Baby Habits
Using 2-Minute Tasks to create new habits
As a continuation to my previous post on 2-Minute Tasks, I want to talk about another way this idea can be used: in the creation of new habits.
Many of the patterns to make 2-Minute Habits stick are similar to the ideas for 2-Minute Tasks: make the activity short, have all of the pieces you need to do the habit in your work area (wherever it is most natural to do the habit), preferably in as conspicuous of a way as possible. Just as with tasks, you are trying to make it as easy to start working on the habit as possible. Since we’re trying to train a consistent habit, there are a couple of extra techniques that are valuable to add if you can.
Make the habit doable anywhere at any time
It may be worth spending some extra time to figure out how to make it so you can do your habit at any time and virtually anywhere. This is something I have started using for one of my new habits: working on physical flexibility and mobility. I have had some exercises to work on, but they typically used bands, poles, and other pieces of equipment that I would need to have available. It’s been an obstacle to making it repeatable.
On one of the fitness websites I follow, they recently posted a list of flexibility exercises that require no equipment whatsoever. I did those, and found them to be very challenging, and they are something that I can do in idle moments. The only real equipment I need is a reminder to do them in those idle moments.
External reminders
Since you want to make this habit a long-lasting change, it is important to emphasize the reminders to do it. One reminder can be one of the environmental cues that I’ve talked about with 2-Minute Tasks. In this case, it could just be a condensed printout of the instructions for the exercises in my pocket. I stick my hands in my pockets enough that I will run into it frequently. It’s also useful to remind me about how to do the exercises correctly.
If all you need is a little nudge, then external alarms are great for this sort of thing. One of the advantages of having Internet-connected attention-distracting devices on our person at all times, is that occasionally we can put them to good use. 😏 You can have something as simple as a periodic alarm using practically anything, all the way to something as sophisticated as a dedicated app that will do smarter reminders for you (the Apple Watch’s hourly “stand up and move around” reminder is a great example of that idea). What is doing the reminding is less important than setting up the reminder to do it, so don’t let setting up a complicated app give you an excuse to not do it!
Exercises
- What is a habit you have wanted to start?
- How can you cut that down to a 2-Minute Habit?
- What can you do to make it doable anywhere (or in as many places as possible)?
- How often do you want to do this habit, and what can you do to help remind yourself to do it that often?
This is the post for Day 12 of my 90-Day Blogging Challenge. Check out my Medium page for past articles, and follow me here or on Twitter for links to future articles. Clap for this post using the button below, and share far and wide. Thank you!
