Skip to main content

Can mini habits cause big changes?

Some time back, I happened to read an amazing book called The Power OF Habit by Charles Duhigg. Among many things he talks about in it, one is about different small cues/ triggers and mini-habits which can help shape up larger habits, hopefully for good.

Since last couple of years, I have made a constant endeavor to be healthier than before and have cultivated some mini habits that have helped me achieve some of these goals. And I believe that these mini-habits have been quite helpful. 


Here are some of the mini habits I tried to adopt while trying to make my lifestyle healthier. Restricting this to 3 for the sake of brevity. 

1. Since some time (guess 2-3 years) I have a kind of "permanent alarm"set for 6 AM in the morning (which I disable only if there is some really important). This, on most of the days ensures that I am in a position to get up early, and hence, do some kind of workout. At least, lack of time is not a stopping factor most of the days. So far, it has served me well. 

2. Started brushing my teeth regularly post dinner (slightly different than brushing "before going to sleep"). This often helps me avoid that craving for post dinner junk or sweet.

3. Keeping several nuts/ dry fruits together and usually in plain sight so that I remember to soak them and eat (healthy!)


At the same time, there have been several cased where I haven't been able to cultivate mini-habits. Updating this blog regularly is one of them. De-cluttering my space is another. Reducing the social media usage is also somewhere in this list. And I haven't been able to cultivate any mini habit around these. 

Would love to hear suggestions on what can be these mini habits?

_

Realized that there are quite a few good books on mini habits. Hope to read some of them soon. 

Comments

Shop @ Amazon

Popular posts from this blog

Some random movie reviews

1 holiday, 6 movies! 8 movies in a span of last 32 hours! Huh … That was too much … A mixture of good cinema and utter crap … of hardcore realism to escapism … of typical and offbeat … of some popular to some watched by a handful … a mixture of many differents actually! Just writing a purposeless random review of all of these – 1. 1. City of god – Excellent! Brazilian movie, at best understood with help of subtitles and visuals. An excellent depiction of a Brazilian slum, where kids having guns is not an uncommon site; where crime is a way of life. 2. 2. Love actually – Beautiful! A mushy love story … rather many mushy love stories …Karan Johar types, if some parallel has to be drawn to our desi phillum industry … with everyone from a school kid to Britain’s prime minister is falling in love. A good watch nevertheless! 3. 3. Jhom Barabar Jhoom – Crap Only good things are nice songs … but not that interesting with random jhoom baraabar...

Survival

Dark clouds were looming at the horizon. In few minutes they would have traveled few miles in westward direction and came closer. This is not usually the scene at noon in the hottest month of the year. Dark clouds meant something ominous. Probably sign of an impending storm or maybe a cyclone approaching. Sea is a capricious lady. Bay of Bengal was no different. It was infamous for cyclones, and Orissa was often at the receiving end of nature’s fury. Ramdas was few miles into the sea. So were his brethrens of the fishermen community. There were around a hundred boats in the sea that day. No one anticipated the storm. So no one even thought of staying back at the shore and miss out on their livelihood of the day. Ramdas was alone in his boat. He owned the boat. His son helped him with his job. They managed to get enough as to earn a square meal a day. They had a good rapport with others of fishing community. But of late that relationship was breaking down. No reasons for that. Nor wa...

Random Birthday thoughts

As I would have cribbed @ 1000000000 words per day, I am currently at a place called Jhunjhunu where I have no social life to speak of, internet is the only thing that keeps me going, apart from few random movies or episodes of Seinfeld. So prospects of celebrating birthday in this solitary confinement are not that exciting! Too add to that, as I switched on my laptop yesterday night, I realized that it had conked off and is showing fan error as the reason. For me this was the end of world. And I knew not how would I survive! I hoped the issue will get sorted out in a week but it is too much to ask in this small town and this time period seemed to be an extremely optimistic guess. My birthday eve and early morning were spent on developing strategies on how to get it repaired. I couldn't find any IBM authorized dealer here, and I would have needed to send it to Delhi. There were two options - first was about sending it as a parcel to one of my friends at IBM , either directly or i...

Get cashback while doing online shopping

Originally published on BeingFinWise __ Cashbacks are an amazing way to save money while shopping. More so while you do online shopping. In addition to regular deals and discounts, you can get cashback if you go via affiliates . This way you can get cashback on your online shopping, over and above your regular deals. Some of the popular affiliate networks offering cashback on online shopping in India are Cashkaro ,  Gopaisa , Pennyful etc.

Assorted Random Semi-Verses

Memories Isn't every memory a magic? Making you lose the sense of time. Which is so much beyond the realm of logic. Though sometimes they are mere illusions But they keep coming back to you, And make you feel nostalgic! ___ The Dark Side With every talent comes a curse, From every gift speaks a caveat aloud, Even the beautiful moon has a dark side, And every silver lining has a cloud! ___ The Race Somewhere in this race, Some time during the run, I lost myself in between, And forgot to have fun. ____ I write ... I sometimes write random words, Which hardly make any sense; But I just felt that you should know, That in some corner of this little world, I do have a little presence!