I’ve heard it said that variety is the spice of life, but I must confess that I am a creature of habit. The good news is that I’m not alone. We all are creatures of habit, whether we realize it or not.
If you’ve read any of the recent writing on the subject of habit formation (Thinking Fast and Slow, The Power of Habits, Atomic Habits) you probably know that life is comprised of a series of actions that are continuously repeated often sub-conscientiously. The trick is to ask yourself, “are the actions I am continually repeating helping me become a better version of myself?“
For some time now, I’ve tried to think intentionally about what actions will lead me to the results I would like to see in my life. And, since I believe what gets measured is ultimately what gets done I’ve created a system to track my progress over time.
The habits a person chooses to track are highly personal, but I thought I would share mine below. They aren’t necessarily the same things you would be interested in tracking, but the seven items outlined below represent values that are important to me.
Setting a Habit Streak
First a word about the system. I’ve tried several different tools to monitor my progress. Currently, I am using a free app from Apple’s App Store called Streaks.
The beauty of the program is in its simplicity. You identify the habits you want to track and when you complete the task for the day, you mark it as done. Voila!
Each day you complete an item the streak is continued. By challenging myself to keep a streak alive I’ve found some extra motivation on days where I just didn’t feel up to the task. Though, as you can see by the screenshot above, I’m not exactly batting .1000 🤣.
Activity Rings
If you own an Apple Watch you know what Activity Rings are. The genius’ over at Apple devised yet another way to make one of their products addicting.
The rings on your Apple Watch measure three things:
- Stand Goal – standing for at least 1 minute each hour
- Exercise Goal – completing at least 30 minutes of exercise each day
- Move Goal – the number of active calories burned each day.
Each day my goal is simply to close my rings. This ensures that I am getting an appropriate amount of physical activity to remain healthy. I use a standing desk at work and try to at least take a 30-45 minute walk each day if nothing else. Just doing these two actions alone usually helps me complete this habit.
Mindfulness Minutes
I began the practice of mediation about 5 years ago. It’s nothing weird or silly. Mostly mindfulness mediation is about focusing on breathing and bringing an awareness of how you are feeling.
This is a great habit that can be practiced almost anywhere and at any time. I try to spend at least 5 minutes in the morning before jumping right into my morning prayer time. Helps me focus and get clear on how I am feeling.
Read the Scriptures
I set aside time each morning to read the Bible. For the last couple of years, I have changed up my practice. For most of my life, I have read more widely than deeply. I would use various devotional practices to direct my reading.
A couple of years ago I made a change. Instead of jumping around the text or reading one book and moving on to the next, I decided to read through one book of the Bible. Then when finished, I went back and re-read it again. I spent the entire year in one book – Ecclesiastes.
I read the 12 chapters in that book again and again. (It helps that it is my favorite book in the Bible. But still...) I found I would see something new in each reading. It was great. This year I am following the same program in the Psalms.
Read A Book
Reading became a priority for me approximately 10 years ago. I have never much enjoyed TV or movies – I can’t stay focused on them. But I LOVE stories.
I read around 45-60 books a year. I will read just about anything but my favorites tend to be biographies, mysteries, epic fantasies, histories, and short stories. The Goodreads app is a great place to get recommendations from friends and chart my progress. Occasionally, I will review books on this site as well.
Reading is an escape for me. It lets me crawl out of my head and into someone else’s. It expands my creativity and helps me see the world differently. Plus it is about the only hobby I have time left to pursue. So this goal is focused on making sure I set time aside each day to read for at least 12-15 minutes.
Log Meals
The only thing I love more than books is carbs, well that and the people who live with me 😉. Now in my early 40s, I have to watch what I eat to stay healthy.
MyFitnessPal is a great app that lets me simply track the food I eat each day. You can get as technical as you would like when it comes to tracking what you eat. But I keep it pretty simple. I’m mostly just counting calories.
Just building the discipline of having to log each thing I eat is enough to make me reconsider how badly I want the cupcake. And, if you’ve seen my wife’s cupcakes you know the temptation!
Write Something Every Day
For the last six years, I have used the DayOne App to capture my thoughts at the beginning or end of each day.
I like to write (hence this website). It helps me make sense of the world and how I think about things. I need to get stuff out of my head to understand it.
I don’t have any particular aspirations when it comes to writing. But I want to build the habit of at least writing each day. Practice will at least make me better – even if ultimately I never arrive at perfect.
Create Top 3 Tasks
Of all the habits I am developing creating a list of the top 3 things I need to get done is the only one focused purely on productivity. The other six habits are designed to help me become the type of person who can be productive. This habit helps focus my actions.
Each night I write down the three most important things for me to accomplish the next day. My goal is to complete those tasks before I do anything else.
The reality of my world is that I will end some days with things I had hoped to accomplish left uncompleted. This is an incredibly busy season. The purpose of this habit is to make sure that the most important things get done first.
Making a Habit of Habits
As you can tell none of these items are very difficult. Other than my activity rings and logging meals, most are completed before I even get to work. The idea is to intentionally direct my energy and effort toward shaping the man I want to become.
Really, I am just trying to make a habit of reviewing and tweaking the actions I am routinely engaging in. Like someone way smarter than me once said, “The unexamined life is not worth leading.”
Title Photo by Moe Magners from Pexels
