Habits, good or bad, are present in all areas of our life. Brushing your teeth in the morning is one of those habits. You don’t even think about it, it’s just part of life. But how can, for example, exercise become an effortless part of our life just like brushing teeth?
I struggled with habit creation for a long time. I usually start a new habit, feel super motivated and then, eventually, stop only to try the same thing again a few months later.
But somewhere in this trial and error, I discovered the power of mini habits.
Here’s how you can make mini habits work for you.
Setting the bar low
I believe setting the bar low is one of the most important parts of creating habits that stick. Let’s take language learning as an example. You may know that I’m currently learning French. When I first started it, I would aim to commit one hour each day to language learning. I was super motivated when I first started, but very quickly one hour turned into 30 minutes and on some days more urgent things came up and I didn’t practise at all. Over time, I would miss most days and it was very hard to get back into it.
Now, I can clearly see that I set the bar wayyyy too high.
In mini habit mode, my daily commitment used to be at least five minutes every day. What happened next surprised me. I would practise five minutes but then I carried on and on most days I actually did at least ten minutes. Once I felt that five minutes was becoming way too easy, I increased it to at least ten minutes. I’ve been doing ten, or more, minutes a day for the past few weeks.
Creating a habits chart
I hope that one day this won’t be necessary anymore as learning French has become part of everyday life, just like brushing my teeth. But for now, creating a schedule is something that I find very effective. It not only keeps me accountable but also helps me to experience instant gratification whenever I tick off the task on my habits chart.
I tried many different things and what’s most impactful for me, is creating a hand-drawn chart and displaying it where I can see it every day. This is what my chart looks like (*each letter represents a mini habit).
Building mini habits into your routine
I think the habit of brushing our teeth works so well because it’s built into our daily routines – it’s the first thing most people do after they get up and the last thing they do before they go to bed.
I used to cram in some French practice at the end of the day, usually just before bedtime. I was often too tired and I rarely enjoyed it. It felt like something I had to do.
Mini habits work best when they are part of our routine. This is why my main three mini habits (learning Fench, reading a book, meditation practice) are part of my morning routine. In total, they take about 30 minutes and I do them as soon as I sit down at my office desk before I open my laptop.
This way, I have already done three things that are important to me early in the morning which creates a positive ripple effect for the rest of my day.
Being kind to yourself
Mini habits help me to create sustainable changes in my life. But the last two weeks have also taught me that even mini habits are sometimes too challenging to do, especially when I’m not feeling well.
On days like this, I don’t follow my habits or I may just do one of them, not because I have to, but because it feels light and easy. I’m being kind to myself knowing that I can get back into my habits once I feel better.
This week, I’m feeling better and it’s easy to get back into my mini habits again by starting with at least five minutes a day.
What have you tried to build habits that support your work and life? What’s worked, what hasn’t? I would love to hear from you here.