A Failproof Way to Reboot Lost Habits and Pastimes
“I used to ___ all the time. I want to do more of that.”
For a couple of years when I was a kid, in response to the SARS outbreak and all my complaints about school, my mom decided to homeschool me. Not wanting me to fall behind my peers, she did her due diligence and ordered not one, but two full curriculums for us to work through in the coming year.
With those curriculums came a few large boxes full of novels — and with those novels came a shiny new reading addiction.
For a while, I would open up a book first thing after waking in the morning. Before going to the bathroom, before breakfast — before anything, I could get in an hour of reading.
All these years later, I sometimes wonder where that habit went.
We all have habits we’d like to resurrect.
I talk about old habits with my old school friends (yes, I did go back to school eventually), and we all say the same thing: “I used to read/draw/play music/do sports all the time, but I never do anymore. It’d be nice to get back into that.”
Almost everyone I talk to has something they used to do and want to be doing more of. For some, it’s been years; others have just been knocked off their game in recent months.
Eventually, I discovered a simple, effortless solution to jumpstart my own reading habit again: rereading an old favorite.
It’s failproof, and I’ve found that it’s easily applicable to other abandoned habits and hobbies too.
Old habits are never really lost.
The saying “old habits die hard” rings true because habits and skills are formed by establishing neural pathways in your brain through repetitive action.
Think of it this way: the more you walk on a trail in the forest, the more defined that path becomes. After a while, walking it is automatic.
If you abandon a well-trodden path for years, it can become overgrown. But in most cases, it’s not hard to find and clear again. While this is what makes bad habits hard to kick, it’s very advantageous for reawakening ones we were once proud of.
Effortlessly re-forge a habit.
I could fill a career with writing about how habits work and what makes them stick (many already have; Charles Duhigg and Nir Eyal are essential reading), but let’s avoid the analysis paralysis trap and skip to practical implementation.
There are four parts to building a good habit, laid out by James Clear. This is how I apply them to reawakening an old habit the easiest possible way:
1. Make it obvious.
It’s dangerously easy to get stuck in the “prospecting” phase of resurrecting an old habit or hobby.
When I first decided I wanted to start reading again, I addressed the desire by swanning around bookshops, basking in all the possibilities. I just ended up hoarding a lot of neglected books.
We get stuck in this phase because ideas without action can remain perfect. There’s no risk of shortcoming or failure.
It’s tempting to think that this research and preparation phase is part of making progress — but don’t let that fool you. Perpetual research is just revving your engine at the start line, imagining how it’ll feel when you speed down the racetrack. Fun and exciting — but not real progress.
“Making it obvious” is the solution to curtailing this endless state of research, and you can’t get any more obvious than something you’ve personally experienced as tried and true. By picking from books I’ve read before, I have no excuse to remain in a prospecting phase.
If you want to get back into visual art, cooking, exercise, or anything like that, the obvious choice is the same: something you’ve done before. Not painting if you’re used to line drawing, not baking if you’re used to cooking, and not even pilates if you’re used to yoga. Start from the most obvious place.
2. Make it attractive.
Starting from zero is not the time to gamble on something you might not like.
Just because I love East of Eden doesn’t mean I’m going to kickstart my reading habit with another Steinbeck novel I’ve never read. The key is finding something with really great memories attached to it, like a childhood favorite.
If you’re getting back into visual art, pick a medium and subject you know you love. If it’s cooking, go for a recipe with special associations attached to it. If it’s yoga, choose a video you’ve enjoyed practicing before. Not a different video by your favorite teacher — the same exact video.
The key is cutting out unknown factors.
3. Make it easy.
This is also not the time to put your willpower to the test.
I kept a gigantic edition of Lord of the Rings next to my bed when I was a kid, and it contained all three books and a million appendices. It was glorious, but anything close to a thousand pages is too daunting to start with. Small steps really are key here, so I aim for something closer to 200–400 pages.
This principle is pretty much the same in other areas. Don’t start with a huge canvas, a recipe with too many steps, or a long workout. Make it easy enough that you won’t give up or get frustrated. You have to reduce the friction associated with a task to be successful with building the habit.
4. Make it satisfying.
This is a kind of caveat to the “make it easy” part. The first step should be easy, but not so easy that it leaves no impression.
When I mentioned that I aim for a book with 200–400 pages, that may have sounded high — but it’s the perfect amount for me because I know that if I finish an 80-page novella in two sittings, I risk:
A) Getting complacent with my accomplishment.
B) Getting stuck back at the first step, picking out a novel again, this time maybe with the illusion that I’m ready for a new one.
It’s important to feel like you’ve invested something in the habit and made some progress. So on the other hand, a notepad doodle probably isn’t going to cut it for you if you used to draw a lot, pancakes may not be enough for the out-of-practice cook, and a five-minute yoga flow just might not feel satisfying enough to return to.
Don’t get hung up on perfection.
We’re talking about habits based on creative and performance-driven activities here, not black and white actions like flossing or making the bed. It’s easy to critique yourself with thoughts like: “a three-year-old could draw this,” or “my cooking was never this bland before,” or “my arms never used to give out doing yoga.”
But perfection is one of the biggest barriers to progress.
Remember that it’s not about flawless execution right now; it’s about going through the motions. The neural pathways for these activities already exist, and right now you’re just retracing those grooves and clearing out the weeds.
Quality will come.
Don’t be ashamed that it’s not something new.
Personal growth is oftentimes about rediscovering parts of yourself that went dormant years ago. Even so, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you need to have something brand new to show for yourself to be able to say you’re growing.
You don’t.
Remember, when you start from scratch you’re fighting inertia, and that’s hard to overcome through pure willpower directed at a new goal.
It’s so much easier — and ultimately more efficient and productive, if you want to use life hack terms — to get a little push from your past self, gathering momentum before adding new challenges.
Don’t fall victim to hustle culture’s message that the worth of your actions is measured by how much you’re doing or how hard you’re doing it. Revisiting something familiar isn’t any less productive, and doing something you’ve done before doesn’t mean you’re “doing” any less. You’re doing it, and that’s what matters at this point.
Why follow in someone else’s footsteps when you know your own way?
There’s something beautiful — even meditative — about rediscovering something you love through repetition. Retracing laneways in your own mind not only eases you into the process, but it can reunite you with the original joy and excitement of that activity.
For me, reading a favorite childhood story helps me access the same wonder I experienced when I first read it. It makes the habit-building process effortless and enjoyable instead of hard work.
There are a lot of resources available to help you rejig your routines and habits, and in many cases those are insightful. But stepping out on someone else’s path still means you have to combat the unknown, and that’s still a lot to overcome.
So if you find yourself thinking anything along the lines of “I used to [insert activity here] all the time… I want to do more of that,” then you already have all the information you need to get started. You have a time-tested path, tailor-made to you.
