When I plan my day, I write down my habits as part of my plan.
“But they are habits”, you might say, “Why write them down, if you’ll be doing them anyway?”
I get the question. It makes some sense. Here’s my answer, in five parts.
Writing them down makes them into habits
To create a new habit, I build on my daily planning habit.
This is not usually habit stacking, as defined, because I don’t expect most new habits to happen right after I plan. But because I plan each day, I can write down new habits that I’m developing, making them part of my mind’s order for the day.
It is the process of doing this day after day that helps me create and stick with new habits.
At any point in time, we are strengthening a habit or weakening it. By continuing to write it down in my plan for each day, I make sure that I am strengthening the habit.
Writing them down orders my mind
Remember, the purpose of planning is to order your mind. By writing down habits that live at the abstraction level I use to plan the day, it helps to order my mind for the day.
Knowing that I’ll be writing in my journal and exercising is fine in an abstract sense. But putting those into the context of the day ensures that my mind is ready for them and that they fit.
Writing them down keeps me realistic
Closely related to the last point, writing them down keeps me realistic about the day. If I write down three or four habits that I do at lunchtime, then it’s clear that I’m not going to be able to also go for a long lunch with a friend at the same time.
It’s just not realistic. So I can adjust my plans to account for that. Without writing these habits down, my brain might skip over the conflict, until it bites me in the butt after lunch and I realize I have to make some hard choices.
Writing them down helps me to habit stack
I’ve written before about habit stacking. Writing down a habit in your plan isn’t just important for the habit itself. If you’re stacking another habit after it, then including both on your plan makes it more likely you’ll do both.
It ties the two together in your “ordered” mind, so that when it comes time you naturally do one, and then the other.
Writing them down sets the anchor points for the day
Most of my habits are anchor points in my day. That just means that once I’m finished, either with a habit or a stack of habits, then one stage of the day is done.
By including these habits and habit stacks in the day, they provide natural transitions.
Morning habits done? Ok, time to start work.
Evening habits done? Cool, I can relax a bit before going to bed.
Moral of the Story
Don’t take your habits for granted.
Really, that’s it.
It’s exactly when we take our habits for granted that they stop being habits. We skip exercising for the day, and then it’s easier to do it again the next week, and then we blow off our workout three times the third week, and the next thing we know, running around the yard with our kids leaves us out-of-breath and it takes us days to recover instead of hours.
So: plan your day, include your habits, and make them happen.
Happy planning!