Daily Habits

redsleaves

redsleaves

0
My friends!

I’m trying to figure out a good way to handle daily habits ... tasks that are longer than the sort of thing you might have in a morning routine.

For instance:

Scan through RSS
Read Instapaper Queue
Write for blog
Publish blog post

It seems like a no brainer, but for some reason it ends up turn into repeating cruft that gets ignored in favor of the latest and loudest before I eventually delete it out of Omnifocus because it just makes me feel bad.

I’ve tried blocking time on my calendar but I can’t always hold down the same daily schedule.

It might be a discipline thing. But if anyone has any thoughts on best practice I’m alllll ears.
 
redsleaves said:
But if anyone has any thoughts on best practice I’m alllll ears.
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I'd approach it from the other direction. If, for an extended period of time, you've not done these things despite planning to do so, you haven't made time for them, you haven't prioritized them ahead of anything else, and you're not getting fired or put in jail for not filing your taxes, then that seems like pretty solid evidence to me that you don't need to be doing them at all. I don't think it's about "discipline" - if experience shows that you're not motivated to do them, and that there don't appear to be any negative consequences of not doing them (other than the self-imposed ones caused by putting them on your lists in the first place), then why would you *want* to be disciplined to do them? Scratch them from your lists and don't let them take time and attention away from the things you actually care about doing.

One of the things that happens when you write down all the things that you want to do, is that you realize you don't have either the time or the inclination to do them all, and you have to choose with confidence which ones you're going to forget about, so you can concentrate on the rest. If you don't do this then, as you've found, stuff still doesn't get done and you end up at the same place, but now you feel bad about it. So make the conscious choice to not do them, and stop feeling bad.
 
If they are a habit (like process inbox to zero), I don't track it anywhere.
If it needs to be done on a day, but can happen any time that day, I create it as an All Day Event in my calendar.
If it needs to be done on a day, but needs to happen at a specific time, I create it as an appointment in my calendar.
If it can happen any day or time and you are just trying to make it a habit and it's not yet, then it could go on a Next Actions list by context, or, something I've done at times is to have a specific Next Actions list called "Routines".

Hope that helps!
 
If it is a new habit you want to establish, Michael Hyatt says it takes 66 days to install it (make it second nature). Being clear on WHY you want to establish the habit is very motivational. Write it down and refer to it as needed.

An activation trigger is something that gets you launched (ie start as soon as you sit down with your first cup of morning coffee?) and tracking progress can also be very motivating. You get to decide whether 'success' has to be 100% or perhaps only 95% (which allows you to miss a few days and not have to restart.)

I haven't had success putting this sort of thing into my GTD system in the past either - I go numb to the reminders... and to the calendar events that are supposed to get me going. An activation trigger has been working well for the last couple of weeks.

Once I begin, I use the Timeglass app (iPhone) to run a timer I have set up with multiple steps to take me through the full routine. To track progress, I'm using a manual daily tally as well as the Strides app (iPhone), since I'm not sure which will be more effective for me.

Giving myself permission to miss a day and not consider myself a failure has greatly helped my motivation. Two weeks may not sound like much, but it is about 10 days longer than my habits usually last. ;)

Good luck!
 
I use TaskPaper, which stores tasks in an outline format in a plain text file.

Since it is a text file, I use a macro app called Keyboard Maestro to insert my list of habits at the top of my task outline, above my inbox. I have three set up: one that executes daily; one that executes on Monday/Wednesday/Friday; and one that executes weekly.

Since the habits end up at the top of my inbox, they get looked at immediately when I open TaskPaper. When I do the habit, I mark it as @done, and archive it, which removes it from the list. Later, all @done tasks are archived into my journal, which is Day One.

So my system inspires me to do my habits for these reasons: my habits appear automatically; habits vary a bit, day by day; they appear at the top of my list; they don't go away unless I do them or I renegotiate my commitment to them (meaning that they start to stack up in my list if I don't do them); and they are archived in my dated journal, which makes me proud.

My system is a bit nerdy/geeky, but it works for me.
 
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