Method for Adopting Habits

When things in my life change and fall into place, I've noticed that many other things line up as well, like a domino effect. Naturally, the opposite is also true. Starting with this idea, I begin to organize my life with the simplest issues.

Method for Adopting Habits

Forget whatever it is you want to achieve! Yes, you heard right, forget it and find yourself easier goals.

Let's give an example...

You've wanted to lose weight for years and it hasn't happened, or you want to start regular exercise, or get into programming...

Forget these topics and start with simple tasks. For instance, maintaining regular skincare, reading for 10 minutes, or walking 3,000 steps... Start with what is simple and consistent for you. Introduce only three new tasks into your life each month and prepare a schedule for it.

A Simple Excel File Will Do the Job for Habit Adoptation!

Write all the days and your tasks in an Excel file. If you achieve your goal for the day, write a 1, if not, write a 0. If the percentage of total 1s at the end of the month is 80, you have successfully incorporated this habit into your life. You can continue with a new task.

You won’t believe how much gets organized in that one month!

I used to keep a different kind of record of my days. For example, I would write down the number of pages I read for my reading goal, or keep track of my daily steps. I observed that these had a negative effect on me. Keeping track of page numbers or step counts leads to dissatisfaction after a short while. You want to read more pages, take more steps. But after a point, this becomes too much and makes you feel like a failure. However, keeping track with a 1 or 0 is simple and realistic. You did it or you didn’t!

Also, since monthly success is more important than daily success, missing a few days will not be a problem. (I saw this chart example on someone's YouTube channel.)

Started This Program in September

For the month of September, my schedule included skincare, house cleaning, 5,000 steps, and reading.

Skincare:

Skincare wasn't new to me but I had never been regular with it. I performed skincare every evening for 30 days. Even though my chart only marked it once, some days I did it twice. I also started using dental floss regularly, and even began doing facial yoga some evenings.

Step Count:

I set a modest goal of 5,000 steps, which got me started on a 30-minute brisk walk every weekday. My daily step count reached around 7-8 thousand.

House Cleaning:

House cleaning was something I was already good at. I don’t like major cleaning days. I had previously set a rule to do something for the house every day but had never been this regular. Tidying up the kitchen, arranging the dishes, cleaning the sink, sweeping a room... just doing one of these tasks was enough to earn a 1. Now the house is much tidier, the kitchen is almost never dirty!

Reading:

Reading was a bit challenging. I hadn't read regularly for a long time, so my goal in this area wasn't to read every day. It was to read one day on, one day off. I want to be realistic because I've made a lot of mistakes in these matters :) Even though my goal was to read every other day, at the beginning, there were days I didn't read.

This made me realize something else, since I didn't have a set time for reading, this task always got postponed. For example, I never missed a day of skincare because I did it right after brushing my teeth when Zeynep went to sleep, but reading time was whenever I found the time! Yes, sometimes it's impossible to find that time. My current goal is to set a specific reading time and combine it with another routine.

Although it wasn’t on my chart, my eating habits automatically became more structured — during this time, I didn't use any refined sugar.

If you’re struggling to adopt beneficial habits, try this method. Remember, the key to success is small, sustainable goals. You can copy the chart example from here. If you do it, please write to me about your results.

September results: