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Ask HN: Changing habits

11 pointsenscr10 comments

What's the single most effective thing that helped you change your habits or bring drastic positive changes in life?

Habits like - exercising OR not eating unhealthy ever OR waking up early OR reading everyday OR no XBOX/PS/Netflix until you are ramen profitable ... etc. It could be a great book, something someone said, desperation, ... anything that worked for you.

(Not looking for a general discource or about.com like articles)

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BJ Fogg's Tiny Habits. Essentially:

1. Pick a trigger -- something you already will definitely do at the rate of the new habit.

2. Find a version of the habit that takes no cognitive load and can be done in less than a minute.

3. Celebrate every time you do it.

The template is: After I X, I will do Y. X must be sure, Y must be small. You must do it after.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdKUJxjn-R8

I also suggest putting in a system that makes it impossible to not do what you want. For the games/netflix one, just get rid of them. Don't depend on willpower -- make a system

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230333

For eating right -- journal everything you eat -- no need to track anything fancy except what it was and you will see results. The magic is that you don't eat things because you don't want to write it down. If you track one other thing, put a + or - next to it to indicate whether you think it was a good choice or not.

BJ Fogg's 1, 2, 3 step is known as "anchoring", and I agree it can be effective in establishing new habits, especially when there is emotional buy-in beforehand. It's actually an old NLP / hypnosis fix.

Weeding out any friction points while establishing the habit is also important (in my book INDOCTRINATOR, I call it the "secret ceremony").

INDOCTRINATOR isn't finished yet, but it's available at Leanpub for anyone interested: http://indoctrinator.com

Signed up. Looks promising... and perhaps easier than reading a book.

The power of habit by Charles Duhigg. It gives you insight in how habits work. More specifically, it explains the habit loop. Once you understand habits, it's much easier to change them.

http://charlesduhigg.com/how-habits-work/

Introduction to the book looks promising. I've shortlisted a few books to look at.

http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-The-Habit-Being-Yourself/dp/1...

http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Habit-What-Business/dp/14000...

http://www.amazon.com/The-Willpower-Instinct-Self-Control-Ma...

http://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385...

http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates...

The most important thing you can do is to acknowledge that will-power is a limited resource and to instead change / design your environment. Figure out what the triggers are for the habit you are trying to change and eliminate those triggers as much as possible.

Cancel cable. Sell your video game system. Don't keep beer, candy, or processed foods in the house. Commit to a fixed schedule with a personal trainer. Don't spend time with people who have habits you're trying to avoid.

Seems crazy, but the Lift mobile app helped me a lot. It's focus is around getting you to "check-in" to your habits with the aim of doing them for 21 days. There's a social factor too, but I feel quite motivated to not break the cycle after a few days of check-ins.

https://lift.do/

Lift worked well for me for a month and I liked it. But once you start slipping, the momentum takes down everything. It's a good app no doubt.

Signing up to a specific gym timeslot for Crossfit. The combination of social pressure, financial commitment, no-brainer workouts (variety, someone tells you what to do, and it works) and getting into a routine mean I haven't missed a 8am workout slot, 3 times a week, except for travel or illness since I joined a year and a half ago.

Check BJ Fogg's Tiny Habits. Great way to change your habits..

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