According to studies, it takes about 2 months on average to successfully form a habit, but it could range anywhere from a couple of weeks to even almost an entire year. Let’s assume you are going through all the effort, but how can we make it easier? Well, here are 7 hacks for keeping up habits successfully.

Hack-1 Start small

Set a small goal, one that makes it almost impossible to fail. For example, you want to go for a run, just put on your shoes, don’t even go for a run! How is that for success? Now, do that for 5 days straight. I bet, your mind will tell you to at least step out, now that you have your shoes on anyway. It’s one of the easiest starts for keeping up habits.

Remember – One is greater than Zero!

Let’s say, you want to break a habit; say quit caffeine. Take your cup of coffee, walk over to the sink, and dump it! (I know, it’s blasphemous for a coffee guy like me to say this). Do this for 5 days straight. Will you keep buying coffee? Most probably not.

Hack-2 Anchor stacking

What are things we almost do without even thinking?

• Waking up
• Going to the bathroom
• Brushing teeth
• Opening the front door
• Watering the plants
• Turning off the lights when leaving the room

Just stick your new habit onto the one you’re already doing.

A good habit is drinking at least 2-3 glasses of water immediately after waking up. Have a bottle of water right beside the bed table with a post-it ‘Drink me’. You see that immediately after waking up, I bet, you’d drink it without even thinking.

Set up a weigh scale at the bathroom step or in the bathroom, stick up a paper on the wall with dates on the X-axis. When you step in to brush your teeth, just weigh yourself and note it. Another add-on, put up a post-it with the question, “Am I happy with how it is right now? What will I do to change it?” I personally have had 3 photos of myself (front, back, and side views) as “Before” and a blank piece of paper with “After” with a date 6 months away and an arrow connecting them with weekly boxes.

Hack-3 Break it down

In setting a goal, we discussed setting is big, which is great, for aspiring towards. But to enable habits, it falls flat on it’s face. We need to break it down for easily do-able chunks.

Say, you would like to start eating healthy. Just have a healthy breakfast and don’t change the rest. Make sure, the broken down parts are meaningful.

You want to walk 10,000 steps a day. Walk 1000 steps every hour on average; it will also give you an opportunity to move around while working from your desk all day.

I want to write an article every week, an average of 1800 words. So, my daily goal is to write 300 words per day for 6 days.

Hack-4 Compound baby!

Doing small things every day will seem to not add up to any real gains. The focus is on it being ‘to seem‘; in reality, they do add up. The power is in the incremental additions you do to it.

If you want to do read a book (400-500 words) per month.

You read 1 minute on the first day; just add 1 more minute the next day, and continue doing that every day. By day 30, you would be finishing the book. There is an added benefit of increasing your reading speed as well.

Hack-5 Reward yourself

Love binging that show on Netflix?

For sure, do it. But, on condition that you go for that run. Even better, your watch time is equal to your run time. That’s hitting 2 birds with one stone. Too much to start? Scale it down.

I finish my writing for the day, I get my coffee. Simple.

Ask your partner to compliment you when you finish your daily target. Do the same for them. It’s a win-win for both boosting your confidence and having each other’s backs as well.

Heck, tell yourself you’re awesome, you know you deserve it!

Share your reward ideas with me in the comments.

Hack-6 Don’t miss twice

Plan for failure.

No one is perfect; even our heroes we hold in high esteem. But they succeed in the long run, not by doing ‘perfection’ but by being consistent on average. It’s ok to be forgiving but it’s important to get back on track.

Remember – ‘Don’t miss twice’ in a row.

Many smartwatches and mobile apps for workouts, walking, etc. are gamified to keep you on track with ‘streaks’. In simple words, you are forming a chain with consistent doing, so ‘don’t break the chain’ becomes your mantra.

Hack-7 Patience is a virtue

Be patient with yourself for the results. Rome was not built in a day. Neither did six-pack abs. There is no other way.

The effort you put in is meaningful only when it’s sustainable. Don’t push yourself too hard in the beginning.

My mantra – Be boring

Embracing boredom i.e. doing the same thing over and over again is liberating and because we don’t even have to think about it. This was a significant change of perspective for me, who always seeks out variety and change.

Starting habits to be easy and slowly incrementing them will make them tough soon enough.

Finally

Try these pointers as you are starting your habit-forming or breaking journey. Share your thoughts and experience using these. My learning on the subject is from the highly recommended ‘Atomic habits by James Clear‘