Habits—The Secret of Highly Productive People
Habits are underrated. We take little notice of them, if we do at all.
It’s ironic, because our days are filled with habits that we are not intentional about. Making coffee before you start work is a habit. So is picking up a snack at 3 o’clock in the afternoon and binge-watching Friends until midnight, despite your promises of completing eight hours of sleep.
That’s how the mind works. Whatever we do repeatedly becomes habit. And they’re strong. Make bad ones and they will be difficult (even impossible) to break. It takes a lot of willpower and a well-thought-of strategy to get rid of that cigarette craving or that procrastination.
But you can turn the tables. Take advantage of how the mind automatically forms habits—create good ones to replace the bad ones.
Why You Should Develop Good Habits
Routines push you to work.
There are days when we are eager to get up and start working at the earliest hour. There’s an energy that powers us: motivation.
We also have days when we just don’t feel like leaving our soft, clean, fluffy sheets. The drive has gone out.
What do you do then? Do you look for motivation? Do you stay in bed? Chances are, your day doesn’t turn out as productive as you want it to be. Some people don’t get any work done, even with four cups of coffee in their system.
Motivation is flaky. Some days you have it, some days you don’t. So to depend on it is uncertain and foolish.
The good news is you can make it easier for yourself to work without motivation. You don’t have to lose what you gained on those days that you felt motivated.
The only rule you have to follow is: Don’t bank on motivation alone. Create routines.
A routine is a sequence of activities that you do consistently. A morning routine can be: make your bed, brush your teeth, take a shower, have breakfast, and water the plants. As you do this over and over, it becomes automatic. When the alarm goes off, your body knows what to do next. You do your routine out of habit. It’s easier to get up even on down days, because it’s how you’ve spent every morning.
You can do the same in how you work. Cal Newport, in his book, Deep Work, advises that you put routines and rituals in your day so that plunging into deep work can be easier. For example, upon arriving at the office, start with making coffee and organizing your tasks for the day, then check your email and other messages for say, 30 minutes, then read for an hour, and then work on your biggest task for the day for two hours. It can be as simple as that.
Fit, toned people work out everyday not because they feel motivated, but because they have established routines.
I remember Brett McKay share in his Art of Manliness podcast that he, too, has routines in place. He is able to publish blog articles regularly because of his systems, not because he finds inspiration to write every day.
Routines are like systems. Or are systems. They make sure that work is done. Can you imagine a factory without a system? It would be chaos. Systems make everything smoother, efficient, and consistent. They push us to get up and move.
Habits create space in the brain for other cognitive activities.
Our brains naturally and automatically create routines. It’s called “chunking,” and Charles Duhigg, author of Power of Habit, said that “it’s at the root of how habits form.” He further elaborates that our days are filled with these “behavioral chunks” such as inserting and turning your key before opening a locked door and maneuvering your car out of the garage.
We don’t think about these sequences anymore. We don’t use mental energy to perform these tasks. They’ve become habits, and that’s how our brains conserve energy.
Our brain will try to make habits out of everything that we do. That’s why we have mental energy to do other things—research, strategize, invent. They help us reserve energy for activities that are more important, such as making big decisions. We are able to create our lists of pros and cons, able to analyze information, and arrive at decisions.
Another way that habits can free up space in the brain is through shark habits. Dan John wrote:
“The name ‘shark habits’ comes from Robb Wolf. When it comes to getting stuff done, this means ‘one bite and it's gone.’
Anything that's binary in my life (off/on or yes/no) I take the advice of the legendary coach Lou Holtz and ‘Do it now.’ Call it DIN.”
Shark habits are those tasks that you do immediately.
In my own experience, doing things right now clears space in my head. I don’t “suddenly remember” to do something because I’ve done it already. It kills the nagging voice in my head that keeps me stressed. I save the mental energy that would have been wasted in keeping that memory.
If I can’t do it right now, I make a note. I write it in my journal to declutter my head, and pull that back out for when it’s time to think about it or do the task.
So, renew that membership now. Gas up. Respond to that email. Transfer the money. Tick boxes the earliest you can.
Borrowing John’s words again: “Make yourself a slave to shark habits.”
Keystone habits bring other good changes in your life.
Keystone habits, popularized by Duhigg, are those small acts that pour into other aspects of your life. They initiate a chain of good changes.
Exercise is the most popular keystone habit, and is common among successful people. Duhigg said in his book, Power of Habit:
"When people start habitually exercising, even as infrequently as once a week, they start changing other, unrelated patterns in their lives, often unknowingly. Typically people who exercise start eating better and becoming more productive at work. They smoke less and show more patience with colleagues and family. They use their credit cards less frequently and say they feel less stressed. It's not completely clear why ... 'Exercise spills over,' said James Prochaska, a University of Rhode Island researcher. 'There's something about it that makes other good habits easier.'" (p. 109)
Maybe the discipline that it creates becomes embedded in our brain and spills over to the entirety of our lifestyle, or maybe it’s because of physiological reasons. Whatever the explanation is, it does happen.
I became more disciplined with my actions when I started exercising regularly. It was easier to do all the things I had to do. And it felt good.
There are many lists of habits scattered on the web. One such list is by Hal Elrod, which I found out about in an entertaining and packed episode of the Art of Charm podcast. If you’d like to hear it, it’s episode 270.
Elrod was dead for six minutes. He came back to life and became a marathoner, speaker, trainer, and rapper.
In the podcast, they talked about Elrod’s book, The Miracle Morning, which revolves around a morning routine that sets you up for productivity. Elrod did his research and interviews and found six habits that kept popping up in self-development programs—meditation, affirmation, visualization, exercise, reading, and journaling.
Instead of choosing one that he thinks would make the biggest impact, he did all six every day. Two months of that routine doubled his income, and he went from zero exercise to training for a marathon after just six months.
Most important among his improvements was that of his mental health. He had depression, but he started defeating it since day one of the morning routine.
It changed his life and others’—and that’s how powerful habits are.
How to Make Habits Stick
Because I believe in the power of good habits, I have been developing them every day. There are four things I do that help me get there.
Strive for consistency rather than intensity.
It’s more important that you do it everyday than do it in the extreme on some days. Repetition is key to habit formation, and you must do the same thing every day. There is no way around it.
If you’re trying to commit to regular exercise, start with simple, short routines. If you begin with an hour-long, intense, non-stop, exhausting routine, you’re bound to feel burdened and overwhelmed. It might work at first and you might feel accomplished, but later, starting the routine every morning becomes a challenge. And then you go back to not exercising at all.
Focus on one habit at a time.
I’ve yet to read Elrod’s book, so I don’t know if he recommends starting everything at once. If you can do that, then good for you, but I don’t see anything wrong with focusing on developing one habit at a time. And when that sticks, continue and start another one.
Keep track.
As in all things, it’s good to keep track. We can’t always trust our memory, can we?I use a simple tool: a habit tracker. I used to create this in my journal every month, but now I use an app called Habit Tracker.
It helps me keep track of the good habits I develop, reminds me, and makes me feel good with every habit I tick off. It’s encouraging too. The longer I keep at it, the more I don’t want to break the streak.
Believe.
If you think you can’t change a bad habit, well, then you certainly won’t. Even if you initially gain a few steps forward, that mindset will keep pulling you back. So change that first.
In the case of recovering alcoholics, Duhigg quotes Tonigan, a University of New Mexico researcher:
“Even if you give people better habits, it doesn’t repair why they started drinking in the first place. Eventually they’ll have a bad day, and no new routine is going to make everything seem okay. What can make a difference is believing that they can cope with that stress without alcohol.” (p. 85)
Believe in something—anything—until you believe in yourself too.
Good luck!
