Tips for Setting Habits:

Start small: if you want to write for 1 hour a day, start by setting a habit for 5 minutes (or even less). You’ll often trick yourself into working longer.
Try habit stacking: Set simple routines, like “After X, I will Y”. This will reduce cognitive load.
- Variation: “I will not X until Y.” Ex: "I will not drink coffee until I write for 5 min.”
Don’t overdo it: Try not to build 10 habits from scratch at once. You’ll likely feel demotivated!
- Apps like “Better Habits” encourage just 3 at a time.
Use a tracker: Whether it’s an app or a pen/paper, track your habits some way or other. This is well-known to be motivating, and you won’t want to “break the chain”
Throw in some ‘easy’ habits into your tracker: This sounds like cheating, but it works really well for me. Just as it’s motivating to not “break the chain” for a single habit, it’s also really motivating to complete your 5th habit on your list if you've already completed your other 4.
Do your habits instead of (or as a healthy way of) procrastinating: When I feel the urge to procrastinate, I do one of my habits, like meditate or stretch, and it helps me feel somewhat accomplished and productive before getting back to work.
- It’s still procrastinating, I suppose, but it’s better than getting sucked into email or social media!
Make sure your goals are sensitive to how often you plan on doing them
- For example, if you want to write every day, it’s good to have a goal that’s achievable even on days that are full of meetings & teaching. By contrast, if you want to write only on (e.g.) non-teaching days, then you might make your goal more ambitious.

Here are some habits I’ve been working on & tracking.

(I track in Habit Hub unless otherwise stated.)

Take Vitamins/Supplements (that’s the easy decoy!)
Read 2 (Political) Newsletters/Day
Meditate 5+ min (I track the exact time using the Apple Watch “Mind Body” ‘workout’. I aim for 15 min when possible)
Stretching routine (12 min routine programmed into Habit Hub)
Max 4 Drinks a Week (I use the app “Less” for this)
25 min of writing/research
5 min reading for ‘fun’ (ideally non-philosophy)
10+ pomodoros of work (ideally ‘deep’ work)
Journal (can be anywhere from 1-2 minutes to 30+ min)
Weekly To Do List (on Sunday)
Weekly Review (on Sunday)
Monthly Review & Goal-Setting for next month (end of month)

This may sound like a lot, but I’ve worked up to these over a few months. I’ve also learned that I am someone who likes to “check things off” so I write some research-related goals directly into my habits. I continue to add to it for anything I would like to be doing more of.

I don’t track my workouts in my Habit Log, but I suppose they’re part of my habits. I typically work out around ~11 hours/week, with 1 rest day. These workouts include: The Class, vinyasa yoga, walking, barre, and various HIIT & strength workouts I find on Instagram.