Habits are Schedules

How many of us have tried to start a new habit? I know I have… many times. Let’s say I want to exercise more. I know it will make me feel better. I will lose weight, have a more muscular tone, and will be able to effortlessly sweep my wife off her feet. It will be excellent for me. I have a great goal and a reasonable list of motivations, but I never find myself going to the gym for more than three consecutive days. I can’t seem to make it stick, and so my goal goes unmet.

A recent revelation about how to accomplish this came to me in the book Atomic Habits. Obviously, I need to make it a habit to go to the gym. Simple enough, right? Well, that is where the problem lies. My habit is too abstract. When do I decide to go? How often do I go? What qualifies as going more?

Creating a habit must be an actionable process. You have to create a schedule for when you will take your actions, and by doing so, your habit will be formed. There are two suggested methods for doing this:

• Implementation Intention

• Habit Stacking

Implementation Intention involves clearly spelling out the action you will take, when exactly you will take it, and where you will take it. In my case, Implementation Intention would look like “I will go to the gym at 6 pm every weekday at my apartment’s gym.” In this way, I have created a schedule detailing what I will do, when, and where. It is much easier to follow a schedule than an abstract thought.

Habit Stacking involves inserting your desired habit into an existing habit. When I get home from work, I tend to change out of my work clothes and into more comfortable clothes. Habit Stacking would mean that in between clothing changes, I would put on gym clothes and go to the gym. It is much easier to adopt a new behavior if you seamlessly merge it with an existing one.

Habit building is incredibly difficult, and many people fail to accomplish it. Using either Implementation Intention or Habit Stacking may help you not only aspire to build habits but actually build them yourself. Depending on your situation, you can always give one of these strategies a try. You may just find yourself with a new habit!