James Clear, Author atomic habits, adds that looking at the data can be a good starting point. “For fitness habits, it could be the Apple Watch, his Whoop band, MyFitnessPal, etc. There are different ways to get the data,” he says. “This also applies to habits that you might not think about tracking.” For example, look at your calendar for the past year to see if you spent enough time at home with your family, or if you traveled too much. to judge “If you’re too busy and have no time to think about what you’re doing, it’s really hard to improve because you’re just busy doing the same thing over and over again. You don’t get a chance to see the big picture. .”
Pick a habit, dig deep, plan
Once you’ve reviewed the habits you want to break, pick one to get started.
“I look at the different challenges that patients face and ask myself, ‘Who’s in the driver’s seat?'” says Mendelsohn. “So if he addressed one of these problems, could the rest be improved?”
The next step is deciding how to break your chosen habit. This is determined based on the history of the habit and the circumstances and cues that led to the behavior. Here are some examples:
spend too much money
Suppose you spend too much money and want to stop the habit. If you think you’ve overused your credit card when you added it to Apple Wallet or PayPal. This made it very easy to buy things when you saw an ad on social media or a friend sent you a link to something they thought you wanted. , you want to make it as hard and thoughtful as possible,” says Wood. “It’s counterproductive to put all your credit cards in your phone, which you carry everywhere. You’re further automating the process of spending money.” I’m going to delete it. So every time you buy something you have to physically go and pull out the card. This will give you a little more time to think about the purchase itself. You can also ask your friends not to send you products and unsubscribe from product marketing emails.
always check your phone
If you want to check your phone less often, Mind management, not time management, it is recommended to lock part of the day in a lockbox. “Make it as difficult as possible to actually perform the habit,” he says. I still get the cue to check my phone, but the effort to go to the lockbox and unlock it helps block behavioral triggers, or social he wants to check media less often. Suppose you are thinking “Just remove social media apps from your phone.” “Block them with parental controls, or at least keep them off your home screen.”
unhealthy diet
Clear has a good example of negative eating habits from his own life. He used to stop there many times a week. “After the last game, I looked at myself and thought, ‘Are you going to do this every time you drive home?’ Are you going to stop by here and eat here every time? “Ultimately, what I decided to do was start taking the other route home. If I took the exit to the left instead of the right, it would have taken three more minutes.” , I never walk past McDonald’s.I have changed my environment so that I am not exposed to queues.This added just enough friction and enough separation to change my habits.”
procrastination
“Many people tend to procrastinate and rely on anxiety and fear to motivate them to get things done,” says Mendelsohn. “This is effective at getting things done, but it comes at the cost of causing unnecessary stress. Breaking tasks down into smaller tasks is a difficult strategy to execute initially, but it will pay off in the long run.” It’s more sustainable.” Mendelsohn recommends writing these tasks down with pen and paper to help get you started.
In some cases, replacing a negative behavior with a more desirable one can block it, but Wood needs to know what the cues are and the replacement behavior is easy and rewarding. It says it must be something. Instead of locking your phone somewhere or laying it on its side, let’s say you decide to drink a glass of water whenever you feel the urge to look at your phone. “For most people, drinking a glass of water isn’t as interesting as looking at their phone, so I’m not sure it works particularly well,” says Wood.
If the method you choose to break the habit doesn’t work, try another method. Another thing to keep in mind is, “For certain behaviors like quitting smoking, multiple attempts are actually a good thing,” says Wood. , you have to keep trying until you find the right way for you.”
So don’t be discouraged if it takes longer to break the habit. Sometimes you need to approach it differently or dig deeper into the context and clues that lead you to do it in the first place.
