There’s a reason why resolutions go bust: Listing your goals is generally much easier than seeing them though. To that end, productivity weblog Zen Habits has created a cheatsheet for habit changing, including pinpointing habit triggers.
Photo by a4gpa.
According to Zen, part of successfully ingraining a desired behavior involves clearly identifying the habits that trigger said behavior.
What situations trigger your current habit? For the smoking habit, for example, triggers might include waking in the morning, having coffee, drinking alcohol, stressful meetings, going out with friends, driving, etc. Most habits have multiple triggers.
The key to changing, according to the post, is to write down any and all potential triggers, then sub out the bad habit with a more positive replacement. The process may be a tedious one, which is why the post also suggests charting strategies to defeat the inevitable urges.
Browse the full post for a big list of 29 ways to change a habit, and if you’ve successfully managed to pull a 180 on a hard-to-kick habit, tell us how you reached the finish line in the comments.
Related posts:
- Use the Six Changes Method to Adopt New Habits in 2010 [Habits]
- HabitForge Helps You Form New Habits in 21-Day Blocks [Habits]
- Track Your Morning Rituals to Streamline Your Routine [Habits]
- Disciplanner Makes Tracking and Assessing Your Goals Simple [Habits]
- Set Themes, Not Goals for Better Time Management [Time Management]