Behavioral Habits

The main use for the HabitSystem is in nurturing Growth Habits. But using the HabitSystem for Behavioral Habits is possible, too. However, it requires a slightly different approach which I will explain in this chapter.

Growth Habits are centered around pre-defined activities and skills. There is a minimum threshold—the Completion Threshold—that must be reached to make the habit complete for that day. Keep in mind that reaching the threshold doesn’t mean you have to stop there. It is simply the lowest goal to reach for that habit; anything you do above and beyond that threshold is just icing on the cake.

Say you have a habit of writing one paragraph each day. Hit your threshold and the habit is done. Of course, most of the time, you will surpass the threshold, but just hitting it satisfies your requirement and is a success. Oh, there is one paragraph I have to write today. OK, I wrote the paragraph and now I can mark the habit as complete.

This is how Growth Habits work. But Behavioral Habits—they are different. Contrary to Growth Habits, a Behavioral Habit is contingent upon some trigger or specific situation. This makes it harder to change your existing Behavioral Habit. In other words, a Growth Habit is something we strive to implement. A Behavioral Habit works the same way except often it corresponds to a negative habit that must be eliminated while developing the new Behavioral Habit. So how exactly do we shed non-productive Behavioral Habits and replace them with better habits?

The solution is Tracking. Treat your Behavioral Habit just like a Growth Habit.

At the end of each day, look at whether you behaved the way you wanted to behave. If not, you failed the habit. Try the next day. As you do this, your brain will be more cognizant of the habit you want to implement. Tracking simply raises the awareness for the habit you want to implement, and when the brain is cognizant of your intentions, it will begin to work its magic.

Let’s try to understand this with some examples. Say you want to install the habit of taking a cold shower whenever you shower. Use your Tracking method and at the end of each day, evaluate whether you actually stuck to the habit you wanted to implement. After a couple of days, when you take a shower, you will know that you want to instill the habit of taking a cold shower.

Here is another example: Say you want to immediately jot down an appointment when you get one, or simply track it. You may call it, “Jotted down appointment.” On each and every evening, assess whether you have completed the habit—or not. On days where there are no new appointments, “skip” the habit.

At first it will be hard to remember all the possible instances. But after some time, you will be aware of the desired behavioral change, and as long as you track it, you will make progress.

One important thing to note is that Behavioral Habits are often contingent on outside factors. While a Growth Habit is supposed to be done daily, a Behavioral Habit is not necessarily a daily thing.

This has some important implications for our Habit Tracking. Contrary to Growth Habits, generating a long, patch-free streak is not necessarily the goal—and it will also not be possible.

Consequently, the most important thing is honest Tracking. This way, you can see patterns in your behavior. Remember to fairly judge whether the day was applicable for the habit. For instance, for the inbox zero habit—meaning the count of new mails in your e-mail inbox at work is at zero at day’s end—skipping Saturdays and Sundays is applicable.

Going One Step Further: Track Everything

You can also use the HabitSystem to just track things that do not necessarily have to become a habit. You just track the occurrence of certain events or things you want to track in a binary fashion.

For example, I’m an enthusiast of raw denim. I use my HabitSystem to track whenever I wear my new raw denim jeans. Raw denim is just colored with indigo—there are no applications or fades. Wearing it for a couple of months and then washing it creates unique fades. However, when you wash it too early, you do not get the cool look of the fades. I simply put a “1” on each day I wore my raw denim.

You can use the HabitSystem to track whatever you want. Be creative and make it work for you.

Inspiration: Ideas for Behavioral Habits

Below, you’ll find some ideas for Behavioral Habits. The list is by no means exhaustive. It rather serves as an inspiration for you to find and implement new Behavioral Habits that suit you. It is not necessary to do all of these and it would be impossible to implement all of them at once. Remember: Start Slow Then Grow. Keeping in mind that you always want the lowest possible Threshold of Completion, begin with small changes that are doable within your lifestyle. Once you have your first Behavioral Habit under your belt, begin the next one. Feel free to use this list as your guide, but take from it only what works for you and add in those Behavioral Habits that will enhance your life.

Morning/Evening

• Make bed
• No snooze button
• Shower cold
• Floss teeth
• Brush teeth for x minutes
• Prepare clothes for next morning

Cleanliness

• Tidy room
• Tidy small appliance
• Clean sink
• Water plants

Financial

• Reasonable amount of money spent
• Track expenses
• Cook at home
• Did not eat out/Did not buy expensive flavored latté
• Brew your own coffee

Productivity

• Use To-Do app
• Use calendar
• Inbox zero
• Jot down new appointments immediately
• Use the Pomodoro technique

Social

• Create contacts immediately
• Remember people’s names
• Call mom/dad/grandma/granddad
• Meet a new person
• Be punctual
• Reasonable social media use

Health

• Take supplements
• Drink more than two liters of water
• Eat enough protein
• Drink a green smoothie
• No fast food/coffee/alcohol
• Reasonable sugar
• Stretch
• Weigh and note the weight