvious
I’m going to try paper as a physical reminder
You can also try using widgets on iOS or Android to act as an unavoidable reminder on your phone’s home screen
All the best for 2021, I’ll see you in the next post!
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Links & References
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
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