What do you want to start noticing?
Like many people at the start of a new year, I think about what habits I want to build, but I also like to spend some time thinking about habits in general and how I might structure them differently. I’ve written before about the three kinds of habit framework: Over the past decade, many of […]
Memorize with Acronyms, not Alliteration
To memorize a collection of words or concepts, it can help to form a familiar word out of the first letters, making an acronym like HOMES for the five Great Lakes of North America: Huron Ontario Michigan Erie Superior For another example, I still remember the order of the four stages of mitosis from high […]
Every vicious cycle is also a virtuous cycle
What I have to share today is a simple idea that I’ve found really motivating. When I feel like I’m stuck in a loop of choices I regret, each leading to the next in a vicious cycle, I remind myself that every vicious cycle can also be a virtuous cycle. For example, if I don’t […]
Three Good Decisions
I have a hard time remembering things that went well. It’s much easier for me to call to mind mistakes I’ve made: times I dropped the ball, or tried and failed to do something that matters to me. This is definitely a phenomenon many people experience (negativity bias), but at least in my case there’s […]
Three tools for changing your mindset
One of my earliest posts here was about different meanings of “habit”: there are … … intentional habits, things you regularly choose to do, … automatic habits, things you do on autopilot, and … mindset habits, your default ways of thinking. Intentional and automatic habits look very similar — the difference is how much mental effort you […]
Lose the Training Wheels: Automating Habits, Part 3
This is the conclusion of a three-part series on automating habits. Click here for the introduction, part 1, and part 2. Let’s review: In part 1, we talked about how to choose exactly what your new habit will consist of (the behavior) and when exactly you’ll do it (the cue). In part 2, we covered […]
Build Consistency: Automating Habits, Part 2
This post is part 2 of a three-part series on automating habits. Here are links to the introduction, part 1, and part 3. There’s a little gremlin who lives in my car. He doesn’t mess with the wiring, and he doesn’t leave a mess; all he does is take down the reflective screen I put in […]
Define the Habit: Automating Habits, Part 1
This post is part 1 of a three-part series on automating habits. Here are links to the introduction, part 2, and part 3. Have you ever had a long, tiring day, and when you go to start cooking dinner, you discover that some critical step you were supposed to do earlier—start the crockpot, thaw the fish, […]
Automating your habits: a three-part series
I have this vision for my life, where each day I move from rest to work to play to rest, able to focus all my attention on whatever one thing I’m doing because I’ve taken care of everything important before it becomes urgent. Where I wash the dishes right after I use them. Where I […]
When Morals Collide
Monday night is chore night at the Biesel household, and that usually means a rush hour trip to the grocery store to pick up the week’s supply of ingredients. It often happens, as I’m waiting in line at the checkout, that the person behind me is purchasing a smaller load of groceries than I am. […]