原文地址
"Changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you're willing to stick with them for years."--James Clear, Atomic Habits
To reach your goals, you need a system. You need to build habits and you have to stick around long enough to let them do their magic. You hear it over and over again because it's true.
In 2019, one of the most popular books was Atomic Habits, by James Clear. It's a pratical guide to break bad habits and build good ones. The author explains clearly why small, everyday habits lead to great success.
If you haven't read the book yet, make sure you do. But don't just read it. Put in practice everything you learn from it. Unitl you do so, here are 0 micro-habits that can improve your life.
1.Delay Your Reactions
I know, I know, it's a fast-moving world. But that does not mean we have to respond quickly to everything. Learn to say "I'll let you know later","I'll get back to you on this", and other similar phrases.
Instead of saying yes to an offer only to realize later that it doesn't fit your schedule, better to take a few miniutes to think about it.
It will save you a great amount of time and disappiontment in the long run.
2.Push yourself to Complete a Task When You Don't Feel Like It
Every day, pick a small task you don't want to do then go ahead and complete it. From washing the dishes to making your bed and from going for a run to making dinner instead of ordering food. It can be anything.
After doing this for a few days, you'll realize the problem is not the task itself. It's your habit of postponing things. It's being comfortable, especially when you have a choice. But often, once you make the first step, you get yourself in the mood and get the job done.
Once you've spent a few days completing small tasks, make the jump to bigger ones.
3.Spend a Day Away From Social Media
There were days when my phone was the extension of my hand. I would pick it up for no reason and then scroll on social media for 30 minutes without realizing it. And I'm not even big on social media platforms. I never post anything on Facebook and have around 200 followers on Instagram, whom I spam with pictures of my travels from time to time.
But I can't give it up for good, nor do I want to. Facebook is a great way to find out about local events, and Instagram is a great source of inspiration for my writing. But all of these are useful if I use the platforms in moderation.
So instead of deleting the apps from my phone, I've decided that I'm not going to use them on Sundays. And so I did. After four weeks, I've drasitcally reduced my screen time and even set a 1-hour limit for social apps.
So if you're struggling with this as well, start small. Spend a day away from social media or don't connect your phone to wifi at all. After you realize you're not missing out on anything, by being offline for one day, you'll consciouly choose to spend less time online,every day.
4.Prepare Your Next Day the Night Before
Choose your outfit and put everything in your bag (men might not understand this, but most women hava a looong list of things that they need to have in their everyday bag).
Write down a to-do list and check your calendar to see if you scheduled any meetings of calls. Do anything you can to make the next day easier.
If you have a plan, you get things done faster. There's no magic involved, it's pure logic.
5.Eat Mindfully
When you're eating and working/reading/watching a movie at the same time, you often eat more than you need. Plus, you're not enjoying the food, nor are you being productive. Can you even taste those vegetables if you're busy trying to make sense of an excel document? Probably not.
Having lunch or dinner shouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes. So when did we become so busy that we don't even have 10 minutes to spare to fuel our bodies?
Next time you eat, do just that: eat. You'll see it's not easy at all to not reach for your phone. And the simple fact that we have to talk ourselves out of doing it should raise some questions.
6.Use a Timer for Your Tasks
The Pomodoro Technique might as well be called the Bible of Productivity. It got so famous because it works so it does deserve all the praise. Out of all the mircro-habits I mention here, this one has helped me the most.
Working and traveling full-time is not always easy (or fun, might I add) and you have to come up with a schedule and stick to it. So I've adjusted the Pomodoro Technique in a way that works for me: I write for one hour, take a 10-minute break, and then write for another hour.
This is one of the main tricks that have helped meet my deadlines while exploring a few different cities every month.
7.Place Your Phone on the Opposite Side of the Room
If you keep your phone next to you when you sleep, you'll just keep hitting the snooze button until it's almost too late to get out of bed. But for most of us, the hard part is standing up, not waking up. And this is why this method works.
When your phone is on the opposite side of the room, you have to get up and take a few steps to stop it from ringing. Then you might realize you are also thirsty and have a lot to do in the next following hours. So your bed doesn't look so comfortable anymore.
8.Set a Spending Waiting Period
For the past few years, I've been applying two rules before buying anything. First, if I see something I like, I never buy it on the spot--unless it's something I need and have been looking for. Instead, I wait for a few days to see if it's still going to be on my mind.
If after three days I still dream about a dress or some shoes, I go ahead and buy them. If I completely forget about them, then I just dodged a bullet because it was probably just compulsive shopping.
The second rule applies to items on sale. Everybody loves the sales periods, right? Of course we do. But it's also when we tend to buy a lot of stuff we don't need. It's how our brains are wired. That's why marketing works. Getting a good deal makes us happy. Satisfied. Until we get home and realize it was just a temporary feeling.
To avoid buying unnecessary things, ask yourself a simple question:" Would I pay the full price for it?" If the answer is "yes", then take out your wallet. If it's negative, walk away.
9.Write Down Every Idea
"It's ok, I'll remember it" should go down in history as the biggest lie we tell ourselves. Out of all the things you pick up during the day, you end up forgetting more then half of it.
So make a habit of writing everything down, even the silly stuff that seem unimportant.
Final Thoughts
The main reason why people don't reach their goals is that they make drastic changes instead of building small, everyday habits. To do so, you only need to follow these two simple rules:
1.Drop a Bad One
Make a list of all the bad habits you have and want to get rid of. Instead of going on a war against yourself, trying to get rid of all of them at the same time, pick only one and focus on that. Take baby steps. Smoke one less cigarette. Buy one less unnecessary item every week. Stop eating one thing out of a few you want to give up.
Only after you've managed to give up a bad habit, start working on another one.
2.Add a Good One
The same goes for good changes you want to make. Don't try to drink 2 liters of water every day if you only drank 1 glass before. Instead, try to drink 2 glasses per day and slowly increase. Add one more vegetable to your plate. Run one more minute on the treadmill. Read one more page every night.
Choose something you're struggling with and slowly increase the time you spend building that good habit. When you feel like it became a habit, start working on the next one,
As James Clear said in Atomic Habits:
"You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."
So make sure you have a well-established system for every goal.
翻译如下：
如果你能数年如一日地坚持一些看起来细微且无关紧要的改变，它们会积累成一个不可磨灭的结果。—— James Clear,《原子习惯》
为了达到你的目标。你需要一个系统。你需要建立习惯并一直保持以便让它们发挥奇效。你不胜其烦地听到这种论调恰好证明了其正确性。
在2019年，James著的原子习惯是一本畅销书。这是一本手把手教你改掉坏习惯并培养好习惯的书。作者解释了为何日拱一卒能够带你走向成功。
如果你还没读过这本书，请读读看，但请别只是“读”，去实践你的所学。直到你做了这些后，我这列出了9条能改善你生活的微小习惯。
1.延期反馈
现在一切都是快节奏的，我懂，但这也不意味这我们必须对所有事情快速反应，学会去说“我等下告诉你”、“我回头跟你说”等话术。
相对于答应一个后面发现日程有冲突的请求，多想想是件好事。
这会长期替你省下大把时间且能更好地达成承诺。
2.当你不愿已干一件工作时逼自己一把
每天找一件自己不想做的小任务并完成它，从洗盘子到叠被子，从跑步到自己做饭而非叫外卖，可以是任何事情。
这样做一段时间后，你会明白任务本身并没有问题，只是你习惯性地抗拒它们，因此当你还有选择的时候，主动解决它们吧。之后，当你踏出第一步，你就能找到状态并且完成它。
一旦你花了几天去拍了些“小苍蝇”，你就可以去试试处理“大老虎”了。
3.用一天时间远离社交软件
曾几何时我机不离手，我会无理由地拿起来，漫无目的地刷个30分钟且意识不到时间的流逝。
我并非社交平台的大咖，从未在脸书上发表文章且在Instagram仅有200来个粉丝，上面我也只是时不时放些旅游照片。
但我还是有些不能放下它的理由。脸书是个获取社区新闻的好渠道，Instagram是我的写作灵感源泉。但这一切好处仅在我有节制地去使用时才有。
所以，与其把它们从手机上删掉，我决定周日都不再使用它们。我做到了，几个星期后，我神奇地减少了看手机的时间甚至养成了每天最多使用1小时社交软件的习惯。
若你也苦恼于此，一点点改变吧，一天内不用社交软件或者不连wifi。当你意识到你这期间并没有错过什么事后，你理所当然地减少线上时间，每天都是。
4.提前一晚准备明天的事
把你要带的东西都放到包包里（直男可能不懂，但很多女性每天都有一大堆东西要带）。
在你的日历上写下一个清单去规划你的会议，总之做一些会让你第二天更容易上手的事情。
如果你有了个计划，你会做事更有效率，这不是魔法，这是纯逻辑。
5.专心吃饭
当你在工作、阅读、看电影时吃东西，你经常会吃得更多。另外，你既没有享受食物，又没有效率。你能一边做Excel一边好好品尝你的蔬菜吗？显然不行。
吃顿午餐或晚餐不会超过10到15分钟，我们什么时候忙到连10分钟都没法留给身体补充营养呢？
下次你吃的时候，只做一件事：吃。你会发现放下手机吃饭不容易，但我们还是要告诉自己，不这么干会引发一些问题的。