The importance of forming good habits 

By Rajat Mishra

I am sure sometimes you submit incomplete assignments. That too, just 2 minutes before the deadline. Then, you get irritated and try to improve this with different methods. In the end, you fail. It also happened to me but then I changed this with some tiny changes in my lifestyle. I created a habit of sleeping early and doing important things first. For what is a habit?  It is nothing but a routine or behaviour that is performed regularly. In many cases, automatically. Do you brush your teeth daily? That is a habit because it is a thing which has been practiced many times over. One does not even have to think much about it.

In the book Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, author James Clear writes that habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. This is very true, and you can’t imagine that only a few changes can impact your life so much.

In the book, he mentions, “if you can get 1 per cent better each day for one year, you’ll end up being thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done. Conversely, if you get 1 per cent worse each day for one year, you’ll decline nearly down to zero. What starts as a small win or a minor setback, accumulates into something much more.”

Therefore, the most important question: How to make habits persist? There are six steps to make a habit and I am 100% sure that it will work for you just as it worked for me. Just follow the steps listed below:

o   Identity change: Identity is what you believe, the way you think about yourself and your self-image. Instead of saying “I want to eat healthy food”, say “I don’t eat unhealthy food”. This would establish who you are and what you practice.

o   Habit implementation: In this step, you have to write on a sheet about your daily list of work. Put down everything, the name of the task, time and location to implement everything accurately.

o   Design your environment: Environment shapes your being. If you are studying in a noisy place you will get distracted. If you work out in a place where the kitchen is visible, you are more likely to feel hungry. So, don’t let the environment control you, rather you should control it. If you want to drink more water, fill up water bottles each morning and place them in the common locations around your house.

o   5-minute rule: This technique is to play around with your mind. To use this, you just have to say that I will do the [WORK] only for 5 mins. As you start doing it, after 5 min you will find it hard to not do it. In most cases, people find it easy after they start doing something and usually don’t stop until the work is done.

o   Immediate reward: Try to reward yourself. How? It’s easy. Whenever you complete a Maths chapter, eat something tasty, or whenever you work out, watch your favourite movie. This keeps you motivated to do the work at all times.

o   Never miss twice: There will be days when you will not be able to perform your habit.  If this happens once, it is ok but do not miss doing it for 2-3 days altogether. Because, it is difficult to come back up and take time out after a break.