Are you aware of your daily habits? Are they the habits of a rich person or a poor person?
In his book Rich Habits Poor Habits, Tom Corley describes how before you begin to develop good habits you need to assess the habits that you already have, good or bad.
He recommends that for three days you carry around a notepad or make notes on your phone, of every activity, thought or decision, that is a daily habit. You will know that something is a habit as you will find yourself repeating it every day.
Once you have your list decide whether each one is a positive or a negative habit. When you have done this, take your list of negative habits and invert them i.e. turn them into good habits that you can foster.
For example, ‘I watch too much TV’ becomes ‘I limit myself to one hour of TV per day’.
For 30 days try to follow your new good daily habits. Review them in the morning, at lunch time and at bedtime in order to remind yourself of them and assess how you are doing.
I would suggest setting up a habit tracker, i.e. a calendar with the habits listed and then each day you can tick off the ones that you have achieved. It’s good to look back over the tracker at the end of the month to review your progress. If you manage to do something every day for a month it will probably have become a habit by then.
So what are my poor habits?
The first one is watching too much TV with Mr Simple. He will sit in front of the box for over three hours every evening. Often I slope off to my study to plan or write for the blog (which he doesn’t know about). I think he wonders what I spend time doing. If I did tell him at least he would know why I like to sit in front of my computer most weekday evening, but I am afraid that he will think that it is a waste of time.
Consuming too many carbs on the weekend e.g. toast and marmalade, crisps, drinking lager (albeit it alcohol-free). In the week I am much more disciplined with my diet.
Getting lost on the internet – don’t we all do that sometimes? The trouble is when I spend too much time on the computer, added on top of my work, I get problems with my shoulder.
So how could I invert these poor habits into rich habits?
Watch only one hour of TV per day Monday to Thursday. I must admit that on the weekend I quite like to watch a film together after dinner.
I am not overweight, so at the moment I am getting away with eating more carbs at the weekend. I am not sure that I want to change it.
Do my physio exercises every day to strengthen the muscles in my shoulders. According to my physio this will stop them getting so tight. This is one that I definitely need to work on. It has been on my habit tracker in past months, but has fallen off. I will certainly get richer if I do it as physio appointments are currently costing me a pretty penny.
I’m sure that I’ve got lots more bad habits, but I need to put Tom Corley’s recommendation into practice and spend time assessing them.
How about you? What are your poor habits?
Are you brave enough to share them? How could you change them into rich habits?
Another lovely post Sam! I don’t write much about my daily life and your posts always get me thinking I should. I find yours so interesting!
I’ve conquered a lot of bad habits over the years, but one I always struggle with is getting to bed on time. It’s always 30-60 minutes later than I want it to be! I’ll keep working on it.
(And I had no idea Mr. Simple doesn’t know you blog! How in the world do you manage to keep that secret from him? I’m amazed!)
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Chrissy, glad you enjoyed the post. I have a few more from this book planned over the next few months so maybe you’ll find the answer to getting to bed on time. The queen of time management is Laura Vanderkam, so if you are looking for some help, one of her books might be useful. As for keeping my blog secret – I am lucky enough to have my own study. I hide myself away in here of an evening whilst he’s watching TV. I’ll probably tell him one day, but I’m not ready just yet.
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I also love Laura Vanderkam! I’ve only read one of her books though (168 Hours) and it was eye-opening. Some of her newer books sound great too. I just need to find the time to read them!
(PS Before I started my blog, I kept my blogging ambitions secret from my husband too. It’s a little scary revealing it to someone whose opinion you value, but who might not get it. So I understand why you haven’t told Mr. Simple yet!)
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