[Beyond Borders]

This thread may seem a bit redundant. If we've already done something similar, my apologies.

My thinking is that we've had a lot of discussion about habits in various threads: routines, good productivity habits, work habits, health habits, habits of 2014, etc, etc.

But those threads can quickly deteriorate into theory and generalizations based on expirementation, or they just focus on what you've implemented recently. So, let's raise the bar a bit higher on this one to see if we can unearth any insights or cool tricks.

I'd like you to think for just a sec...what are the main habits you've implemented in your life (or even that have always been a part of your life because passed down by family or whatever) that have actually transformed your reality and had a huge positive effect on your life, in your business, for your health, etc...? The game changers.

If you really believe in basing your life around building good habits, one by one, and have a list to share, by all means do it. But I think this thread will be more meaningful if you avoid the more trivial ones and just try to hone down to the top undeniably life-transforming few, if possible.

Also, the more specific and routine, the better. In other words, "working out" is not really what I'd call a habit. Yes, it's a great lifestyle choice, but it's a bit vague.

On the other hand, making a commitment to go to the gym every single day, or every other day, without fail (even if you don't work out when you get there) is an example of purposely building a habit that can carry you once it's ingrained.

Getting up to do 100 pushups every morning is a habit. Waking up at 5 every morning is a habit.

Brushing your teeth is another age-old example of habitualized behavior. You've done it so long, you don't think about it - you just get up and do it.

Of course, yours still may not be quite as ingrained as that, but you get the point.

[wi30]

I have two pretty basic ones that have made a huge difference in my productivity.

The first habit you already mentioned. I wake up before 6 am every morning regardless of whether I have to be up or not. After a couple weeks, I naturally started waking up early without an alarm. Today, for example, is Saturday. I have no plans but woke up around 5 am. Made some coffee and caught up on a couple RVF threads. I then got some reading done. On weekdays I use the time to hit the gym before work. If you aren't getting up early, you are wasting the most productive hours of the day. I rarely get important things done in the evening.

The second habit is physically writing out my to-do list the night before for the following day. I write everything down. It might look something like this on a typical weekday:

Monday:
-Wake up by 6 am
-Read
-Duolingo
-Go to gym at 7:30 am
-Pack lunch
-Work 9 am-5 pm
-Dishes
-Laundry
-Coach 7 pm
-Clip fingernails
-Walk dog

I include everything whether it's a personal chore, meeting, returning a call, already a daily habit, or anything else. It takes thirty seconds the night before and allows me to have an idea of what I have going on the next day. Physically crossing each item off the list makes me address each item. I'm not going to end my day if something is left on the list.

I also keep a weekly/monthly list in my phone of things that need to get done eventually. Those get added to my daily list when the time comes.

[Phoenix]

Habit: Clocking my own time. Any productive activity I do for myself, such as language learning or long-term business related work, I clock with an app on my phone. Check in when I start, check out when I stop. It makes the work -- which has no immediate pay off -- more tangible. I didn't "do some work today", I "invested 4 hours 23 minutes in building X". I feel good when I see that tally at the end of a day, and bad if it's just a measly hour. I can see and feel the achievement or laziness respectively.
Result: must be working. A year or so ago, I struggled to scrape together an hour of anything productive -- per week. Now I get a chunk of stuff done almost every day. Other things are contributing to that too though.

Habit: Make things easy for yourself. Everyone wants to pretend they're a monolith of willpower, and everything will be achieved if they "just do it". That's never been true though, and no winner has ever had to constantly fight themselves every day to "just do it". Once you accept this, and know thyself, you can plan ahead to reduce your willpower requirements.
Specific examples:
Any entrenching actions. If I say "I'll just do 100 pushups etc today, here in my room", I will do 0 pushups that whole week. If I instead drive to the gym, I will do a massive free-weight session that leaves me weak. Once you're there, you enter "gym mode". In my room, I'm in "laptop mode". All that "comfort of your own home / easier & faster than driving somewhere" stuff is bullshit and has the wrong attitude. You can even take this a step further an invent new modes, i.e. "Cafe X is where I do my blog writing (and nothing else)". Result: increased associated productivity and results. The other day I was checking one of my arms and thinking, "wow, it's actually starting to look good now".
Note: buying a years gym subscription is a useless entrenchment. Statistically, it's just throwing your money in the bin. Entrenchment applies only to your focus, which operates in the realm of hours, not months. I go to pay-per-visit gyms if I can, and grungier the better.
Pre-preparation. I fucking hate tedium. The idea of wasting time and effort every day cooking and washing dishes and mixing bulking shakes pisses me off. So if I can't just eat out 100%, I will buy a stack of takeaway containers and cutlery and bottles, and have a massive cooking and mixing session one day which fills a freezer for a month. Then all I need to do is: microwave 2 minutes -> shove in my mouth -> throw in bin. Result: currently at my greatest weight ever.

Aside from those successful habits, good sleep habits have still eluded me. If I could somehow magically become a "bounce out of bed at 6am" guy, that would be awesome. I will have to return attention to it, but basically for my whole life I've woken up like a lethargic slug. Nothing has ever budged that whatsoever except external motivation, e.g. the fear of being late to work. The closest anything got to being effective was the method outlined in the book "Miracle Morning", where you recite a little pep talk about what you're going to do in the morning just before you go to bed. My plan is just to accept this is my nature, and to find ways of creating that external motivation -- e.g. getting clients or business partners who require my attention at 8am, or just hiring an intense PT guy to wack me with a stick at 7am every morning and then drag me out for a hard 20 minute anti-lethargy jog.

[masoud_akbari]

I take cold showers in the morning

It just makes me feel good (first time I did it I felt like a fucking beast)

[roberto]

Gold thread, BB.

Cold showers are great for me if I've not done gym. Overall the biggest improvement via habit I made was eating low carb cheaply and routinely by cutting out unhealthy stuff and installing a basic kitchen at my works yard. Since I stopped driving down the shop for a pasty every day my life has been turned around. It's now habit to throw protein and veg into a frying pan for breakfast lunch and dinner (if not doing IF)

[Mentavious]

Playing sports:

Developed life long friends
Stressed the importance of keeping healthy
Knowledge on how to properly lift weights and do some cardio
Teamwork as well.

I can't think of anything else that you can do alone, releases endorphins, keeps you in shape, and is fun all at the same time. Never stale as you can always improve at something in whatever sport you pick.

It's something I can do until I can no longer function.

[Anabasis to Desta]

Treating mental discipline like building muscle.

The workout program is simple. 10 reps per day only.

Force myself to do 10 things daily that i don't feel like doing or am procrastinating. I have a daily log on which i write down those 10 things i felt like not doing but managed to do.

Calling an old friend i haven't talked to in months. Could be NOT to go out and grab a bottle of Remy Martin despite really feeling like getting crunk. Could be downing that dreaded 6th meal of the day to hit my macros. Or maybe talking to that mami sporting some serious bubble down under that i was too nervous to approach.

Doesn't matter but 10 reps of discipline have to be exercised each day.

It's truly amazing how much shit I'm able to get done once I adopted this habit.

[evilhei]

Good habits that help me:

- doing sports, atleast 3 times a week, haven't skipped a week in about 10 years.
- bright light box every morning.
- cooking big pot of soup/stew once a week that I can eat for dinner 5 days in a row. Its cheap, nutritious and tasty.
- learning some new programming framework or smt every week for couple of hours, keeping myself current with new stuff in my field

One good thing from this thread I will incorporate into my daily habits is this physical to-do list which also includes all the small things like clipping my nails or taking out trash or whatever. For some reason it never occurred to me that I can also write down these little everyday things, I believe it will help me get more organized with my stuff. Thanks!

[thedarkknight]

Keeping a diary. I've kept one for 6 years and counting.

[masoud_akbari]

Walking whenever possible, its incredible what a breath of fresh air can do when you are feeling frustrated or under the weather

[Hannibal]

Using the pomodoro method has helped me treat a serious case of fuck-around-itis.

Other than that, I would say waking up early is a big one to get more shit done. Three things have helped with that.

1)No caffeine after a certain time (say 5 at night).
2)Bright Light therapy in the morning.
3)F.lux. It dims your computer screen so you the artificial light doesn't fuck your sleep schedule.

I roll my own cigarettes. This saves me on average $1800 a year because it's about 25 times cheaper. It takes me less than 5 minutes to make a couple day's worth of them and they're not much different than the store bought variety. The last few months I've been cutting down on them but they're still nice to have.

Whenever I want to buy something (not groceries), I'll put it in a wishlist or whatever and wait an amount of time, say a week or a month. If I still want it by then, I'll buy it. This has saved me lots of money by avoiding impulse buys.

Whenever something breaks, I'll google it to see how to fix it. If it's not too difficult, I'll do it myself. Same for if I want something, I'll see if I can't build it or procure it myself. I've learned a lot with both methods (like how to make detergent, fix cars, weld, cook, etc), apparently some guys my age and younger can't even chop firewood.

Adopting a few simple things and sticking to them hard tends to produce better results than half assed efforts with perfection.

[ball dont lie]

(01-23-2016 10:31 AM)Phoenix Wrote:  

Habit: Clocking my own time. Any productive activity I do for myself, such as language learning or long-term business related work, I clock with an app on my phone. Check in when I start, check out when I stop. It makes the work -- which has no immediate pay off -- more tangible. I didn't "do some work today", I "invested 4 hours 23 minutes in building X". I feel good when I see that tally at the end of a day, and bad if it's just a measly hour. I can see and feel the achievement or laziness respectively.
Result: must be working. A year or so ago, I struggled to scrape together an hour of anything productive -- per week. Now I get a chunk of stuff done almost every day. Other things are contributing to that too though.

Im going to incorporate this starting today. Brilliant. Maybe Im a bookkeeper at heart but this sounds like a great way to achieve much higher levels of efficiency for me.

[Beyond Borders]

(01-23-2016 06:40 PM)ball dont lie Wrote:  

(01-23-2016 10:31 AM)Phoenix Wrote:  

Habit: Clocking my own time. Any productive activity I do for myself, such as language learning or long-term business related work, I clock with an app on my phone. Check in when I start, check out when I stop. It makes the work -- which has no immediate pay off -- more tangible. I didn't "do some work today", I "invested 4 hours 23 minutes in building X". I feel good when I see that tally at the end of a day, and bad if it's just a measly hour. I can see and feel the achievement or laziness respectively.
Result: must be working. A year or so ago, I struggled to scrape together an hour of anything productive -- per week. Now I get a chunk of stuff done almost every day. Other things are contributing to that too though.

Im going to incorporate this starting today. Brilliant. Maybe Im a bookkeeper at heart but this sounds like a great way to achieve much higher levels of efficiency for me.

For more on this concept, I urge you to read "The Now Habit." He goes into it in great depth.

[mickeyd]

Pre-made meals. Save a shit-ton of money eating super cheap at home or on the go in containers. Everything is measured out for your macros. All the effort put into the gym pays off when you have good meals pre-planned instead of fucking it up with cheeseburgers and protein shakes.

[Beyond Borders]

Some great stuff in this thread already. I'll definitely be adopting a few of these habits (waking up earlier, writing down tomorrow's to-do before bed, and reserving certain cafes for certain types of work - food prep when I have a kitchen again). Most I've heard of, but helpful to hear members talk about experience with them.

(01-23-2016 10:31 AM)Phoenix Wrote:  

or just hiring an intense PT guy to wack me with a stick at 7am every morning and then drag me out for a hard 20 minute anti-lethargy jog.

I know this was tounge in cheek here, but there is some brilliance in this idea, actually.

I mean, maybe not an intense PT guy whacking you upside the head, but what if you just paid some kid in your neighborhood to come by and ring your doorbell every morning and make sure you get up to tell him you're up?

Kids' time comes cheap (he could do it before he heads to school), and him actually showing up might be a lot more effective than a phone call or alarm, which you can acknowledge without getting out of bed.

(01-23-2016 03:08 PM)Mentavious Wrote:  

Playing sports:

Which sports?

(01-23-2016 03:11 PM)Anabasis to Desta Wrote:  

Treating mental discipline like building muscle.

The workout program is simple. 10 reps per day only.

Force myself to do 10 things daily that i don't feel like doing or am procrastinating. I have a daily log on which i write down those 10 things i felt like not doing but managed to do.

Unique concept. Don't believe I've seen this one before.

Did you pick it up somewhere?

(01-23-2016 03:34 PM)thedarkknight Wrote:  

Keeping a diary. I've kept one for 6 years and counting.

Can you elaborate on your mechanics, rituals, content, format for diary writing?

[Geomann180]

I do small things that cost me time today that save me time tomorrow.

For example I:

Back into my driveway so that I can drive forward out of my driveway the next morning
Have my clothes I'll wear the next day already folded in an easily accessible place for me to reach
(If Necessary) I sleep in my uniform so that I can just wake up and get in my car to get to work

G

[kiwi12]

(01-23-2016 06:40 PM)ball dont lie Wrote:  

(01-23-2016 10:31 AM)Phoenix Wrote:  

Habit: Clocking my own time. Any productive activity I do for myself, such as language learning or long-term business related work, I clock with an app on my phone. Check in when I start, check out when I stop. It makes the work -- which has no immediate pay off -- more tangible. I didn't "do some work today", I "invested 4 hours 23 minutes in building X". I feel good when I see that tally at the end of a day, and bad if it's just a measly hour. I can see and feel the achievement or laziness respectively.
Result: must be working. A year or so ago, I struggled to scrape together an hour of anything productive -- per week. Now I get a chunk of stuff done almost every day. Other things are contributing to that too though.

Im going to incorporate this starting today. Brilliant. Maybe Im a bookkeeper at heart but this sounds like a great way to achieve much higher levels of efficiency for me.

I use toggl.com for that purpose.

[Fortis]

Exercising as an anti-depressant has been a huge boon to my life. Doesn't work for everyone, but if you're depressed then get your diet and fitness in order then work from there.

[britchard]

(01-23-2016 03:11 PM)Anabasis to Desta Wrote:  

Treating mental discipline like building muscle.

The workout program is simple. 10 reps per day only.

Force myself to do 10 things daily that i don't feel like doing or am procrastinating. I have a daily log on which i write down those 10 things i felt like not doing but managed to do.

This seems really interesting, I've never heard of this idea before. Were you planning on doing a more detailed write up on this, I'm sure lots of members would be very interested?

Do you plan these 'mental reps' or are they spur of the moment, for example if you force yourself to chat to a grumpy looking old guy?

[Vicious]

Regularly going to they gym might be the single, most powerful habit a man can make for himself.

Don't worry about exact form, reps, sets whether you have the right shoes or music in your earphones. Just go.

[bacon]

For about a year, I have implemented a weekly water fast where I avoid eating for 36 hours. I usually do this on the same day every week. This has had a pronounced, positive effect on my health. I believe that giving the body a break from constantly digesting food helps it heal some of the other aliments that might be going on internally. As a result, I rarely get sick, or if I do get sick its much easier for me to get back to being healthy.

Additionally, I am able to eat basically as much as I want the rest of the week and still maintain a very lean look. I also do intermittent fasting the rest of the week.

Finally, going without food for an entire day is a great test in self control and will power which will build character for other areas of your life.

I would encourage guys who have had positive results from intermittent fasting to make the jump to full day fasts once a week to see the positive health benefits. The first few times you do this it is difficult, but once you start making this a weekly habit you will want to go one day a week without eating and it will become easy to do the 36 hour fast.

[wi30]

Another habit I've implemented is keeping a strict budget/tracking spending. I started this full-time after reading The Richest Man in Babylon with great success.

I have an Excel spreadsheet that shows my income and fixed/variable expense estimate for the month. I then use the following columns to track my weekly spending and make sure I'm not spending too much on entertainment, dining out, etc. I'm also saving all receipts for tax purposes at the end of the year. This is something I've always wanted to do but never actually buckled down and done.

The biggest improvement on my life is not only reduced frivolous spending, but a consistent deposit of 10% or more into my savings. I've always had a habit of pulling money from my savings for cash flow and allowing it to greatly fluctuate. Now a minimum of 10% goes into it untouched and will remain untouched until it's put towards investment purposes.

Based on the improvement I've seen in the past few months, I can't even imagine the impact this will have on my finances in a couple years.

[Special1]

Morning Routine

1. Piss
2. Clean my tongue
3. Drink one glass of warm (almost hot) tap water.
4. Cold Warm Shower with natural black soap.
5. Brush teeth
6. A glass of apple cider vinegar with water (with or without breakfast) and fish oil.
7. Get dressed
8. Go to work

I start every day like this and feel amazing when i leave my appartment. Makes me calmer and more productive at work

[roberto]

(01-24-2016 11:49 AM)Special1 Wrote:  

Morning Routine

1. Piss
2. Clean my tongue
3. Drink one glass of warm (almost hot) tap water.
4. Cold Warm Shower with natural black soap.
5. Brush teeth
6. A glass of apple cider vinegar with water (with or without breakfast) and fish oil.
7. Get dressed
8. Go to work

I start every day like this and feel amazing when i leave my appartment. Makes me calmer and more productive at work

I'd swap 5 and 6 around, ACV does your tooth enamel no favours.

[DVY]

Eating more greens, veggies and fresh food. Energy differences are noticeable