Changing Your Habits
Make Note Of Your Habits
Some habits are easier to limit than others. Some people drink too much coffee, while others may get tempted to smoke. A good practice for dealing with these bad habits is understanding how they work and what triggers them.
The first step is to record your habit for a few weeks in a row and make a note of when you find yourself doing it most often. This exercise can also help you understand the ideas behind the habit. For example, if you notice that you have a hard time resisting sweets when you are watching TV in the evenings, this could be because television piques your appetite. This could also be because it is an easy time for binging on sugary snacks without any distractions from work or other responsibilities.
At the end of the three weeks, you can create an easy-to-follow plan for how to break the habit and reward yourself for each day that you don’t do it!
Break Down The Habit
Try to look at your habits and break them down into something manageable. It can be tempting to want to stop a habit “cold turkey” but that can lead to feelings of guilt or shame when perfection isn’t reached. Instead, we recommend breaking it down bit by bit until the habit is basically gone!
For example, if you would like to stop drinking coffee, you could limit yourself to one coffee every other day. While you keep a manageable amount of leeway for yourself, you are still working toward reducing the amount.
Some people try to change their habits by switching up their routines. For example, having coffee before they smoke instead of afterward might help them reduce their smoking.
The process of breaking down a habit into something manageable is not always easy, but it is possible!
Replace your habits
Replacing habits can be a great way to break old ones you aren’t fond of. In the case of browsing social media, for example, you could replace it with reading, listening to music, or even meditating.
Keep in mind that it’s important not to replace it with something similar to the old one. For example, if you want to stop scrolling through social media so much, don’t go on another social media site like Facebook or Instagram.
