“The Road To Better Habits”
Darius Foroux
The Road To Better Habits is a short book by Darius Foroux who is a blogger I like to read. His blog cover his thoughts and actionable tips about productivity, habits, decision making and wealth building. Here I’m providing an excerpt about the book and my key take aways. The book is an excellent read, I would request you to take some time to read it.
The “Road To Better Habits” Framework
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit — Will Durant.
Books about successful people may lead to survivorship bias.
i) Decide what habits are worth it — the thought whether habit x will improve the quality of my life. The question will provide us with the reason for change/ form a new habit.
ii) Form one habit at a time — We can achieve a LOT over a long period, so focus on one thing at a time PER AREA OF YOUR LIFE. Career, Health, Learning, Money and Relationships. Stack one habit on the top of other, over time.
iii) Quit all your Bad habits — Best to go cold turkey, abrupt stop.
iv) Set the bar very low — Want to run daily — Start by Walking.
v) Track your habits — Track habits daily and Bring in accountability to yourselves.
The Best Habits I Have Formed — You need a good reason to make a change.
· Pick One Habit Per Area In Your Life and Keep Going
Exercising — If you can’t take the time to go for a daily walk, you are not in control of your life.
Set Daily Priorities — Focus brings in results. Focus by limiting your options and tasks. Elimination is the key. Be clear of what you want to achieve every single day, week and year.
Reading — Important for Improving Cognition, Thinking and Writing. Learn to enjoy it by doing it every day.
Sleeping 7–8 hours
Practicing Gratitude — makes you happier. Practice writing down things you are grateful for people in your life, job, setting, weather and also about things that did not happen to you.
Meditation -Remind yourselves you need to enjoy the now. We are always waiting until we achieve something to be happy; we get stuck in the Past and Future. Find a trigger to bring yourselves back to the present moment.
Tracking Money — Save
Writing — Get thoughts in order while we write daily. Writing every day bring in self-discipline and strengthen it. Improves your persuasion skills as you persuade yourselves about your thoughts. It brings in self-awareness and better decision making as we fully understand why we do and make our decisions.
· Quit These Habits
You can’t be productive 24*7, and a big part of being productive is getting rid of unproductive habits we all have. Everything that doesn’t have a positive return is a bad habit. If you want to break your bad habits, Break them all at the same time. Or else high chance that we would go back to where we dropped the habit.
Overworking — Overworking can go on for a few days, and then you will crash, and nothings will get done later on. Stop working at the height of your day
Worrying
Stubbornness
Ignoring your health
Checking Things especially Social Media, News, Accounts
Not Having Goals — Set a goal and work towards it.
Saying Yes
Relying on your Memory — Write down thoughts, ideas, tasks etc. You are wasting a lot of brainpower when you rely on your memory. When you write down everything, you can solve brainpower for other things.
Neglecting Personal Education — your life stops when your learning stops. Invest in yourselves
Complaining
Lack of Focus
The process is learning by Inverting — focusing on what not to do and arriving at what to do.
We need to bring in a lifestyle change and break all the bad habits which would give us a chance to focus on one habit at a time per area in your life.
· Set the Bar Low — Very Low
When you start forming a habit, it should not feel like a challenge. The activity should be easy, or else we will end up procrastinating.
As per the author of Atomic Habits, James Clear “A new habit should not feel like a challenge. The actions that follow can be challenging, but the first two minutes should be easy. What you want is a gateway habit that naturally leads you down a more productive path.”
· Keep Track Of Your Progress
Life is a competition with yourself — not others. And if you want to win, you must make it easy for yourself. And we’re not only competing with ourselves, but we’re also accountable to ourselves.
Achieving success is about doing the right things every day. By remaining accountable to ourselves, we will learn to rely on ourselves for motivation.
Always track your habits every day and do not track too many habits. Keep the list small and focus on the most important ones. Use apps like Coach.me or Way of Life.
•What to Do When You Fall Back
When life goes smoothly, its easier to stick to plan and feel in control. But when all of a sudden when something disrupts your momentum, it messes schedules and minds.
How to get back on track
Don’t Resist — Don’t feel frustrated and don’t go hard on yourselves. Trying to swim against the current will drain time and energy. Use it — Relax, and before you know it, you will want to get back to your productive routines.
Recreate the Past — Look back to learn. Think of a moment when you were in a powerful state of mind — a time when everything went well and try to be specific. Picture the moment and try to recall it vividly like what you were wearing, your body language etc. Do it several times a day; you will notice that you will start feeling that way again. Feeling happy is all in our mind. We can control our minds, so use it.
Focus on Effort, Not Results — Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. Focus on efforts. When you are in a rut, it’s easier to focus on your results, and you will remain to pity ourselves. You will get back, but that requires us to focus on our efforts.
Plan your days Meticulously — When you plan, you know what you have to do next.
Look at your goals, think about the daily activities you have to perform to achieve them, Schedule the activities on the calendar.
Take time to organize your life back and start executing. Daily writing habit leads to clarity of mind, better thinking and ultimately better planning.
