This article took me three years to write. Do we really need habits?
Back in 2020, thanks to the pandemic, there was nothing to do, so I started reading. The pandemic somehow positively affected my daily routine.
The first type of book I started reading was about self-development. I came across a widely popular book called Atomic Habits by James Clear.
The book was astonishingly life-changing. I have to say that it reshaped the way I approach the activities I do on a daily basis.
But the most important thing the book has taught me is how habits can drastically change your life.
I was truly fascinated by the idea of habits. So, it was tempting to dive deep into how this habit thing really works.
I read several books and articles discussing habits, one of which is The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, which was a very interesting book.
And during the process, I have come across many concepts and ideas, some of which are not science-backed but will definitely change your life.
But the main question that popped into my mind is: do we really need habits?
I think yes, we do.
Let me give a simple, easy-to-understand definition of a habit in this context. It is basically doing the same activity on a regular basis.
-The indispensable value a habit could bring is repetition.
I have talked about how repetition reinforces your performance at any skill.
It triggers certain changes in the neuronal connections in your brain, and this ultimately leads to better performance at whatever skill you are doing.
This is what is simply known as brain growth, and the scientific term for this phenomenon is neuroplasticity.
When I started writing on Medium, I realized how awful my writings used to be, especially when I compared them with the writings of others.
This is not necessarily due to the fact that I had no valuable content to share, but merely because I was unaware of how to edit my work and write things in an organized and easy-to-view manner.
Those skills are pivotal if you want to take your writing to the next level. I have written about things you can do to improve your writing in a previous article.
But despite how horrible my first writings used to be, I continued writing. I knew that if there is one thing that will improve my writing, it is practice.
How did I learn such skills? Repetition helped me acquire those skills. Repetition has also helped me elaborate on my ideas and thoughts in a way others find understandable and clear.
The concept is simple. When you do something every single day, you become better at it by 1% every time you practice. The cumulative effect is that, after a year or two, you are likely to become exceptional at this skill.
This is the foundation upon which people learn many skills, particularly those that are quite complicated, such as learning languages.
-Habits make you run out of choices.
When you have daily habits, or at least a list of things you tend to do in an organized pattern, this leaves you with very few choices to make.
And choices will probably derail you.
There are some successful people who decide to wear the same t-shirt every day. They claim this preserves their mental energy.
They assume that the mental energy that is wasted on choosing what to wear every day should be spent on making more crucial decisions.
I believe the same notion applies when it comes to having habits.
Having a list of things to do saves you a lot of time and energy that is usually spent thinking about the tasks you need to finish or what activities you should do to be more productive.
To gain the biggest advantage from this principle, you should decide the list of tasks you need a week or a day ahead.
For instance, you have a list of important tasks to be fulfilled on Tuesday. You should go write down all of those tasks, starting with the most important to the least important, a day or, better yet, a week before this day.
This has significantly helped me become more productive and complete all the activities I needed to do in a timely manner.
-Habits help you determine your priorities.
Let’s say you have three things to do today: finish some tasks related to your work, go to the gym, and read. You already have a list of things that need to be done on a daily basis.
You realize that going to the gym and finishing your work are things that demand a considerable amount of your physical and mental energy. That is why you start the day by practicing these two habits.
And then, when you complete them, you start reading, as reading doesn’t consume a lot of your energy.
The thing is, when you do the harder stuff at the beginning of each day, thanks to habits, you are more likely to finish those tasks efficiently since you have a good reserve of mental and physical energy that is needed to finish those tasks.
You leave the easier activities for the rest of the day.
How can we use habits to get the maximum benefits?
Personally, I believe we shouldn’t use habits in a way in which you decide to wake up at 8:00 a.m., go to the gym at 9:00 a.m., and then start your work at 11:00 a.m.
This didn’t work for me since life got in the way. Someday, you don’t get enough sleep, so you wake up late. Other days, the gym can be closed because of maintenance.
Instead, I have a list of things that need to be done each day. I don’t have to finish all of those things, but at least I need to finish most of them so that the day doesn’t go to waste.
At the end of the day, I suppose you can’t conquer self-doubt by having affirmations, but rather by regularly doing the things that embrace the type of person you want to be.
Here is the link of the article I wrote about how to improve your writings
Here is the link I wrote about how repetition enhances your performance at any skill.
