March 12 Weekly Challenge: Building Better Habits
themedalist
Posts: 3,218 Member
Theme: Healthy Practices
Challenge: Habits 101
I am so excited about our challenge this week! My overarching goal for this group is to help us create new healthy habits. Each of our weekly challenges gives you the opportunity to test drive a healthy habit and see if it’s is a good fit for you. But we’ve never explored or dissected what habits are, how they are formed, and how we can create new habits or modify our existing habits to make them better work for us. This is the week!
If you want to change your life, change your habits. Our habits are the invisible forces that shape our lives. In the last 20 years there’s been an explosion in the scientific understanding about habits. We can now tap into this research and use the major findings to build a better life for ourselves.
Of course, there’s no way I can summarize and encapsulate all the fascinating aspects of habits into one weekly challenge. It’s too broad and too deep. Just as we did with our procrastination challenge several weeks ago, my goal this week is to give you enough information and a structure for taking actionable steps to create small habits that will help you reach your goals. There are also lots of suggested resources should you want to explore habits in more detail.
Why Should You Care About Habits?
Charles Duhigg, author of “The Power of Habit”:
Some Interesting Facts About Habits
1. Habits are essential to our daily lives. Think about all the tiny steps involved in the simple habit of brushing your teeth. If each day you had to relearn this sequence of steps, your brain would get tired and overwhelmed very quickly. The brain’s ability to seamlessly move through a sequence of steps on autopilot is what enables us to go through our our day with relative ease. Routine tasks can be automated into habits allowing us to focus on more complex tasks.
2. Roughly half of our daily actions are habits. At some point we made the decision to do a certain habit, but over time and after repeatedly doing the habit, we don’t consciously make the choice anymore, nor are we even usually aware that we are doing our habit. They run on autopilot, which makes them hard to break. Technically, a habit is something we do automatically without being aware we are doing it. When it’s something we do repeatedly that we are consciously aware we’re doing, that’s a practice or routine, not a habit. Practically speaking, these subtle differences in definition aren’t important.
3. No, it doesn’t take 21 days to form a new habit. How long it takes to build a new habit depends mostly on how complex the habit is and how motivated the person is to create it. A very simple habit can be learned in a few days if a person is very motivated. More complex habits, such as stopping smoking, typically take much longer.
4. You can’t force yourself to develop new habits. Human beings are hardwired to do things that they want to do and get rewards from doing. Don’t try to force yourself to learn a new habit if it’s not something you want to do. It won’t work and it won’t be sustainable. Pick a new behavior that you want to do.
5. Think small and then build. The most successful new habits are those that are incredibly small. Since they don’t require much effort or motivation, our naturally resistant to change brains will be far more receptive to sticking with the new action. If your goal is to exercise 30 minutes a day, start with 2 to 5 minutes of walking or another easy-to-do exercise. Small habits are the foundation of the Tiny Habits program, that many of us will be doing alongside our challenge this week.
6. Good Habit or Bad Habit? Your brain doesn’t care. Our brains make no distinction nor have any preference for Good Habits (those that help us) and Bad Habits (those that set us back).
7. Habits are triggered by our environment. What you see, hear, smell, and feel in your home, office, and other environments are powerful cues that trigger the habits you have. Location, time of day, a series of thoughts, and other people can also be triggers. Want to start a new habit? Take a vacation that gets you out of your usual environment.
The Three Components of a Habit (Called the Habit Loop)
The Cue: This is the trigger that starts the habit in motion. There is always a cue, even if it’s subtle and not something we’re aware of. The trigger can be a visual cue or an auditory cue such as the phone ringing. A habit can also be triggered by the time of day, which is why most of us move through the habit of brushing our teeth every morning and night.
The Routine: This is the habit itself, the series of steps you take quickly and effortlessly when you do the habit.
The Reward: In order for us to keep doing the habit, there has to be some reward or benefit that we derive. Sometimes it’s not obvious what we get from doing the habit and it can take some digging to figure it out. But we now know that rewards are a fundamental part of creating and maintaining habits.
Cues and Rewards are Connected
Cues also trigger the brain to remember the reward from doing the habit, setting off a craving for the reward. Even if we are not aware of it, our cravings for rewards drive the habit loop. Yes, donut shops really stack the odds against you.
You Can Visualize the Habit Loop as This
Once you understand the components of every habit, you can start fiddling with and adjusting the three parts to create new habits or modify an existing habit. And that’s our challenge this week!
My Cheezits Habit
Several years ago I started the very bad habit of snacking on Cheezits. The cue in this case was the bright red box of Cheezits that sat on top of my refrigerator. The habit was mindlessly gulping down several handfuls of these salty, yummy crackers and not logging it into my food diary. The reward was clearly the taste. Despite seeing the box perched on the refrigerator for many years, I never ate them. It wasn’t a habit. And then for some reason, I started diving into the box with a disturbing regularity and it didn’t take more than a few days to create a new bad habit. I started getting cravings for Cheezits. Food cravings are nothing more than turbo charged habits. Knowing this and understanding the habit loop, the simplest way for me to break my Cheezits habit was to move the visual cue. I took the box off of the refrigerator and put it in the back of a cupboard. When I no longer saw the box every time I walked into the kitchen, it only took a few days for the habit cravings to subside.
The Most Effective Way to Create New Habits
The best way to create a new habit and have it stick is to anchor the new behavior to an existing habit that you already do. That existing habit becomes the cue that triggers you to do the new habit. The anchor needs to be something that you do every day or several times a day. Alternatively, it can be something that happens to you during the day such as the phone ringing or when you’re stopped at a traffic light. Clearly, using traffic cues as anchors can get pretty dicey.
Getting out of bed, brushing your teeth, pouring yourself that first cup of coffee or tea are just a few examples of anchors that make good triggers for new habits. When I did the Tiny Habits program a few weeks ago, I chose the new habit of thinking of something I’m grateful for when I took my first sip of coffee in the morning. I’m still doing that habit.
Practice and Repetition Leads to Success
In order to make your new action a habit, you’re going to have to do it repeatedly until it becomes automatic for you. It’s impossible to make something a habit when you only do it occasionally. Choose a new habit that you can practice daily, or better yet several times a day, and it will be easier to keep doing.
This critical step is the breakdown point for most wannabe habits. People will practice their new habit for awhile and then stop doing it and wonder why the habit didn’t stick. Because it wasn’t truly a habit and wasn’t given enough time, effort, practice, or rewards to become a habit. Whatever small habit(s) you select to work on this week, plan on working on them for several weeks into the foreseeable future, if you want to have them stick. It may not take that long, but it could.
Don’t Skip the Reward
Cues start the habit and rewards keep us wanting to do the habit again. It can be tough to think of an appropriate reward for a new healthy habit, since the rewards tend to accrue years from now. Simple verbal positive reinforcements can be an effective reward. “Way to go, me!” or something similar, may seem a little silly, but it’s an effective response to completing a new action that we want to become a habit.
Rewards are a critical step in habit building because they help your brain decide if a particular series of steps is worth automating into a habit so that it can be recalled in the future.
Don’t skip the reward. :-)
Want to Change an Existing Habit? Change the Routine
Since all habits have a Cue-Routine-Reward component, a recommended strategy for modifying an existing habit is to keep the same cue and reward but change the routine. Almost any habit can be changed given enough time and focus if the cue and reward stay the same and only the routine is changed.
You’ve Got to Believe that Change is Possible
Belief is also an essential ingredient in habit formation. We have to believe that the rewards from creating new habits will be great enough to be worth taking the time and trouble to create the new habit.
We see this on My Fitness Pal. There are lots of success stories posted on the community forum and seeing our MFP friends succeed at their health and wellness goals makes our own success more real, tangible, and likely. Communities like MFP are terrific incubators for habit change since belief, support, and encouragement make the difficult process of personal change much easier.
This Week’s Challenge:
Now that you know the components of every habit, choose a very small habit or two that you’d like to work on this week. What will be your cue? And what will be your routine and your reward?
Alternatively, you might make some changes to an existing habit that you have, that doesn’t work that well for you right now by keeping the same cue and reward, but changing the routine.
Think of something that you do every day or that happens to you every day that you can anchor your new habit to.
If you are signed up to do the Tiny Habits program this week, I suggest focusing only on that this week. Start simple and then build on your success.
Please tell us what habit you are working on! Make it a great week!
...............................................................................................
Suggested Resources:
Forget Big Change, Start with a Tiny Habit
http://bit.ly/fogg-tedx
Charles Duhigg, “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business”
http://charlesduhigg.com/the-power-of-habit/
Podcast interview with Charles Duhigg on Habits
https://www.npr.org/2012/12/24/167977418/the-power-to-trade-naughty-habits-for-nice-ones
James Clear’s The Habits Guide: How to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones
https://jamesclear.com/habits
Steven Guise, “Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results”
https://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Guise-Mini-Habits-Smaller/dp/B00N4EHO6W/
Tiny Habits
http://tinyhabits.com
..................................................................................................
Challenge: Habits 101
I am so excited about our challenge this week! My overarching goal for this group is to help us create new healthy habits. Each of our weekly challenges gives you the opportunity to test drive a healthy habit and see if it’s is a good fit for you. But we’ve never explored or dissected what habits are, how they are formed, and how we can create new habits or modify our existing habits to make them better work for us. This is the week!
If you want to change your life, change your habits. Our habits are the invisible forces that shape our lives. In the last 20 years there’s been an explosion in the scientific understanding about habits. We can now tap into this research and use the major findings to build a better life for ourselves.
Of course, there’s no way I can summarize and encapsulate all the fascinating aspects of habits into one weekly challenge. It’s too broad and too deep. Just as we did with our procrastination challenge several weeks ago, my goal this week is to give you enough information and a structure for taking actionable steps to create small habits that will help you reach your goals. There are also lots of suggested resources should you want to explore habits in more detail.
Why Should You Care About Habits?
Charles Duhigg, author of “The Power of Habit”:
“Most of the choices we make each day may feel like the products of well-considered decision making, but they’re not. They’re habits. And though each habit means relatively little on its own, over time, the meals we order, what we say to our kids each night, whether we save or spend, how often we exercise, and the way we organize our thoughts and work routines have enormous impacts on our health, productivity, financial security, and happiness.”
Some Interesting Facts About Habits
1. Habits are essential to our daily lives. Think about all the tiny steps involved in the simple habit of brushing your teeth. If each day you had to relearn this sequence of steps, your brain would get tired and overwhelmed very quickly. The brain’s ability to seamlessly move through a sequence of steps on autopilot is what enables us to go through our our day with relative ease. Routine tasks can be automated into habits allowing us to focus on more complex tasks.
2. Roughly half of our daily actions are habits. At some point we made the decision to do a certain habit, but over time and after repeatedly doing the habit, we don’t consciously make the choice anymore, nor are we even usually aware that we are doing our habit. They run on autopilot, which makes them hard to break. Technically, a habit is something we do automatically without being aware we are doing it. When it’s something we do repeatedly that we are consciously aware we’re doing, that’s a practice or routine, not a habit. Practically speaking, these subtle differences in definition aren’t important.
3. No, it doesn’t take 21 days to form a new habit. How long it takes to build a new habit depends mostly on how complex the habit is and how motivated the person is to create it. A very simple habit can be learned in a few days if a person is very motivated. More complex habits, such as stopping smoking, typically take much longer.
4. You can’t force yourself to develop new habits. Human beings are hardwired to do things that they want to do and get rewards from doing. Don’t try to force yourself to learn a new habit if it’s not something you want to do. It won’t work and it won’t be sustainable. Pick a new behavior that you want to do.
5. Think small and then build. The most successful new habits are those that are incredibly small. Since they don’t require much effort or motivation, our naturally resistant to change brains will be far more receptive to sticking with the new action. If your goal is to exercise 30 minutes a day, start with 2 to 5 minutes of walking or another easy-to-do exercise. Small habits are the foundation of the Tiny Habits program, that many of us will be doing alongside our challenge this week.
6. Good Habit or Bad Habit? Your brain doesn’t care. Our brains make no distinction nor have any preference for Good Habits (those that help us) and Bad Habits (those that set us back).
7. Habits are triggered by our environment. What you see, hear, smell, and feel in your home, office, and other environments are powerful cues that trigger the habits you have. Location, time of day, a series of thoughts, and other people can also be triggers. Want to start a new habit? Take a vacation that gets you out of your usual environment.
The Three Components of a Habit (Called the Habit Loop)
The Cue: This is the trigger that starts the habit in motion. There is always a cue, even if it’s subtle and not something we’re aware of. The trigger can be a visual cue or an auditory cue such as the phone ringing. A habit can also be triggered by the time of day, which is why most of us move through the habit of brushing our teeth every morning and night.
The Routine: This is the habit itself, the series of steps you take quickly and effortlessly when you do the habit.
The Reward: In order for us to keep doing the habit, there has to be some reward or benefit that we derive. Sometimes it’s not obvious what we get from doing the habit and it can take some digging to figure it out. But we now know that rewards are a fundamental part of creating and maintaining habits.
Cues and Rewards are Connected
Cues also trigger the brain to remember the reward from doing the habit, setting off a craving for the reward. Even if we are not aware of it, our cravings for rewards drive the habit loop. Yes, donut shops really stack the odds against you.
You Can Visualize the Habit Loop as This
Once you understand the components of every habit, you can start fiddling with and adjusting the three parts to create new habits or modify an existing habit. And that’s our challenge this week!
My Cheezits Habit
Several years ago I started the very bad habit of snacking on Cheezits. The cue in this case was the bright red box of Cheezits that sat on top of my refrigerator. The habit was mindlessly gulping down several handfuls of these salty, yummy crackers and not logging it into my food diary. The reward was clearly the taste. Despite seeing the box perched on the refrigerator for many years, I never ate them. It wasn’t a habit. And then for some reason, I started diving into the box with a disturbing regularity and it didn’t take more than a few days to create a new bad habit. I started getting cravings for Cheezits. Food cravings are nothing more than turbo charged habits. Knowing this and understanding the habit loop, the simplest way for me to break my Cheezits habit was to move the visual cue. I took the box off of the refrigerator and put it in the back of a cupboard. When I no longer saw the box every time I walked into the kitchen, it only took a few days for the habit cravings to subside.
The Most Effective Way to Create New Habits
The best way to create a new habit and have it stick is to anchor the new behavior to an existing habit that you already do. That existing habit becomes the cue that triggers you to do the new habit. The anchor needs to be something that you do every day or several times a day. Alternatively, it can be something that happens to you during the day such as the phone ringing or when you’re stopped at a traffic light. Clearly, using traffic cues as anchors can get pretty dicey.
Getting out of bed, brushing your teeth, pouring yourself that first cup of coffee or tea are just a few examples of anchors that make good triggers for new habits. When I did the Tiny Habits program a few weeks ago, I chose the new habit of thinking of something I’m grateful for when I took my first sip of coffee in the morning. I’m still doing that habit.
Practice and Repetition Leads to Success
In order to make your new action a habit, you’re going to have to do it repeatedly until it becomes automatic for you. It’s impossible to make something a habit when you only do it occasionally. Choose a new habit that you can practice daily, or better yet several times a day, and it will be easier to keep doing.
This critical step is the breakdown point for most wannabe habits. People will practice their new habit for awhile and then stop doing it and wonder why the habit didn’t stick. Because it wasn’t truly a habit and wasn’t given enough time, effort, practice, or rewards to become a habit. Whatever small habit(s) you select to work on this week, plan on working on them for several weeks into the foreseeable future, if you want to have them stick. It may not take that long, but it could.
Don’t Skip the Reward
Cues start the habit and rewards keep us wanting to do the habit again. It can be tough to think of an appropriate reward for a new healthy habit, since the rewards tend to accrue years from now. Simple verbal positive reinforcements can be an effective reward. “Way to go, me!” or something similar, may seem a little silly, but it’s an effective response to completing a new action that we want to become a habit.
Rewards are a critical step in habit building because they help your brain decide if a particular series of steps is worth automating into a habit so that it can be recalled in the future.
Don’t skip the reward. :-)
Want to Change an Existing Habit? Change the Routine
Since all habits have a Cue-Routine-Reward component, a recommended strategy for modifying an existing habit is to keep the same cue and reward but change the routine. Almost any habit can be changed given enough time and focus if the cue and reward stay the same and only the routine is changed.
You’ve Got to Believe that Change is Possible
Belief is also an essential ingredient in habit formation. We have to believe that the rewards from creating new habits will be great enough to be worth taking the time and trouble to create the new habit.
We see this on My Fitness Pal. There are lots of success stories posted on the community forum and seeing our MFP friends succeed at their health and wellness goals makes our own success more real, tangible, and likely. Communities like MFP are terrific incubators for habit change since belief, support, and encouragement make the difficult process of personal change much easier.
This Week’s Challenge:
Now that you know the components of every habit, choose a very small habit or two that you’d like to work on this week. What will be your cue? And what will be your routine and your reward?
Alternatively, you might make some changes to an existing habit that you have, that doesn’t work that well for you right now by keeping the same cue and reward, but changing the routine.
Think of something that you do every day or that happens to you every day that you can anchor your new habit to.
If you are signed up to do the Tiny Habits program this week, I suggest focusing only on that this week. Start simple and then build on your success.
Please tell us what habit you are working on! Make it a great week!
...............................................................................................
Suggested Resources:
Forget Big Change, Start with a Tiny Habit
http://bit.ly/fogg-tedx
Charles Duhigg, “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business”
http://charlesduhigg.com/the-power-of-habit/
Podcast interview with Charles Duhigg on Habits
https://www.npr.org/2012/12/24/167977418/the-power-to-trade-naughty-habits-for-nice-ones
James Clear’s The Habits Guide: How to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones
https://jamesclear.com/habits
Steven Guise, “Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results”
https://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Guise-Mini-Habits-Smaller/dp/B00N4EHO6W/
Tiny Habits
http://tinyhabits.com
..................................................................................................
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Replies
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This is a good visual summary of Charles Duhigg’s excellent book. I highly recommend this book!
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And our Move It Monday prompt has a Habits theme!
Please post your Monday workout here:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10637806/jan-29-weekly-challenge-move-it-mondays2 -
I realize there’s a lot of information in this week’s challenge. Because habits are such a big part of our lives, I wanted to go into some depth.
I’m looking forward to hearing what small habits you’ll be working on this week!1 -
Wow! So many great resources. Thanks, Denise! I am participating in the Tiny Habits and came up with three things I am going to try. However, I may tweak #2 because it seems too forced or something.
1) after I get my coffee going, I get out my vitamin. I always forget and my bottle expired last summer!
2) after sitting in my easy chair, I will review a page of French. This is the hard one. I need to be more specific....every time I sit down? After I watch the evening news? Not sure yet. I did move my French notes to the table beside my chair so the prep is done:)
3) after pouring my first cup of coffee, I will go upstairs and stand in my studio for 5 seconds. I chose that because I love ❤️ my room. It’s where I go to record yesterday’s activities on the calendar and make a plan for the day. I write up there. It’s my sewing room, my exercise room, all kinds of good things happen there! I don’t go up every day but it would be awesome if I did. It also gives me an extra flight of stairs on my fitbit.
Easy peasy because they’re tiny habits! Maybe.
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Love it! I have been working on habits for the past 4 years and failed. I need some help and this gives me lots of structure. So far the only habit that I have conquered is the one I do after I wake up and brush my teeth. I automatically get dressed for the gym or to exercise. It has done wonders for me and it helps me get my day started the right way. I signed up for the Tiny Habits program so hopefully I can get more details there.
This year I am working hard on the habit of being positive, complaining less and be more grateful, writing on my journal, stay more active during the day, sit less, make sure I do something fun for me once or twice a month. So far this is the plan.4 -
The 3 habits I am working on are...
1. After I pee, I will meditate for 30 seconds (goal...morning meditation)
2. After feeding the cats, I will fill a glass of water (goal...increase water intake)
3. After dinner dishes, I will read a sentence from a book (goal...more time reading actual books and less time reading online.)
I am really looking forward to making these habits stick and then starting with another 3 tiny habits.
6 -
Wow! So many great resources. Thanks, Denise! I am participating in the Tiny Habits and came up with three things I am going to try. However, I may tweak #2 because it seems too forced or something.
1) after I get my coffee going, I get out my vitamin. I always forget and my bottle expired last summer!
2) after sitting in my easy chair, I will review a page of French. This is the hard one. I need to be more specific....every time I sit down? After I watch the evening news? Not sure yet. I did move my French notes to the table beside my chair so the prep is done:)
3) after pouring my first cup of coffee, I will go upstairs and stand in my studio for 5 seconds. I chose that because I love ❤️ my room. It’s where I go to record yesterday’s activities on the calendar and make a plan for the day. I write up there. It’s my sewing room, my exercise room, all kinds of good things happen there! I don’t go up every day but it would be awesome if I did. It also gives me an extra flight of stairs on my fitbit.
Easy peasy because they’re tiny habits! Maybe.
@nebslp, regarding #2, keep in mind that tweaking habits is part of the Tiny Habits process. I believe there’s a spot on the daily emails you get from them where you can adjust your habit? I had a similar issue when I took the Tiny Habits program a couple weeks ago. One of my Tiny Habits was that every time I stood up I would take a slow, deep breath. On paper that seems like a great idea! But the reality is I get up out of my chair A LOT (shocking, I know). It didn’t work for me. When I stand up, I want to start moving… I’m not gonna stand there and take a low slow breath and then start moving.
So that habit wannabe got scratched off the list and replaced with the habit of when I brush my teeth in the morning I decide what my top priority to accomplish that day is (something doable). When I brush my teeth at night, I decide what my top priority for the next day is. I am still doing this habit.
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prgirl39mfp wrote: »Love it! I have been working on habits for the past 4 years and failed. I need some help and this gives me lots of structure. So far the only habit that I have conquered is the one I do after I wake up and brush my teeth. I automatically get dressed for the gym or to exercise. It has done wonders for me and it helps me get my day started the right way. I signed up for the Tiny Habits program so hopefully I can get more details there.
This year I am working hard on the habit of being positive, complaining less and be more grateful, writing on my journal, stay more active during the day, sit less, make sure I do something fun for me once or twice a month. So far this is the plan.
Habits are definitely a learning process and we have to fight our natural tendency to create really big and multiple habits from the get-go. Our brains just do not accommodate lots of changes all at once. If we try to brute force it, it almost always wont be sustainable.
Your habit of waking up and immediately brushing your teeth and then getting dressed to exercise is a fantastic habit! It’s called a keystone habit… It’s a habit that brings other good habits with it. Your habit of brushing your teeth automatically leads to getting dressed for the gym. One good habit leads to another which is exactly the goal. Exercise and eating a healthy diet are both keystone habits. People who exercise also tend to be more conscious about eating healthy foods and eating healthy food tends to result in more exercise.
Also, major kudos on focusing on the habit of being more positive. Although our outlook on things is terribly complex, over time we can train our brains to be more positive and not think so negatively. That’s a terrific habit to cultivate! I have a few books to suggest on the subject if anyone is interested.
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I haven't had a chance to read your post above yet today, but plan to right after this. I went back to work today and just never had time to check in.
I am participating n the Tiny Habits class also.
My three tiny habits are:
• After I Pour a cup of coffee, I will Read one verse of scripture
• After I Finish dinner, I will Pick out tomorrow’s outfit
• After I Brush my teeth before bedtime, I will Wash my face
This is a really awesome challenge. I have thought of a bunch of other tiny habits I would love to incorporate. It was actually hard to narrow it down to three. I can't wait to read your post above, Denise!
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The 3 habits I am working on are...
1. After I pee, I will meditate for 30 seconds (goal...morning meditation)
2. After feeding the cats, I will fill a glass of water (goal...increase water intake)
3. After dinner dishes, I will read a sentence from a book (goal...more time reading actual books and less time reading online.)
I am really looking forward to making these habits stick and then starting with another 3 tiny habits.
These are fantastic habits to work on this week, @PinkyPan1! Doable and linked to larger goals that you have.1 -
I totally forgot about the Tiny Habits Course and didn't check my email in time to answer back. But I am going to do it for next week.
But for this week, my 3 habits will be:
1. After I put my coffee cup in the sink, I will immediately brush my teeth.
2. I will walk to the end of my driveway(1/4 mile) 5 days a week
3. I will do the dishes as soon as they are put in my sink.
I think I can do that. I have already started a bunch of new habits after coming back to MFP over a month and a half ago and they have become routine. Now I think I am ready to add a few more.
Thank you so much for this challenge, Denise!4 -
Here are the tiny habits I'm working on for this week:
1. After I wake up, I'll put on my sneakers.
2. After I turn on the coffee, I'll drink a glass of water.
3. After I eat dinner, I'll prepare my lunch for the next day.
4. After I take the dogs out at night, I'll read a short poem (or part of a long one).
5. After I take my clothes to the dirty clothes basket, I'll put my clean clothes away.
The first two used to be habits, but I've let them slip. Time to get back to them.4 -
OConnell5483 wrote: »I haven't had a chance to read your post above yet today, but plan to right after this. I went back to work today and just never had time to check in.
I am participating n the Tiny Habits class also.
My three tiny habits are:
• After I Pour a cup of coffee, I will Read one verse of scripture
• After I Finish dinner, I will Pick out tomorrow’s outfit
• After I Brush my teeth before bedtime, I will Wash my face
This is a really awesome challenge. I have thought of a bunch of other tiny habits I would love to incorporate. It was actually hard to narrow it down to three. I can't wait to read your post above, Denise!
I like your 3 tiny habits, @OConnell5483!
When I first did the Tiny Habits program back in 2015, one of my selected habits was, “When the phone rings, I will answer it, stand up and start walking”. The first few days I had to make a conscious effort to remember to stand up when the phone rang. But I remember the moment, not too long after, when the phone rang and I stood up and took a few steps before I realized that I had just done that automatically...no thought required! So cool! I’ve been hooked on habits ever since.
So I understand having a bunch of habits you want to try out.2 -
HGSmith0920 wrote: »I totally forgot about the Tiny Habits Course and didn't check my email in time to answer back. But I am going to do it for next week.
But for this week, my 3 habits will be:
1. After I put my coffee cup in the sink, I will immediately brush my teeth.
2. I will walk to the end of my driveway(1/4 mile) 5 days a week
3. I will do the dishes as soon as they are put in my sink.
I think I can do that. I have already started a bunch of new habits after coming back to MFP over a month and a half ago and they have become routine. Now I think I am ready to add a few more.
Thank you so much for this challenge, Denise!
@HGSmith0920, is there a cue you could use to trigger the habit of walking to the end of your driveway? Your other two habits look great.
And good point about Tiny Habits. For anyone who missed this week’s sign up (or had their information packet sent to their spam folder) there is another session starting Monday, March 19. And Tiny Habits would fit in very well with next week’s challenge.
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Here are the tiny habits I'm working on for this week:
1. After I wake up, I'll put on my sneakers.
2. After I turn on the coffee, I'll drink a glass of water.
3. After I eat dinner, I'll prepare my lunch for the next day.
4. After I take the dogs out at night, I'll read a short poem (or part of a long one).
5. After I take my clothes to the dirty clothes basket, I'll put my clean clothes away.
The first two used to be habits, but I've let them slip. Time to get back to them.
These are great habits to work on, @77tes. And you bring up another interesting aspect of habits. Habits are both very strong and very delicate. The slightest shift in cues or routine and the habit can start to unravel.2 -
This is a superb take on the power of keystone habits to bring other good habits along with it.
@prgirl39mfp, you shared this along time ago and I love it.
Navy Seal Admiral William McRaven on the power of making your bed everyday:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KgzLzbd-zT4
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I love this video. I have adapted many of his examples and I have to say it has made my life much better.2
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@themedalist That video is what inspired me to make my bed every morning! I think my cue will be after doing the lunch dishes I will talk a walk to the end of the driveway. The reward will be that I can play Pokemon Go(yes I am one of those! Lol) while I do it! The reward for brushing my teeth is knowing that I won't eat anything until lunch. And the reward for doing the dishes as soon as they are used is that I won't have a pile of dishes hanging over my head all night or into the next morning. That will be a great relief to me.3
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So far today, I brushed my teeth after I finished my coffee and I cleaned the dishes that I used for breakfast and for the overnight oatmeal I made. Lol4
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Day 2 of Tiny Habits! I did find my email from Tiny Habits in my Spam folder, so that should be all taken care of now.
I did incorporate another one since it's something I have been trying to make into a habit but don't always take the time. I always have a more settled and serene day when I start my day sitting down and taking the time to say a prayer for the day. So...
• After I Pour a cup of coffee, I will read one verse of scripture
• After I Finish dinner, I will pick out tomorrow’s outfit
• After I Brush my teeth before bedtime, I will wash my face
Adding: After I towel dry my hair, I will start my day with a prayer.
What I have noticed is how these tiny habits could easily be expanded upon! For example, after each cup of coffee I pour, I have been reading 5 verses of scripture. After dinner, I picked out my outfit which prompted me to pack my lunch also. and after I brushed my teeth at bedtime, I washed my face and went the extra step to moisturize it also. Only took extra minute but how cool if this continues!
This is a really awesome challenge this week. Loving it and it's only day two! 5 -
This morning I was surprised that as I walked in the kitchen to put on the coffee, I immediately thought about my vitamin and grabbed it on my way to the pot. So I might tweak that to reverse the process since it was so natural today. We’ll see. I knew I wouldn’t have much time to spend upstairs so i didn’t pour my coffee and take it up with me today. I did pour hot water in my cup to warm it up before going up and spent about 1 minute in my studio writing yesterday’s notes on my calendar so I think that counts as the same cue. My reward for that goal is just being in my special room because it makes me5
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I took my walk after lunch! It is really gross out. It just stopped raining so the ground is soupy(I live on a dirt road) and it was really cold/damp. But I got to play my game and got a few new things and as I was walking Mom texted me to tell me that my herb seeds came in the mail yesterday. I stopped by her house on the way back to mine(we live on the same property). It was a nice little surprise. I also saw that the garbage hasn't been picked up yet so I can take a bag to the can and the roads are clear after the rain/snow so I think I will go to the gym in a little while. I love how all these things came to mind while I was starting a new habit!5
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HGSmith0920 wrote: »@themedalist That video is what inspired me to make my bed every morning! I think my cue will be after doing the lunch dishes I will talk a walk to the end of the driveway. The reward will be that I can play Pokemon Go(yes I am one of those! Lol) while I do it! The reward for brushing my teeth is knowing that I won't eat anything until lunch. And the reward for doing the dishes as soon as they are used is that I won't have a pile of dishes hanging over my head all night or into the next morning. That will be a great relief to me.
@HGSmith0920, great cues, great routines, and great rewards. You are going to have some great new habits!
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OConnell5483 wrote: »Day 2 of Tiny Habits! I did find my email from Tiny Habits in my Spam folder, so that should be all taken care of now.
I did incorporate another one since it's something I have been trying to make into a habit but don't always take the time. I always have a more settled and serene day when I start my day sitting down and taking the time to say a prayer for the day. So...
• After I Pour a cup of coffee, I will read one verse of scripture
• After I Finish dinner, I will pick out tomorrow’s outfit
• After I Brush my teeth before bedtime, I will wash my face
Adding: After I towel dry my hair, I will start my day with a prayer.
What I have noticed is how these tiny habits could easily be expanded upon! For example, after each cup of coffee I pour, I have been reading 5 verses of scripture. After dinner, I picked out my outfit which prompted me to pack my lunch also. and after I brushed my teeth at bedtime, I washed my face and went the extra step to moisturize it also. Only took extra minute but how cool if this continues!
This is a really awesome challenge this week. Loving it and it's only day two!
What I have noticed is how these tiny habits could easily be expanded upon!. Exactly!! At first glance, the examples that are given by the Tiny Habits program seem kind of silly. They actually suggest that one healthy habit to start with is flossing just one tooth. How can such a small habit amount to anything substantial?
Because you’re laying the foundation and mastering the small sequence of steps that are needed to make any habit stick. And because they’re so tiny, they don’t require motivation or willpower, nor send up “this is too hard” red flags to our naturally resistant to change brains.
We crawl before we run, we boil an egg before we attempt a soufflé. Build some small habits, learn the components and master the process and you will be UNSTOPPABLE.3 -
I’ve been thinking about my own habits this week and here’s what I’m working on.
1. After I get out of bed in the morning, I’m going to do 1 minute of yoga stretches. Reward? A personal shout out that this is a great way to start what will be an awesome day.
2. After I eat my meals, I will log it in MFP (I don’t always do this because I’m in maintenance) Reward? Reminding myself that I eat better when I log my foods.
3. Af night, after I set the alarm, I will do 5 minutes of meditation. Reward? It’s a wonderful primer for getting a great night’s sleep!
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So here are my habit rewards
1. After I wake up, I'll put on my sneakers.
Reward: This gets me started on an active day - shuffling around in slippers,
not so much
4. After I turn on the coffee, I'll drink a glass of water.
Reward: I'm usually thirsty in the morning and I have to wait for the coffee.
6. After I eat dinner, I'll prepare my lunch for the next day.
Reward: I won't have to run around throwing my lunch together in the morning.
8. After I take the dogs out at night, I'll read a short poem (or part of a long one).
Reward: Joy! I love reading poetry and don't get around to it.
10. After I take my clothes to the dirty clothes basket, I'll put my clean clothes away.
Reward: No piles of clean clothes in need of a place to stay.
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So here are my habit rewards
1. After I wake up, I'll put on my sneakers.
Reward: This gets me started on an active day - shuffling around in slippers,
not so much
4. After I turn on the coffee, I'll drink a glass of water.
Reward: I'm usually thirsty in the morning and I have to wait for the coffee.
6. After I eat dinner, I'll prepare my lunch for the next day.
Reward: I won't have to run around throwing my lunch together in the morning.
8. After I take the dogs out at night, I'll read a short poem (or part of a long one).
Reward: Joy! I love reading poetry and don't get around to it.
10. After I take my clothes to the dirty clothes basket, I'll put my clean clothes away.
Reward: No piles of clean clothes in need of a place to stay.
These are great @77tes ! I am in the habit of doing #4 as well. I’m sure after sleeping all night, I’m pretty dehydrated.
It’s wonderful that you’ve squeezed in something that you love to do, but can’t do a lot, reading poetry, and made it one of your rewards.
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Because you are clearly interested in habits, I thought I’d share some of the interesting things that I’ve learned about habits over the years. Here’s one.
Where did the “21 days to form a habit” come from?
The popular belief that it takes 21 days to form a new habit originated from Dr. Maxwell Maltz, a plastic surgeon in the 1950s. He noted that after he operated on his patients, it took them about 21 days to adjust to the change in their bodies. In his best selling book, Psycho-Cybernetics, he wrote that:
“These, and many other commonly observed phenomena tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.”
Keep in mind that these were just his observations. But because his book was a huge bestseller, the “21 days” got repeated over and over again and a key part of his quote, “requires a minimum of 21 days” got omitted altogether. As we see from social media today, the more things get repeated, the more people believe that they must be true.
How long a habit actually takes to form and become automatic varies widely. But it isn’t a cast-in-stone 21 days.
Now you know. If you are interested in learning more, see: https://jamesclear.com/new-habit
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It has only been 3 days but there has already been a shift in my behavior. My first tiny habit is to meditate for 30 seconds after I pee. It turns out after each use of the bathroom I am meditating. I actually enjoy it. My goal for 2018 is to slow down and this is really going to help me.5
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If 21 days were a magic number, most New Years Resolutions wouldn't be toast by February. Sticking with a habit is what cements it. For instance, my putting on sneakers and drinking water first thing habits got derailed by a family medical crisis, Christmas, and 2 bouts of the flu. Having to forego those habits for a while means they are no longer automatic. On the other hand, because they were automatic before the interruption, I miss them and want to get back to them. This week, they are easier than the new habits.4
