Last Monday (2/8) I had the opportunity to host an event at Ness Labs, as part of the CreatorSpark accelerator, and chose “Building Good Habits” and the main theme. The idea was to share some tips and tricks on Building Better Habits, combining with some of my personal experience over the past year on doing so. I am not an expert on the subject by any means, but thought that by sharing this, I may spark an interest and maybe help you find ideas to implement in your own life.

Disclaimer: most of the ideas you’ll see here were inspired by reading the book Tiny Habits (which I did early on in the pandemic), and can probably been seen in other well-known book like Atomic Habits and The Power of Habit.

Choosing Your Habits:

When it comes to starting a new habit, there are some questions that I always like to ask myself:

WHAT is the habit you want to start?
WHY do you want to do this?
WHEN do you intend to do it?
HOW are you going to do it?
what is the FREQUENCY of this habit?
What is the AMOUNT?
Which AREA of your LIFE does it relate to?

You don’t have to necessarily answer every single of these questions, of course, but I highly recommend you to do so. And Be as specific, detailed, and intentional as possible. By doing so, you will have a resource to go back and remember why did you want to start this in the first place. And if you already have a few habits going on in your life, I also recommend you to stop and try to answer these same questions. It can be an interesting way to make sure they still make sense to you.

Here’s how one of my own habits look like, as an example:

» WHAT: Meditation

» WHY: to be more mindful and less anxious

» FREQUENCY: daily

» HOW: using the breathing app on the Apple Watch

» AMOUNT: 5 minutes

» WHEN: 1x in the morning and 1x in the evening

» AREA of LIFE: health

To give you some more ideas, here’s how I organize the information of my current habits in a Notion database:

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When starting a NEW habit:

Brainstorm as many different ways as you can do that specific activity;
Think about which one(s) makes more sense to your current lifestyle;
Which one is so easy that you could try and start right now?
What is the tiniest amount that you can do every day, that will still make you feel accomplished, especially in the long run?
Always be realistic and honest with yourself!

Sticking to your Habits:

In order to make new habits stick, one of the most important things is to make sure that whatever you are trying to start makes sense to you and your lifestyle. Reading about other people’s habits can be very inspiring, but waking up every morning at 5:30 and starting the day with exercising may just not be for you.

If you are not convinced that a specific new habit will be good for you, think about it as a 30-day challenge! Or whatever duration you feel comfortable with, in this case. It’s a great way to try something new and reflect on it at the end of the challenge.

But again, always start small! Or tiny, in this case. And look for as many different (and interesting) ways of doing it.

→ Real-life example #1: Exercising

Before the pandemic, I used to have a pretty active life walking (and biking) around NYC almost every day. But quarantine forced me to isolate myself and I knew I would have to find ways to keep exercising on a regular basis. Since that was never the most appealing thing for me to do, I decided to look for different ways to do so and keep things always fresh by alternating activities. I started by using different 7-minute workout videos on YouTube, then introduced long walks outdoor (when the weather was getting warmer), then got back to playing ping-pong a couple of times a week, and lately I’ve been using the RingFit Adventure game (on Switch), as a way to keep things back indoor, but still having some kind of fun with it.

The bottom line is: even though “exercising” is a daily habit, the type of activity I’m doing is constantly changing!

→ Real-life example #2: Reading

I’ve never considered myself an avid reader, but the last time I’ve read this much was probably when I was in college, preparing for my final thesis. Here are a few things that helped me being consistent with my reading habit:

Diversify the content that you are reading. Try to alternate genres, styles, subjects.
Mix and match books with articles! In my case, I try to read books at night and articles in the morning.
If you prefer to read physical books, always have a small pile of books in your nightstand (or next to your favorite reading spot), to keep you interested and make it easier for you to remember to pick up the book and read.
If you prefer reading digitally, make sure you have a reading list that is always updated and easy to access, knowing that you’ll always have a new book to start as soon as you finish the current one.
Track your reading progress, to keep you motivated to finish the books you start.
But at the same time, don’t forget that you don’t have to finish every single book that you start! If it’s not resonating with you, just forget about it and switch to something else. Unless you absolutely have to read it for school or work, of course.

Bonus tip: if you like to read e-books, the app Libby will be a game-changer (if available in your location), trust me!

Tracking your Habits:

This can be a great way to keep you motivated, especially until the new habit really becomes part of your routine. Here are 3 ways to do so:

Using an app on your Phone, Tablet, Computer, or Watch. Two apps that I recommend are Streaks, my ultimate favorite app to track my habits in a simple and intuitive way, and Habitica, if you are into RPGs and especially if you have a friend or two looking to build new habits with you!
Adding them into your existing system. Whether you use an app like Notion or Roam, a task manager like Things 3, a spreadsheet, or even a physical journal, this could be especially helpful if you don’t want to introduce yet another app in your life.
Using a wall calendar. This can be great if you are looking for visual cues in your environment, to hold yourself accountable and be reminded in the physical space too. A few interesting resources if you are going the calendar route:

I love this template by Austin Kleon!
The 2 Day Rule, as seen in this video by Matt D’Avella;
Using a physical journal, as seen in this video by Thomas Frank.

Bonus: you can always mix and match all of these, of course! In my case, I track all of my habits using Streaks, but have some of them repeated in my Notion system, as well as a calendar in my fridge to keep track of my workouts.

All of that to say that you should do as much as you can to make the new habits more obvious to you in your life and your environment, both physical and digital. Here’s a screenshot of my iPhone homepage, for example, where every single time I unlock my phone, I see a widget with the progress of my daily habits at any single time of the day:

Stopping a BAD habit:

When it comes to trying to stop bad habits, I always go back to some of the same questions I proposed at the beginning of this post:

WHAT is the habit you want to stop?
WHY do you want to stop it?
FREQUENCY: are you wanting to slow down or stopping completely?
HOW are you going to do it?

The trick is (again) to be very specific and intentional about it. Here are some ideas worth exploring, taking from the book Tiny Habits:

Write down a habit that you’d like to stop. Be specific!
Think of ways you might remove (or avoid) the prompt to do so;
Think of ways to make it hard to do it;
Think of ways to reduce your motivation to do so;
Select your best ideas from steps 2, 3, and 4.
Experiment!

Reflecting

Whether you are working on starting new habits, or stop bad ones, reflecting is the best way to check-in with yourself. So at least once a month, try to slow down and ask yourself these questions:

What’s working? What’s not working?
Are these habits still making sense in your life?
Can you make any adjustments moving forward?
Is there room to add a new habit?
Any habits to try and stop?

Don’t force a new habit just because other people do it if it doesn’t make sense to your current lifestyle!

And last, but not least: don’t forget that there’s still a pandemic happening outside, so be kind to yourself! 🤗

Even though I've been a freelancer for almost a decade and haven't had a proper schedule in a long time, I was always fascinated by habits and routines, especially from other artists and creators, one of the reasons I recently read "Daily Rituals: How Artists Work". In recent years, there were 4 activities that I wanted to add to my daily routine but could never find the time or energy to do so: reading, journaling, meditating, and exercising, not necessarily in that order. Most of the time, I would get excited about something new, but after a few days or weeks, I'd drop without looking back. Everything changed when I came across two concepts:

1. Tiny Habits

Tiny Habits is a concept I first came across while reading blog posts and watching YouTube videos created by different people in the Productivity and Self-Improvement community, until a couple of months ago when I decided to go straight to the author and read "Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything”. In the book, BJ Fogg breaks down habit creation into identifying the habit you want to build, creating the best environment to make the new habit happen, mapping out behaviors, and sticking to your new habits. So when it comes down to a new habit, what you really want to focus on is to create the tiniest version of it that you can realistically follow through. If you want to start exercising, for example, you can't really convince yourself that starting tomorrow you're going to hit the gym for 1 hour every single day. What you can (probably) do is to start by working out for 10 minutes each day, and let it grow from there. Some days you may feel great and stay for the full hour, but on other days, if you don't feel like it, you can leave after 10 minutes feeling like you accomplished what you originally planned to do. Reading is another great example. If you're not a book worm, you're not going to force yourself to sit down and read 100 pages with no interruption. But if instead, you challenge yourself to read 10 pages (or minutes) every day, in 10 days you'll reach the same 100 pages that you wanted, and probably didn't get to because you dropped the idea right away. The whole idea is to implement small habits here and there and aim for the long run. After one, two, three months, or a year, you'll look back and be grateful for starting! You may surprise yourself by realizing that the tiny habit became something much bigger over time, or even morphed into something else without you realizing. If that doesn't happen, at least you developed a new habit and stuck with it! As BJ said in the book: "No matter how much you want to cultivate a healthy habit, you won’t be able to do it reliably if you start big."

2. Tracking your Habits

In parallel to creating a new habit, you need to find a way to track it. Not everybody will agree on this, but if you have a visually appealing way to see your progress over time, I promise you will feel way less encouraged to stop your new habit. For tracking, there are 2 ways that I tested and worked for myself:

→ A Monthly Calendar: Just print a blank calendar, write down the habit you are starting, and every day you do the new habit you go there and put a mark on the respective day. Put a big and colorful X on the box. In the beginning, you may feel discouraged by seeing one X and all the rest of the month blank, but you'll be surprised by how quickly you'll start filling out the boxes without realizing it. The magic here is that 1) you will get so excited when you see the month filling up that you won't want to skip a day and break the chain, and 2) you will start to look forward to doing the new habit just so you can quickly go there and update the calendar. It may sound silly, but it really works!

→ An App: Although I really like the calendar approach, I wanted to find a way I could easily track multiple habits at the same time. Being a technology enthusiast myself, the natural solution was to look for an App, and after testing out a few options, the one that resonated with me was Streaks, which I currently use on my iPhone. Streaks define itself as "The to-do list that helps you form good habits", and I couldn't agree more! It lets you select 12 different habits to track, with a lot of pre-designed options and the ability to create yours from scratch, if you don't see what you're looking for. After adding a new habit, you set up by deciding how often you want to do that specific habit and that's all! To start using, all you have to do is open up the app and press and hold to mark a habit as "done". What I love about the app is that it keep track of you "streak", showing you how many days in a row have you been doing it, what's your past record, and a few other valuable statistics. You can also add a bad habit that you are trying to break. Similar to the physical calendar approach, using the app will make you not want to skip a day and break the chain. For those who like to keep things digital, this app can really be a game-changer!

Here are the 9 habits I've been tracking with Streaks for the past 3 months or so, with the number of days I've completed in a row:

→ In the morning: 30 minutes of reading (79 days); 5 minutes of journaling (102 days); 5 minutes of meditation (94 days); 10 push-ups (50 days); Exercise (83 days).

→ In the evening: 30 minutes of reading (50 days); 5 minutes of meditation (48 days); flossing my teeth (86 days).

→ And a bad habit I'm trying to break: No snack in the evening (14 days).

Bonus 1: choose something you truly enjoy!

When trying to create a new (and necessary) habit, like exercising, it is important that you pay attention to your lifestyle and choose activities that you already enjoy doing it, instead of pushing to do something that you always hated. An example could be swimming instead of running on the treadmill. "Help yourself do what you already want to do." - BJ Fogg

Bonus 2: The Two Day Rule

Really enjoy this concept I first came across watching this video from Matt D'Avella on YouTube. What he basically says is that if you are trying to implement a daily habit, you should focus on never skipping 2 days in a row. You are allowed to break the chain and take a day off from the habit, as long as you get right back to it the next day. This allows you to take multiple days off, without feeling discouraged and dropping the habit from your life altogether. It can be a game-changer approach for a lot of people struggling with consistency!

How to Build Good Habits, or Stop Bad Ones