I’ve spent the last 30 or so days since summer to improve my habits. It’s a life long project and something I enjoy spending time tinkering with. I feel that I get to know myself better as part of this process. And that there is no one size fits all approach.

One thing that is effective for me is to start small but do the new thing daily. For example with running, I started from nothing and began running every day (except for 1 rest day per week). It’s easier for me to get into doing it on autopilot if it happens the same way every day.

One hurdle I usually have to overcome is resistance to do the thing. What I’ve learned is that it is more important to be consistent and do something every day, rather than thinking about how much of that thing I’m doing. At least initially. So with the running the goal was to walk to work in running gear instead of my regular clothes and do some steps of running. In the first week this was always under a kilometer in total distance. The habit was surprisingly easy to follow because I already had a habit of walking to work every morning. So running actually saved me time. I just postponed the shower to work rather than doing it before leaving home. I had set it up in such a way that there were no good arguments against it.

A problem I’ve had earlier when trying to implement new habits, and something I still have to be on my guard against, is starting with too high ambitions. It’s easy for me to kill the joy for the thing with too lofty goals. If instead I force myself to stay under a certain threshold, the chances are higher that I’ll look forward to the next session with joy! This happened to my running routine. I was limiting (and still am) the total distance I allow myself to run in a single week. The initial reason for this was to avoid injury. But I noticed it sparked a joy and longing within me. I look forward to the next session where I’m allowed some time to run. I look forward to next week when I can increase the distance further. And I look forward to seeing my slow but tangible incremental improvements of stats on my Garmin watch. It requires patience. But this last month I’ve noticed how effective of a technique it is.

Another challenge with motivation is the days when it just feels pointless and the drive to do the thing is zero or negative. How can we guard against that? This is something I haven’t found a bullet proof solution to yet. The thing that makes it difficult is that sometimes, the desire to stop doing a habit that I once wanted to incorporate is that sometimes, that is a valid need! I might have changed my mind or might need to course correct. So the habits need to be somewhat flexible. But at the same time not flexible enough that I can just abandon them as soon as I have a bad day. To solve this I think some sort of predefined condition that allows changing the habits and targets is required. For example I could have weekly review time scheduled where I review the progress on the current habits and goals. During this review session one point on the agenda can be to vote for changes in the habits. And any changes that involve removing a habit altogether or significantly adjusting it requires two review sessions in a row with the same decision. This should reduce the risk of unintentionally abandoning a habit during a bad day, while maintaining flexibility to adapt to changing needs and desires.

So I will attempt to apply this learning on my next set of target habits. I want to study math and build stuff every day. For at least 30 minutes each. I’m considering here what the upper limit can be. For math I think I need one to nurture joy and longing. But for building I might not need it as I am more naturally drawn to it. The difficult part with building is usually starting. Once I start I often get into a flow and before I know it multiple hours have passed. That doesn’t happen in the same way when I study math!

I’ve noticed that committing only one hour per day for a new habit requires quite radical changes. It forces me to really think through how I spend my time every day, and to plan in advance. For example, if I have plans in the evening after work, I might need to get my study and building time in during the morning hours before work. During days with no plans it’s obviously easier to find time. I anticipate this will be most difficult to stick to when traveling with friends and family. During such social events I usually don’t take time to be alone and do my things. This is something I’ll have to learn. Again, probably the morning hours will be easiest for me to plan for. Once the day starts it’s more difficult to predict when there will be downtime. I might also need to become better at claiming downtime if it doesn’t get served to me.

It’s fulfilling to shape habits and design my life. Life becomes what we do and I’m convinced it’s within everyone’s power to decide what they do with their time. It requires getting to know oneself’s behavior around habits and designing the approach with those constraints in mind. Once you start on this journey you need to be careful what you wish for though. Because you might actually get it.