In praise of habits | Hacker News Reader

In praise of habits

psyche.co

92 pointspseudolus16 comments

Was a little too theoretical for me, so I like something a little more simple about habits...

>...habits are, simply, reliable solutions to recurring problems in our environment. - Jason Hreha [1]

>Whenever you face a problem repeatedly, your brain begins to automate the process of solving it. Your habits are just a series of automatic solutions that solve the problems and stressed you face regularly. - James Clear [1]

The point that was interesting about habits, to me, is that they are unconscious. So this means that you don't necessarily know that you even have them. And they guide a large part of your life. So, if you are not in a spot in life where you want to be, look at your habits... it takes some effort because they are unconscious... but then you can work on changing them.

The unconscious part is important too, though, in a good way. They are programs running in the background that allow you direct your attention to new things that you don't encounter often. Kind of cool when you think that humans have a way to auto-program an auto-pilot for things they encounter often, so that the brain can be better prepared for new things.

[1] https://newsletter.butwhatfor.com/p/habits-maketh-the-man

> Was a little too theoretical for me

I sort of agree - it reads like a literature review converted to an article. But still, pleasantly readable IMHO without much prior knowledge.

I believe that lack of habit formation is a big part of at least some ADHD cases. Having your unconscious make something a habit is how you learn to focus, if your unconscious doesn't decide to make things habits and instead just look for new ways and solutions to do stuff you'll have a hard time focusing.

I don't think that lack of habit formation is necessarily a bad thing, making something a habit is good if that something is good, but bad if you learn things that are wrong. Meaning I'd argue that people who are worse at forming habits are likely better at rethinking their beliefs and theories.

> I believe that lack of habit formation is a big part of at least some ADHD cases.

Definitely a significant part of my case. Until I started using a smart watch to walk me through morning and night routines, I had no routines. I generally don’t have regular habits which makes maintaining basic life stuff difficult at times.

I 100% relate to this, so the smartwatch bit is very interesting as I didn't think of using it for this - what's your workflow like? Do you just have calendar events on your wrist, or a more custom solution?

I use an app called Routinery (Apple Watch) and you can just setup sequences of tasks that trigger at times. Very simple but exactly what I need for the morning.

I'll give this a try, thank you!

I hope it works for you - let me know if you find any cool adaptations :)

Same. I learned earlier this year that I have multiple of the ADHD symptoms. Since then I got an Apple Watch just for reminders, after reading people from r/adhd praising its use. For the first time I feel that my days have a structure, and I can check at any time if I already did something instead of forgetting about it and doing it more than once (such as feeding my cat, who needs a very strict diet because of a health condition)

> Until I started using a smart watch to walk me through morning and night routines

This might be a silly question, but what does that mean in practice? I don't think I have what can be called morning or night routine (other than "go to bed when sleepy" and "get up, shower and go to work") but I also can't think why I'd need more than that.

> Was a little too theoretical for me

It was published on a psychology website.

I recently read a really good book about habits[1]. I really liked how he described the benefit of habits, where essentially your brain can fully offload the effort of thinking when you're performing one like tying your shoes.

One of the big takeaways from it for me was how its more difficult to break a habit than to "reprogram it". He does this by describing the three steps of the habit loop, the cue, action, and reward. To save you having to read the whole book I think this article does a good job of distilling the essentials[2], though the book was still a really interesting read if you have the time.

[1] https://charlesduhigg.com/the-power-of-habit/

[2] https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/habit-loop

Yes and:

I now have separate journals for habits, tasks, time keeping, and praise. I just use cheap notebooks.

None of the apps I've tried have worked for me. Reminds me of the wisdom: don't expect personal finance software to inspire you to balance your checkbook if don't already.

Carrying around notebooks feels more immediate; like a physical reminder that can't be ignored.

Ad hoc dot journaling for habits. A bit like Seinfield's "don't break the chain".

Tasks are a work in progress. Aspire to bullet journaling techniques.

My time tracking sucks. This is where I think an app could be most useful. Especially by stamping my location onto each log entry.

Praise journal is part of the mindfulness stuff. Just write down the good bits of each day.

> However, despite completing this task on something like autopilot, your drive will still be intelligently adjusted to situational intricacies, such as how fast or slow the driver in front of you is going, or when the traffic lights change. In attempting to account for the intelligent dimension of habit, researchers have moved away from construing habits as unintelligent mechanisms and towards modelling them as a species of belief.

I wouldn't attribute this to an added dimension of intelligence because I see two "unintelligent" habits at play here. The first habit is the route you take to work and knowing which streets to take and what intersections to turn on. The second is your driving skills. "Intelligently" adjusting to situational intricacies like how fast the driver in front of you is going doesn't seem intelligent because it's just a reflex of an experienced driver. Put the two together and that's how you make it to work on autopilot.

> Contemporary philosophy of mind is positively replete with warnings that we ought not to fall into easy dichotomies between intelligent and voluntary processes on the one hand, and unintelligent and automatic processes on the other.

There's something really beautiful about habits being both intelligent and unintelligent (or neither). If you invest your attention on habits while performing them, there's an opportunity to observe what you do effortlessly and (slowly, with time and energy) improve/evolve already highly involved activities. Eventually your habits are improved and yet again, effortless. You definitely see this in sports, but lots of examples in all the things humans do.

Personal pet peeve: Trying to look "old-fashioned" but getting it wrong. "Maketh" is a singular form of the verb; he/she/it maketh, but they... Make. "Habits" is plural; habits make the man.

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