| I have always at least one new habit being built.
I find very useful acquiring habits as automated routines. Whenever I have a new goal, I create a process for achieving it, make it an habit, and stop focusing on the goal so much. Whenever I feel stagnated, I review my current habits, and do either: A) Improve/optimize an existing habit for a more ambitious goal (ex: "going to the park and do a couple pullups before work" becomes "do a small strength training routine at the park before work") B) Create a new habit (starting small) in an area of my life that I'm not taking enough care of - even without having a clear goal for it. I found that many times, creating a process first has ended up creating an exciting goal. By following this approach, during last year I created and sustained the following habits: - Review my Japanese flashcards daily (>1 year) - Keep a budget (>8 months) - Journal (>8 months) - Body-weight strength training before work (>3 months) - Working/studying in early morning before going to the office (>1 month) The key is to start small.
If a process no longer helps my goals, I kill it. For keeping track, I use the Loop Habit Tracker for Android, which is open source (https://github.com/iSoron/uhabits). EDIT: formatting |