 Power of the List: Habit List
Do you remember your New Year’s Resolution? I sure don’t, I can’t even remember my New Year’s Night. Let alone that. Have you ever wondered why you just can’t seem to stick with it? Besides the fact that I have better things to do? Well the answer is simple. Lay it on me. You just don’t have a Habit list that keeps track of what behaviors you’re trying to build into your life. Just that simple, huh? Just what is a Habit list…? It is a list of behaviors you would like to instill in your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly life. You’re very creative with the name… And unlike New Year’s Resolutions, which are one-time half-hearted promises to yourself. The Habit List is effective in helping you transform your actions into what you want. Hey! How’d you know I didn't mean it…? And with the help of a Habit List and a little dedication. Your New Year’s Resolution will BECOME your Daily Resolution. Fine… if I have to… But just why do New Year Resolutions fail…? They fail because most people don’t have the reinforcers that trigger the behavior you want… like your New Year’s Resolution. Duh. To know more about how to build or replace your habits then check out my article on Habit Formation. Is that all? Just how do I inculcate the Habit List into my daily life…? Well for the habit list to be most effective in your daily life. You have to already have a planner or schedule that you can place your new habits. Having a planner and set way to ensure you do things regularly is the easiest way to incorporate new habits into your life. Well I do like to write stuff down… Simply add the habit you want to your regular schedule. Like yoga. If you want to do yoga every day, then do it immediately after you wake up. This will make it that much easier as waking up is your trigger activity and yoga will feel good after a long night of rest. This reward will motivate you to keep it up until your yoga-ing all day ere day. No… not yoga… maybe walking my dog. He likes walks. The beauty of the habit list as it keeps track of each one of the behaviors you want to pick up and implant into your muscle memory. And the events on this list revolve and do not get eliminated until you know for sure that the habit you want is instituted in your routine which can take a few days to many months. Nobody has time for that! Below is an example: Habit list: 1. Use phone schedule to eliminate written schedule 2. Read 1 book a month 3. Type an hour a day 4. Study Chinese an hour a day 5. Workout 4 times a week Closing… Therefore, I work out 5 times a week. Do yoga 3 times a week. Practice Typing 2 times a week. Practice my Chinese 2 times a week. Read 1 book a month. Write my blog once a week. Maybe, I do have time for that. What the heck! I'll give it a shot. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. What New Year Resolutions are you going to add to your habits list?  Welcome to the second installation of “The Power of the List” Series.
Today we are going more in-depth into the Action List. This list has the activities that you do regularly each week such class, work, business, etc. Categorized into major items that stay the same each week such as your General To-do, Business To-do, and School To-Do. Within these categories are sub categories that you do to accomplish your general, business, or class goals such as books your reading, your weekly blog post you have to write, or the Geology class you are taking. These don’t change often with updates. The part that does change is the specific goals attached to each. These are tasks you need to do specifically to be successful, and have set due dates and times. An example “To do – Groceries (W, 1pm)”. This example broken down, tells you that you are going to get groceries Wednesday (W) at one o’clock pm (1pm). If you notice, all the items with (W)’s are bolded, this is because this list was updated on Tuesday night. They are bolded to let you know those are the things you have to get done for tomorrow. This list is best used consistently with updates as you accomplish your tasks and at the end of the day for a complete overhaul to ensure that you didn’t miss anything. Below is an example in a Word Document. General To-Do To do – Groceries (W) Books to Read – Unleashing the Power of Consultative Selling (W) Meetings – Doctor’s Appointment (Th, 10am), Catch-up with former colleague (M, 1pm) Business To-Do Blog (Every Th) – List Article finished (Sa), Post (Th), Dissect Power of Habits (F) Social Media – Post to 3 blogs (Th), Respond to Comments (W) Network – Copywriter seminar (W, 8pm), Mastermind Group (Th, 7pm) School To-Do Psychology 101 – Hw (W), Exam (F) Geology 101 – Research Paper (M) Algebra 101 – Exam Study (Th), Tutor (W), Study Group (F) Remember, once you instill this list into your habits, and treat its word as law. You will see your productivity and efficiency skyrocket. You will know what is due, when it’s due, and plan your day’s success the day before. After just a few days of using this list, you will be able to see all your small victories in your day journal and make you happier. Just give it a shot by following this simple step-by-step guide. Step one: Identify the things that you do regularly · I go to work. o Work To do · I go to school. o School To do · I have errands to run. o General To do Step two: Identify the categories that make up Work, School, and General · Work o I have Paperwork, Client Meetings, and orders. § Paperwork – § Meetings – § Orders – · School o I have my Fraternity, Classes, and club meetings. § Fraternity – § Geology 101 – § Math 102 – § Club – · General o I have all sorts of things to do, read a personal book, take a free online class, meetings with old friends, etc. § To do – § Book – § Meetings – Step three: Combine them · Work o Paperwork – o Meetings – o Orders – · School o Fraternity – o Geology 101 – o Math 102 – o Club – · General o To do – o Book – o Meetings – Step four: Add the weekly things you do to be successful at those categories and the dates you need to get them done. · Work o Paperwork – Write Order #432 Report (Tu) o Meetings – Meet with client (W, 10am) o Orders – Complete orders 231 and 537 (M) · School o Fraternity – Ensure members pay dues (F) o Geology 101 – 3 page paper (M) o Math 102 – Online Homework (Th) o Club – Meeting (W, 6pm) · General o To do – Groceries (Th), buy gas (Th), and pay bills (F) o Book – Read Chapter 2 of White Fang (Sa) o Meetings – Doctors appointment (3pm Tu) Step five: Institute it into your habits by using consistently and updating daily. To find out how click habits. With that, I hope this proves helpful to you. If you have any questions on how to create your own or how to incorporate it into your life, then please email me at [email protected].  Today's blog post is an extension of my Power of the List Series where the list is the most powerful human tool available.
Day Journal One of the most important things you can do regularly is write down everything you do on a daily basis. This is known as a Day Journal. A day journal can be an important part of any person’s life by logging all your accomplishments, your botch-ups, and everything in-between. Why is it so important? Because a day journal helps you track the things you do. Letting you know which are helping you with what you want to do with your life, and those that aren’t. By identifying the things that went right. You can continue them and understand why they went right and how to keep them right. For example, being able to get to the end of the day and seeing the things you actually accomplished is inspiring and gets you pumped up for tomorrow. For me, being able to see that I wrote my weekly blog post t as well as went to the gym inspires me to keep succeeding. It lets me sleep, knowing that I was productive and had many everyday victories. Going in the opposite direction. It allows you to see places in your life where you would like to improve. As it is more easy to see the patterns as they emerge and eliminate them before they become too much of a problem. This can go to understand your bad patterns such as sleeping-in too much. Allowing you to think up a solution such as moving your alarm clock out of arm’s length to get you out of bed and more likely to not sleep in as a result. Below is an example: (Things in Red are things I want to eliminate or improve) 9am – Slept in (Wakeup supposed to be 7am) 10 – Started work on Writing Article 10:30 – Snack (Potato Chips because I missed Breakfast) 12pm – Finished article 12:30 – Lunch (Brown Rice, spinach, salmon burger with green tea and honey 1:30 – Back to work and posted article 2 – Water cooler Break Just today for example, I found that I missed my breakfast this morning and I was dragging for the rest of the day because of lack of energy. So when I asked myself why, the answer was right there in my day journal. But what was the real reason I missed breakfast? It was because I slept in and that is the real root of the problem. Being able to see the cascading effects of one thing to everything else is not only cool to see, but imperative in understanding how your day plays out. Starting one today will allow you to amass your very own everyday victories! Have you started your own Day Journal or been thinking about it? If you have then comment to let the world know about your everyday victories! Do you know the power of the list? The list is what has made us the dominant species on this planet. Due to the fact that no other can plan and implement lists quite like we do. With that in mind, remember everyone, from the most successful to the everyman, all use lists for everything, from everyday tasks such as laundry, groceries, and errands to important work such as schedules, plans, and reports. The list is the fundamental building block of everything we do. But are you using them effectively? This question comes from the fact that most people if not all have never really thought hard about how they use the lists in their lives. Not knowing conceptually, the reasons they use the lists they do and understanding if it’s actually the best lists for them. Now here is the rundown of how lists work and the many different ways you can customize them to your every need. First off is the variables that change with each list and how they affect its purpose and effectiveness. Below is a table of a lists 4 different variables, their variations, and how they work. Variables Time - Short, medium, long, and undefined - this dimension is used to find how long your list will be used.
Occurrence - Instantaneous, Revolving, and Once - this dimension dictates the setup of how events occur on your list
Importance – weak, moderate, and strong - This dimension is used to rank the importance of the events on your lists and the order they will be done. (Can be numbered, bolded, etc.)
Control – Transferable and Fixed -this dimension says how much control you have over the placements and implementation of the events.
Now that you have the different variables that go into making lists. Here a few examples of how those variables work together to create different types of lists. The Active List The first example is a short list that uses all three occurrence, importance, and control dimensions together. It is called an Active List. This is due to its lively nature and constant updates to what you need to do. Below is an example in a Word Document. General To-Do To do – Groceries (W) Books to Read – Unleashing the Power of Consultative Selling (W) Meetings – Doctor’s Appointment (Tu, 10am), Catch-up with former colleague (M, 1pm) Business To-Do Blog (Every Th) – List Article finished (Tu), Post (Th), Dissect Power of Habits (F) Social Media – Post to 3 blogs (Tu), Respond to Comments (W) Network – Copywriter seminar (W, 8pm), Mastermind Group (Th, 7pm) School To-Do Psychology 101 – Hw (W), Exam (F) Geology 101 – Research Paper (M) Algebra 101 – Exam Study (Tu), Tutor (W), Study Group (F) With this list, you have activities in your life that you have to do each week but what you have to do changes, Blog– for example, is on the list because I update my blog on a weekly basis. As they change, they get bolded to signify that they have to be done today. The parenthesis letters are the due dates they need to be done by, (W) = Wednesday of this week and etc. And the“, #’s” are the exact times they need to be done or attended. So at the end of each day, you bold everything with a (W) as it’s the things you will have to do tomorrow. This list is useful for keeping track of multiple activities that you do on a daily, weekly basis, that are updated constantly. It categorizes them in a way that helps you remember what you need to do in what subjects. The Planner/Scheduler A complementary of this list is the Schedule. This is a long-term list with fixed events, which occur instantaneous with time to create a linear path for you to follow throughout your day and week. This is any planner, scheduler, or other time based outline that shows what you plan to do. You can even combine the Active list with the Schedule and write the activities that have no set time at the bottom of each day as a To-Do list. This can be done using different schedule templates and software such as business calendars that update on your computer, phone, and other media devices. This type of list has a long term time dimension of a year and is useful in reminding you of events that are far away and unmemorable like renewing your subscriptions. Habit List Another useful list is the Habit list. It’s a list with an undefined time dimension, revolving events, with moderate to strong importance, and transferable control (meaning you have control of what time to do it during the day, but it has to be done to sustain the habit). This list is used by listing things that you want to turn into habits and is used as a go-to reminder that you are making it a habit or not. The events on this list are revolving and do not get eliminated until you know for sure that the habit you want is instituted in your routine which can take a few days to many months. Below is an example: Habit list: 1. Use phone schedule to eliminate written schedule 2. Read 1 book a month 3. Type an hour a day 4. Study Chinese an hour a day 5. Workout 4 times a week This is useful in constant reminding you to do something that you want to turn into a habit and is even more effective when combined with a timer system through your phone or watch alarm. The Memory Palace The next list is called a Memory Palace. This list is a once-only list of things that are used for a onetime events. It is a short-term list used once, and his list is a mental list and is rarely written down. This list works by associating everything on your list to a story. And to remember the individual items. You tell yourself the story. For example, I have to buy some things from the store. I need toilet paper, body soap, and duct tape. I then make a story up about those items. An example: I was Toilet Papering the neighbor’s house, and he ran out, throwing Duct Tape and Body Soap at me. This quick little story is absurd and memorable enough to allow you to remember everything on your list. In fact, the more incredible and ridiculous the story, the more memorable the story becomes. The Day Journal The last list of the day is a day journal. This journal is an instantaneous list of logging the events that occur as you do them. In essence, you are writing everything you are doing by the hour and is objective to what is actually happening and not what you want to happen (compared to a planner). Below is an example: 9 – Woke up 9:30 – breakfast and coffee (Spinach, eggs, and tomatoes with coffee) 10 – Started work on List Article 12 – Finished article 12:30 – Lunch (Brown Rice, spinach, salmon burger with green tea and honey 1:30 – Back to work and posted article 2 – Water cooler Break Etc… This list is the best way to find out the things that you do in a day, what causes them, and how you can identify good and bad behaviors that you want to change. An example would be to see a pattern in your behavior such as going to eat some food down the street to get out of the office, but you are trying to lose weight. If you see this trend you may be able to identify that you are not actually hungry, but you just need a breath of fresh air. Identifying that you go out to eat as a habit, allows You replace this behavior with an exercise program, getting coffee or tea with friends or coworkers, or something else that aligns more with your goals and fulfills your needs. There you have it. An in-depth look at the everyday list that everyone uses with 4 different variations to meet your needs. Amazing how something so routine can be honed and calibrated to accomplish your goals. If you have a great list or were able to benefit from the lists provided to maximize your time, please share your list and experience, and tell your story. |
AuthorLucas Thomas, professional writer, entrepreneur, and business owner. Archives
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