Another thought today in the vein of making better habits. Since beginning to read Atomic Habits I’ve already started to implement some of the tactics James Clear discusses in the book. I also listened to James’ conversation with Rich Roll about habits, and I’ve morphed a few if his ideas into a self-improvement technique that even I can master.
One place I’m trying to make positive change is getting up earlier. With a growing family and increasing job responsibilities, I’ve realized that if I want to continue to be able to work out on a regular basis I’ll have to do it early in the morning before the rest of the house is awake.
I’ve always had a hard time getting up early, and am usually a self-defined “night owl”, but with this simple tactic today I was able to easily get out of bed 30 minutes earlier than I did just a few days ago.
The tactic is to get up just five minutes earlier that you did the day before, until you’re at your desired wake up time. So. Simple.
At first you may not think that getting up five minutes earlier will do you any good, but think of the bigger picture: If you get up five minutes earlier each day, after six days you’re getting up a half an hour earlier. After 12 days that grows to a full hour! I doubt you’d say that an hour is no big deal.
Lots of little changes stacked together to make a big change. That’s what it’s all about.