back to blogging

Tags

blogging, forming habits, habit loop, habits, pic, quotes, Reward, routine, three Rs, writing

After a month of internet exile and one filled with finishing up my masters it is now time to get back to blogging. The only problem is: where to start?

After all after months of absence and my days filled with mundane tasks and the usual daily grind it seems I have fallen out of the habit of coming up with ideas. But then new habits are hard to form and take about 21 days to actually stick (they also take three weeks to dissolve).

For the next month my goal is to create a new ‘habit loop’ by reminding myself of what I want to do and following the three Rs, allow the routine to take and then reward myself for following through – a cup of tea or a 15minute break or maybe even just a pat on my shoulder.

Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken

Warren Buffett

 

dials, knobs, switches and habits

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brain, choices, dials, everyday habits, french toast, habits, knobs, psychology, quotes, switches, thoughts, washing machine, washing mashine

While I was loading my washing machine early this morning I couldn’t help but notice that I never really move the dial. I nearly always use the same setting, never really thinking about I am doing and as I stared at all the different settings from eco over super, wool and dedicates, rinse and spin I couldn’t help but wonder about choices and habits.

A little later I deciding to have a rare treat, because my bread  was a little hard, I made myself french toast for breakfast, and I used the front left hob. There are four perfectly fine working hobs, two front, two back , but I never even consider changing it up, with a flick of switch a turn of a knob I used the same hob I always do.

As my toast turned golden I wondered why it was that we all have our ways of doing things and tend to stick to them no matter what. We tend to drive the same routes, buy the same brands, have the same routines without thinking, just running on autopilot. But why is that?

Most of us don’t realize that it more than 40% of what we do every day isn’t done through conscious thought at all but are actually habits. Every habit is formed through three elements: the cue, (the thing that triggers it), the routine or behavior (the habit itself) and the reward. This is the case in both everyday habits, like brushing your teeth,and bad habits, like those late night snacks.

When we make decisions the thoughts occur in our pre-frontal cortex, the part of the brain that sits right behind our forehead,. But when we form habits, we no longer need to think, we just act automatically,  so it moves into the basal ganglia, which is right in the middle of our skull and the oldest part of our brains.

This means that we no longer need to go to long though processes and our brain is freed up to do think about other things. In essence this is a great as otherwise we would be overwhelmed with choices every second of the day. And if I just let myself do what I do without having to think about turning knobs and flicking switches I am rewarded with clean washing, yummy food and my mind is free to wander.

Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is the result of good work habits.

American dancer and choreographer: Twyla Tharp

 

 

kicking the habit

Tags

banana pancakes, breaking habits, food, habits, half a pint, health, mental-health, miscellaneous, morning brew, psychology, quotes, random, thoughts

My milk was off again today so I had to take my tea black and a little bitter, sadly no drop of milk to change the taste. As I was sipping my morning brew I started to wonder if maybe I should just kick the habit of pouring that splash of white into my tea and save myself the heartbreak of missing it when I can’t have it.

Pondering this thought it occurred to me that I have quite a few habits I would like to break but sadly, like most people, I find it a little bit too hard. After all I still like that bit too much butter on my toast, taking the bus is so much easier than walking into town and thinking about doing things instead of actually doing them is so much less strenuous.

The reason why it is so hard to kick those bad or useless behaviors is that the brain forms patterns in a specific part of our brains (basal ganglia)and stores them there. So no matter how good the intentions if even the tiniest trigger shows up these patterns pick up the stimulus and we go into auto-pilot. The smell of freshly baked bread makes you forget about your “no carbs’ rule or the sight of a piece of chocolate overrules all your good intentions to maintain your diet and the bus pulling up convinces you that you can walk another day.

Of course we can kick any habit, no matter if the are good, bad, useless or just a tad annoying but it seems to take time, 28-66 days if you listen to psychologists. But besides being tenacious we need to be a bit stubborn, make up our minds and stick to it and reward ourselves to sticking to our guns. And when we have struggled through our period of testing and trying we come out the other end with a new pattern in our brains and possibly another bad one we picked up along the way.

For now I think I will stick with a splash of milk in my tea and to not be disappointed again tomorrow I will wander down to the corner shop and buy myself half a pint, or maybe a liter and make some banana pancakes.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.

Aristotle

changing rainy days and cups of tea

Tags

behaviour, change, habits, life, psychology, rain, random, Sheryle Crowe, sun, sun-dance, tea, weather

This May has been awful here in Dublin. Normally May is a good month, lots of sun and days spent on the beach, in the park, cycling or just being happy outside. This year I have rarely ventured out for too long as hail, rain, cold and wind have always sent me back home.

The upside of this bad weather is the excuses to do things indoors, spend afternoons watching films, or listening to music while reading books, drinking copious amounts of tea and dreaming. Sadly this has also made me a tiny bit too lazy and it is starting to annoy me more than just a little bit.

So with that in mind I have decided to change things, it may not be in my power to do anything about the weather (although I will try my very best) but I can do something about my motivation.

Now I know we all make many resolutions, mainly on December 31st to be broken on the 1st of January, but I do believe in change if we try hard enough, although I am really not sure how to go about it. An article I read a good while back recommended to stop doing things on autopilot, to actually think about what we are doing. After all we all do things without thinking about them and sometimes end up surprised at what has happened. Or am I the only one who gets on buses without checking their number and still ends up at home or drive a route I have a million times before and although I can’t remember taking a right hand turn still end up where I wanted to go or if someone asks me how I bake, cook or make a certain thing I can’t explain it but if you give me the ingredients I will do it without thinking?

It’s when these autopilot behaviour patterns start invading our lives too much that we don’t think about what we are doing and start creating too many bad habits. Like sitting down to watch a film and not realise that you just ate a whole bar of chocolate, or take the lift instead of the stairs even if it’s only two storeys up or snacking while we cook and all of a sudden the cheese is in your tummy not in the pot, or watching TV instead of reading, staying home instead of meeting friends. Basically sticking to the old instead of trying out something new and differnt.

As I know I won’t stop drinking buckets and buckets of tea, I can try to substitute the teaine laden kind with herbal, and as I will still have to sit at my desk a lot I can turn off facebook and yes even wordpress to keep me focused. I can leave the TV cold and call up friends and arrange a lot more chat time and I should take up salsa-dancing again and go to the gym more. I can’t change that I am a night-owl and not an early bird, but I can go to bed at 12am and not 2am which will make getting up early easier. And while all of this may not always be easy and  I know it will take up to four weeks to break my bad habits, I also know that with with willpower and a good attitude it should be doable.

So now all I need is to but my paint on, stick a feather in my hair and perform a sun-dance … wonder if “Let the Sunshine in” from Hair or “Soak up the Sun” by Sheryl Crowe will help.