End of the Year Planning Tip #21 – Identify New Habits

With Christa, the Christmas Elf with a Plan – 21 December

She has done it again. She used the h-word. Habits. She wants all of us to be successful in achieving our goals and knows establishing the right habits is key. Today’s End of the Year Planning Tip is to identify new habits. I know we are a little bit ahead of her again. We have already noted the new habits needed in the actions for each new goal.  But she has a little more to add.

If you have missed any of the previous tips from Christa, you can hop back to Tip #1 by clicking here.

How to Establish New Habits

We have already discussed the importance of developing the habit(s) of using our planner throughout our day (Tip #8, Establish Daily Routines That Include Planning). In my series of posts on Functional Planning, I covered the same topic regarding the need for planning as part of your daily routines (Daily Routines and Habits for Successful Functional Planning). Understanding why habits are so important in achieving our goals and how we can set ourselves up to successfully establish good habits is so important, it bears repeating.

Why Are Habits Important to Goal Achievement

Our long-term goal is about the person we want to become. It is about our collected knowledge, skills, and experiences. And it is about how we want others to regard us and how we want to see ourselves. It is also about the life we want to lead and how we live it. Our habits define us. What we do on autopilot defines us. To move from the person, we are today to the person we want to become requires us to establish the right habits.

The most I usually see in planner regarding habits are trackers.  Most trackers are checklists. Sometimes that are fun or fancy, but it is still just a checklist. But if the only trigger to make sure you perform that habit is a checklist, what happens if you lose the checklist? So, the trigger needs to be something that you do that is already a habit, or an event that occurs requiring you to exercise your habit. We need to do a little more thinking about a new habit than how we are going to track it.

Setting Up a New Habit

A few years ago, I discovered a book that clarified the importance of habits and making small changes day after day that would result in big impact  over time.  This book is Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (2018) by James Clear.  It has helped me so much that I now have it on my Kindle and in Audible for my own reference and review.

In the book, Mr. Clear outlines four “laws” for developing good habits:

1. make it obvious
   • Write it down and in specific, clear terms – what, when and where. 
   • Identify a well-established (good) habit that you can stack the new habit on – when I finish <established habit>, I will <new habit>. 
   • Set up your environment so that you have a visual cue to begin the habit.
2. make it attractive,
   • Tempt yourself to do the new habit by bundling it with something you already enjoy doing.
   • Align yourself with other people who already have the desired habit. 
   • Motivate yourself by doing something you enjoy before doing a new, and difficult, habit.
3. make it easy, and
   • Prepare ahead of time to minimize the number of steps required to execute the new habit. 
   • Scale the new habit to something achievable yet challenging. 
   • Invest in the tools or equipment needed.
4. make it satisfying.
   • Use positive reinforcement when you complete a habit. 
   • Use a habit tracker and monitor your streak of continuous repetitions. 
   • If you miss a day, get back on track the next day and rebuild your streak.

Step 1, “make it obvious”, is where you establish a trigger. Step 2, “make it attractive” is like a trigger booster. Removing potential obstacles occurs with Step 3, “make it easy”. And lastly, you are rewarded in Step 4, “make it satisfying”.

Examples

So how might you do this for any new habits?  Start by making a contract with yourself and hold yourself accountable.

Example 1 – Let’s say you need to add “review plans for the day” to your morning routine. You would start by clearly stating your intention:

“I will review my plans for the day in my planner at 7:15 am at the kitchen counter while I enjoy my morning coffee.”

You could prepare for success by placing your planner(s) on the kitchen counter before you go to bed at night. Place any other tools (pen, highlighter, sticky notes) you might need there, too. As you savor the last sip of coffee, you can check off the “morning planner review” item in your habit tracker. Then look at the long row of check marks and feel accomplished. You have taken steps to be prepared and focused on what is most important each day.

Example 2 – You have a goal regarding your physical health want to add an intentional walk every morning for 30 minutes near your home. You have not been exercising and know you will not have the stamina for 30 minutes continuous walking when you begin.  You would start by clearly stating your intention:

“I will walk every morning at 7:30 am around the neighborhood for 15 minutes (gradually increasing to at least 30 minutes). When I return, I will enjoy a delicious cup of coffee and a healthy breakfast.”

You could prepare for success by

• laying out clothes – including shoes, and jacket/hat/gloves (if needed) – before going to bed.  
• filing a water bottle and leaving it on the kitchen counter where you will see it first thing in the morning.
• planning an alternative for bad weather days, such as walking indoors. 
• setting up the coffee maker before you head out.
• pairing your new walking something you already enjoy such as listening to a favorite podcast or an audio book.

The tracker for this needs to include not only a check box, but space to record the number of minutes you walked.  I would document the plan for gradually increasing the minutes.  It might be something like, Week 1 – 15 minutes, Week 2 – 20 minutes, and so on.

Creating a Habit Plan

Now that you know how to set yourself up for success with new habits, you need a place to write it all down.  I have uploaded a Habit Plan form like Christa used for her nightly yoga habit to the free downloads page.  It is available in both US Letter (8 ½” x 11”) and Classic (7” x 9 ¼”) sizes. It is formatted for duplex printing.   You can capture all the details for the habit on the front side which has a simple tracking chart at the bottom.  The back side is dot grid and prompts you to document any additional information such as changes, observations, reflects.  This is where you could document how you will gradually increase or decrease something regarding the habit.

Decrease? Yes, you can use this methodology for eliminating bad habits. Eliminating bad habits requires you to identify a new response to whatever triggers the bad habits.  There are other aspects of the terminology that also need to be changed for bad behaviors.  I should write a post on eliminating bad behaviors.  Note:  “Write a post” is a trigger for my habit that has me record “eliminating bad behaviors” on my Blog Ideas List.

Please note that there are also spaces for planned and actual start dates.  It can be overwhelming to try and start multiple new habits at the same time.  Not only can all the sudden change be overwhelming, you may not be able to recognize the impacts of individual changes.  For example, you have a health goal that has you exercising more, drinking more water, eating more (or less) of certain foods/macros.  While increasing water intake is not likely going to “conflict” with any increase in physical activity, also changing solid food intake may.  Your digestive system may be acting up and you’ll not know which may be the cause.  It takes some time for the body to adjust. 

Also new habits need strong prompting until they start to become actual habits.  Eventually, you could manage to get dressed and go for your morning even if you forgot to lay out your clothes and fill a water bottle.  But initially, having a reminder in your evening routine to “prep for morning habits” might be needed.  Eventually, the laying out of clothes and filling a water bottle will be habit and go on auto-pilot.

Summary

Developing habits plays a key role in achieving our yearly goals and reaching our long-term goal. Writing a “contract” with yourself that defines your intentions and plans how you will proceed is the first step in successfully establishing a habit.  If you have not read Atomic Habits, I highly recommend you do so.

Happy Planning,

Linda