I have challenged myself and tried creating new habit by following Forbes 21 Days Myth – Habit Formation.
My goals were:
- Sleeping early and waking up early
- Listen to motivational videos/podcast every morning
- No social media upon waking up
- Read everyday
1. Creating New Habit – Sleeping early and waking up early
I am a certified night owl, evening person or insomniac. However, you want to call it I am that type of person. I used to sleep at 2:00-3:00am and wake up at 6:00am for work. I even tracked my sleeping pattern previously and noticed a 3-4 hours rest time every day for the past year.
WHY? Why do I stay up late?
First of all I noticed that I do spend a lot of time on social media ever since I started blogging. Before blogging, I didn’t have Instagram & Twitter account and I rarely open my facebook account. The only social media I use will be Pinterest and YouTube. Yes, Youtube is a social media platform, based on my google research.
I used to spend almost roughly 10 hours of screen time on a weekday and more on a weekend. This comprises of 30% Instagram, 15% Twitter, 10% Pinterest and 45% Youtube. This as you know is how I end up wasting my time being unproductive.
HOW? How did I convince myself to change?
There was a time where I kept having headache and migraine whilst at work ,which I thought was due to working in front of a computer for 8 straight hours. However, I did not take into consideration that I am also in front of a screen (laptop and phone) when at home.
My sleep was my biggest worry. I often wake up tired, cranky and moody. It did reflect at work, and most of my colleagues were at the receiving end of my mood swings. My performance was going downhill as my output was declining and I often forget important dates. My mind was a mess and I can’t seem to focus and my drive was completely at a loss.
Then I came across a blog post from Forbes about ‘Habit Formation: The 21-Day Myth‘ and thought why not try it and document it. I also came across a YouTube video ’10 Billionaires Habits You Can copy Try it for 21 days’ by Be Inspired.
RESULT
I forced myself to get in the bed at around 10/11pm and play either a calm music in the background or play a movie video that I already have watched before. Despite getting in the bed earlier than my usual, I was only able to get at least 5 hours or more of sleep on the first few days.
After 5 days of tracking my progress, and following the same repetitive routine, it made creating a new habit easy and manageable. As a result I was able to get 7 hours of undisturbed sleep. This would not have been successful have I not kept track of it and followed a consistent and repetitive routine.
In the long run however, I can confirm that this did not work for me. I got back to my old ways of having less than 7 hours of sleep. Currently looking at other ways to create a habit that would last.
2. Creating New Habit – Listen to Motivational videos/podcast every morning
This was one of my favourite new habit that I have formed. Listening to strong motivational videos to start up your day is like having coffee or energy drink in the morning, if you do not drink any of those just think about having a sudden rush in your blood that makes your brain and heart excited for the day.
Motivational Videos account to follow on Youtube
I have been following ‘Be Inspired‘ on Youtube and they have various motivational videos that can run from 5 mins to 30 mins or more. ‘MotivationHub‘ and ‘Fearless Soul‘ are also great accounts to subscribe to on Youtube. I used to watch 30 mins however moved down to watching 5 – 10 mins video every morning as this gives me ample time to have breakfast and do my usual morning routine.
Motivational Podcast account to follow
I have started listening to podcasts (again) whilst driving to work and have enjoyed listening to The Influencer Podcast, The Solopreneur Hour and Become a Pro Blogger podcast. Most of these podcast account have discussed how creating a new habit can lead to success in the future.
RESULT
As I enjoyed watching and listening to motivational videos this became second nature to me after 21 days of tracking my progress. However after 3 months and having stopped tracking my progress I now only watch them if I need a bit of a boost on my day. On the other hand, listening to podcasts on my way to work successfully became a new habit of mine.
I can confirm that amongst all 4 new habits that I have tried, this one worked in the long-term.
3. Creating New Habit – No social media upon waking up
I am one of those people who check their phones when they wake up. I do use my phone as an alarm so that naturally leads me to checking my social media. However, I have noticed that every time I open my social media, my morning routine ends up taking longer. This is because I need to constantly scroll (Instagram), and when I come across an interesting post or update I tend to get curious and look at other posts of that particular account.
Sometime I also go through YouTube searching for the perfect video that would match my mood whilst I do my morning routine, this often takes 5 minutes, yes 5 minutes of just browsing. This adds up as time flies and limits the amount of time I have left for getting ready to work.
What to do instead of checking up on social media?
Things to do instead of checking social media would be taking the first 5 minutes to manifest positivity and tell yourself today will be a good day, or simply just be still.
I am a believer of always having breakfast before going to work. Hence, I always allow enough time for breakfast, and don’t rush eating breakfast as this can result to indigestion. I eat breakfast because I have come across a book called ‘Only fat people skip breakfast: The refreshingly different diet book‘ by Lee Janogly. This book discussed how creating a new habit of eating breakfast helps you avoid overeating and stress eating for the rest of the day. I do recommend this book if you are looking for a book that talks about dieting.
Disclaimer: The book ‘Only fat people skip breakfast: The refreshingly different diet book‘ by Lee Janogly is not about body shaming.
RESULT
You get to do more when you stop wasting 5-10minutes on social media in the morning. I tried to log how may times I was successful in not checking social media as I woke up and noticed that when I don’t check social media, I always had enough time to spare. However, when I open social media and got carried away minding other peoples business I always seem to be rushing out of the house and catching up on my journey.
I can confirm that when I did this challenge, it was not easy at first but then it gradually became natural days after. In the long term however I can confirm that I do still check my social media as soon as I wake up. This only shows how sometime when you break your momentum your old ways can easily creep back into your routine.
4. Creating New Habits – Read everyday
Reading does not necessarily mean reading a book this can be newspaper, articles on a magazine, kindle or even audiobook. This is basically allowing 5-10 minutes of your day to get immersed into one particular book or article. Avoiding distraction and multi-tasking is what I was trying to achieve by creating this new habit.
Honestly I can only remember reading Ladybird Books and books published by Penguin Books when I was young. When I was in secondary school I enjoyed reading self-help books (up till now) and romantic comedy fiction books (Sophie Kinsella mainly). When I started working after graduating from University, I enjoyed reading articles about career, finance, business and lifestyle.
Best app to store all the contents you would like to visit when you have time
There is an app called ‘Pocket‘ which stores and saves contents from everywhere. All the contents saved can be reviewed back even when you have not got internet connection.
RESULT
Reading a book, an article, a novel or whichever reading material you name it, helps sharpen brain and increase your concentration and focus. If you would like to know more about the benefits of reading, I have come across TheHealthy.com website and found their articled about reading really interesting. Click here.
During my 21 day challenge I was able to successfully ready everyday for 5-10 minutes after work. It was not easy on my first day as I was used to doing multiple things at the same time. But reading alone without music or background noise and not doing anything else made me anxious that I might be wasting my time. However I realised that adding instrumental music on the background did helped me focus on what I was reading.
In the long run I can confirm that I am unable to carry-on with this new habit. It lasted 3 months though after doing the 21 day challenge. This is because I have found a new hobby and created a new habit that also helps sharpen my brain and increase my creativity. This is another topic though.
Overall, I have found that challenging yourself once in a while helps you understand how your brain works. Training your mindset to be disciplined and focused requires a lot of patience and will power. If you are able to stick within your set routine and keep yourself in check, creating a new habit would have been easy.
Hope you find this topic about ‘Creating a New Habit’ interesting. Have you tried a different method on how to create a new habit? If so, please share them in the comment section below.
If you’ve missed my previous post please click the links below
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