1 % better everyday
Continuous improvement is a dedication to making small changes and improvements every day, with the expectation that those small improvements will add up to something significant.
The typical approach to self-improvement is to set a large goal, then try to take big leaps in order to accomplish the goal in as little time as possible. While this may sound good in theory, it often ends in burnout, frustration, and failure. Instead, we should focus on continuous improvement by slowly and slightly adjusting our normal everyday habits and behaviors.
The effects of small habits compound over time.
They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous. A slight change in your daily habits can guide your life to a very different destination.
Making a choice that is 1% better or 1% worse seems insignificant in the moment, but over a lifetime these choices determine the difference between who you are and who you could be.
To form habits, you must make them obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying
- Make it obvious. Don’t hide your fruits in your fridge, put them on display front and center.
- Make it attractive. Start with the fruit you like the most, so you’ll actually want to eat one when you see it.
- Make it easy. Don’t create needless friction by focusing on fruits that are hard to peel. Bananas and apples are super easy to eat, for example.
- Make it satisfying. If you like the fruit you picked, you’ll love eating it and feel healthier as a result!
- Response. Whatever thought or action you need to take to get to the reward.
- Reward. The satisfying feeling you get from the change, along with the lesson whether to do it again or not.
“Success is the product of daily habits — not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.”
A habit tracker is a fun and easy way to ensure you stick to your new behaviors
The idea is simple: You keep a record of all the behaviors you want to establish or abandon and, at the end of each day, you mark which ones you succeeded with. This record can be a single piece of paper, a journal, a calendar, or a digital tool, like an app.
For example: I use an app “FLIP” or “Toogl” to track my time everyday. I track my time 2 hours of block no matter what I do and I don’t forget to take a break of 20 minutes after Deep Work.
Measure backward
We often measure our progress by looking forward. We set goals. We plan milestones for our progress. Basically, we try to predict the future to some degree.
There is an opposite and, I think, more useful approach: measure backward, not forward.
Measuring backward means you make decisions based on what has already happened, not on what you want to happen.
Here are a few examples:
- Weight Loss: Measure your calorie intake. Did you eat 3,500 calories per day last week? Focus on averaging 3,400 per day this week.
- Strength Training: Oh, you squatted 250 pounds for 5 sets of 5 reps last week? Give 255 pounds a try this week.
- Relationships: How many new people did you meet last week? Zero? Focus on introducing yourself to one new person this week.
- Entrepreneurship: You only landed two clients last week while your average is five? It sounds like you should be focused on making more sales calls this week.
All habits are based on a four-step pattern, which consists of cue, craving, response, and reward
All behavior is driven by the desire to solve a problem. Sometimes the problem is that you notice something good and you want to obtain it. Sometimes the problem is that you are experiencing pain and you want to relieve it. Either way, the purpose of every habit is to solve the problems you face. Cue. Your phone buzzes with a new text message.
- Craving. You want to learn the contents of the message.
- Response: You grab your phone and read the text.
- Reward: You satisfy your craving to read the message. Grabbing your phone becomes associated with your phone buzzing. You satisfy your craving to reduce stress.
Habit Stacking
Our brain builds a strong network of neurons to support your current behaviors. The more you do something, the stronger and more efficient the connection becomes.
This is also know as synaptic pruning. Synapses are connections between the neurons in your brain. The basic idea is that your brain prunes away connections between neurons that don’t get used and builds up connections that get used more frequently.
You probably have very strong habits and connections that you take for granted each day. For example, your brain is probably very efficient at remembering to take a shower each morning or to brew your morning cup of coffee or to open the blinds when the sun rises … or thousands of other daily habits. You can take advantage of these strong connections to build new habits.
Habit stacking is a special form of an implementation intention. Rather than pairing your new habit with a particular time and location, you pair it with a current habit.
For example: Everyday as soon as I wake up, I make the bed after some procrastination. After Making the bed I meditate and after meditating I do the regular exercise.
Wakeup →Make Bed →Meditate →Exercise →Shower
No matter wherever I go, when I wake up I it alerts my mind to make bed and as soon as I make Bed it alerts my mind to meditate and so on.
Motivation is overrated — environment often matters more
Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior. We tend to believe our habits are a product of our motivation, talent, and effort. Certainly, these qualities matter. But the surprising thing is, especially over a long time period, your personal characteristics tend to get overpowered by your environment.
Designing your environment for success
Stop thinking about your environment as filled with objects. Start thinking about it as filled with relationships. Think in terms of how you interact with the spaces around you.
The power of context also reveals an important strategy: habits can be easier to change in a new environment.
For example: When I want to read the book, I go away from my desk just to make sure I don’t satisfy my brain on distractions. It’s easier to browse something when you’re sitting in from of the desk so sitting far away for an 1 hour reading it always helps me.
While I make a bed everyday, Plain and clean bed triggers my brain to meditate. While on some conditions when I failed to wake up on time, I still have to make my bed. That simple habit of making your environment is itself a form of habit not to miss the daily ‘Meditation’.
Forget About Goals, Focus on Systems Instead
Prevailing wisdom claims that the best way to achieve what we want in life — getting into better shape, building a successful business, relaxing more and worrying less, spending more time with friends and family — is to set specific, actionable goals.
The difference between goals and systems is not purely intellectual. There is no doubt that both of them require distinct types of focus. For instance, if you are a writer, then your main goal is to write a book. And the system that you need to follow is your writing schedule. The goal of every coach is to win a championship. And to accomplish this goal, you have to follow a system that requires your team to do regular practice each day.
It is the goal of every runner to run a marathon. To achieve this, they must have a system that requires them to have a monthly training schedule. If you are aspiring to become a successful businessman, then your major goal should be to build a profitable business. The appropriate system for this is the marketing and sales process.
After you have refined your systems, then they will operate automatically. There is no need for you to make any decision since everything happens spontaneously. This is why systems are more powerful. Since you don’t need to think so much, then you can get things done and function more intuitively. Instead of the thinking mode, you are now in the doing mode.
For example: I always had a desire to write every week on Medium along with Twitter and Instagram. 6 out of 7 days I often spent my days procrastinating and on the 7th day I used to complete it somehow sitting for extra hours. The goal was to write a post each week and the system is just write. After learning about this thing I focused on more to build a system i.e. write everyday instead to rushing to finish a Story in a week.
Every habits you do regularly, it’s either positively compounding or negatively compounding.
Thanks for reading, liked the Story?
Read more about Milo’s Story, how he decided to carry a calf everyday for four years. He was an Olympic Winner from 6th century BC. Learn the lessons from his technique of progress.
I hope it was worth your time. Leave a “CLAP” if you liked the content and “Follow” for regular personal growth Stories.
Want to read more? you need to read this book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear to get more insights on this.
