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

K-eediyot box

(Disclaimer - Please do not think that I don't know spellings ... my numerologist told to use the above spelling for eediyot and add a k before it, this will help generate more TRP and comments for the blog) Time 7 : 30 - 8 PM, 8 - 8 : 30 PM .... 10 : 30 - 11 PM Venue - Zee TV, Star Plus, Sony entertainment etc. etc. Figure this - A family drawing room belonging to an extremely rich business house occupied with a mixture of emotional and scheming characters - 1 saas, 2 bahus, 1 son (+1 who makes an entry unaware of what is happening), 2 random distant relatives, 3 random cousins, all mouthing dialogues that have earlier been said by actors ranging from Nirupa Roy to Rajesh Khanna, followed by a long silence, 13 camera angles for same scene (top view, side view, cross sectional view, lateral view, 45 degree elevation view) , flashbacks and memories that last few episodes, good people becoming evil, evil people actually being un-evil, rebirths, amnesia, a background score that often ...

The Forest

The Toyota Qualis and the Chvrolet Tavera stopped after a long journey. It was almost 9 in the night and it was pitch-dark. Night times in a forest are always pitch-dark. Adding to that it was a good `thirteen days since the last full moon day. Adding to this, the cloudy weather made visibility close to zero. Later in the night the forest would be engulfed in a fog making it nearly impossible to see. The only noise audible was that of silence, few random insects and that of a train going at a distance. After a long journey they all were quite weary and all they wanted was some rest so that the next day morning they can head for tiger and rhino spotting among many other species of flora and fauna in the wildlife sanctuary. Right now it was time for some parathas, maggi and booze. All fifteen of them headed for the cottage which they had booked, sat near the fire place relishing food, chit chatting about college life, universe and everything. But chit chatting wasn’t what they came ...

We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented

(Disclaimer: I am NOT justifying any action or behavior. I am just speculating why people usually act so) _________________________________________________________ “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented” – The Truman Show (a 1998 movie starring Jim Carrey) The above line explains a great deal about why we hold on to some beliefs as gospel truths, and form our judgment about things and act in a specific pattern. This movie (which I feel is still quite under-rated!) had Jim Carrey, a person whose entire life had been a live, non-stop, unedited television show. He lived in a world which was completely artificial; everything, everyone knew that everything were fake. But the person was real. His emotions were real. He was conditioned to a certain realities of world, and believed in it. The makers of the show did not want to show him what the ‘actual’ world was. He was made not to want to explore the outside world, made to fear things that could have led him ...

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...

Somewhere @ Nowhere

Somewhere @ Nowhere Coming soon ... As of now a snapshot at the cover design - (LHS - Back Cover, RHS - Front Cover)