by Chris McGinty
There’s a concept in self-help and productivity where you start small when forming a new habit. The book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear is one of the better books on the subject. I don’t really use this productivity tip, because it requires something that I don’t have, stability in my day-to-day habits. In concept, you would tie the new habit to an existing habit that you already have. I’m about as free-spirited as it comes when dealing with daily work. I have trouble finding anchor habits to tie new habits to.
I still give this as advice often. Maybe the people I’m giving the advice to have the same basic problem that I have, and it won’t do them any good, but I do think it’s good advice. One of the book tubers I watch was talking about… what? Oh, YouTubers who talk about reading books. Anyway, he was saying that he suggested that people set a daily reading goal of one page. It wasn’t so it would take you six months to read Stephen King’s “Carrie,” or three years to read, “It.” It was instead the idea that one page might end up just being one page if you’re not in the mood to read, but you might instead feel like reading and read for longer.
The second part of this is tying it to another habit. Let’s say that you play World of Warcraft every day. I don’t know. Does that still happen? Or is that so 2007? You could tie your daily reading of one page to when you sit down to play WoW. Before you login, pick up the book and start reading. It’s even better if your hope is to use a little bit of your time playing WoW for forming your new reading habit, because it’s a 1 to 1 replacement of the habit you wish to cut back for the one you wish to form.
The best thing that I could figure as an anchor habit is that typically when I get home from work, I will make something to eat (I rarely do fast food, so when I’m working, I rarely eat except snacking) and I’ll watch a little TV. Even there it isn’t a good anchor, because the time I get home from work varies wildly. Sometimes it may be as early as 10 pm and sometimes as late as 8 am. It’s just not consistent. Forming new habits is difficult for me. Which leaves streak habits… and we all know how I feel about those. Stupid fuckers. Even though they sometimes work.
Chris McGinty is a blogger who only has bad habits, but even those aren’t consistent, so what is a blogger to do?