Habits

I'm a little free after all, in the sense that I can finally start getting back on track, which I've deviated a lot due to unavoidable things turning up every now and then. If I'm trying to stick to a schedule which will exponentially increase my health and productivity then I will really need some time alone with myself to get everything right and straight.

In the last few weeks, whenever I've begun and tried to continue a schedule, some or the other thing has caused me to deviate from my schedule which causes me to start everything from scratch—I'm trying to establish habits which once done correctly will be hard to not stick to, but to turn a certain action into a habit, it needs to be done consistently over a sufficient period of time till it gradually gets solidified as a habit. With me? I have followed something for a few days and every time something else has popped up to break the process—just like the last three days completely reset all my progress.

My major exams are done with, and I'm through my cousin's wedding too, so now I'm really at peace to start doing some stuff. My current schedule is one which is fully erratic. I sleep at odd times, wake up at odd times, I eat at odd times and I haven't been working out too—something I need to incorporate back into my life. So, I'm really not getting a lot of things done or using my day to the fullest. I'm aiming for that feeling of utmost satisfaction every night while sleeping after a long productive day with a lot of things completed and ticked off from my to-do list, and for getting that I'll have to form habits which will align with my intentions.

Habits are extremely powerful mechanisms we can exploit to transform us in the desired way. Once a certain action has been turned into a habit, then even if you want to, you won't be able to shake it off easily. Habits, if used correctly, will accelerate your growth and also increase the quality of your output but habits can also be destructive—people who have a habit of drinking every day, even if they want to break free or miss one day will end up preserving their already long streak. It's a habit they have cultivated and they will stick to it. So, how am I planning to improve myself and via which habits? I'll go through all of that, keep reading ahead.

Today was yet another random day and I'm not quite happy with how it unfolded. I woke up late, I haven't even showered yet and I'm past my lunchtime without feeling hungry. All these little mismatches will amplify and decrease my productivity overall today. I may get fewer things done and I'll have that constant thought poking me in the back of my head that I could have gotten a lot more done today than I did.

I've got to fix things, correct these mismatches; get a schedule and stick to it to increase my daily output, to get a lot of things done in a relatively short time. For all I know, there's a lot to be done and there isn't much time. Also, it is difficult to incorporate all the changes the very next day. A lot of experimenting needs to be done and I'll have to try several things initially. I've to see where I need to focus more and make sure I get more of that done each day.

What if I establish a habit of waking up early? Then even if I try to, I won't be able to oversleep or feel sleepy any longer than I am supposed to. The first thing on my list, I'll begin with fixing up my sleep cycle. I know it's funny that though I have written an article preaching on waking up early, I myself am not following it currently. I have grown to like waking up early and getting a head start. That's really an amazing way to get started every day and ensures higher motivation and productivity throughout the day. Whenever I wake up early and after getting ready, quickly get to my work or stuff, I feel a lot better and motivated to do it. I also finish all the tasks instead of leaving them for later.

While after waking up late, I mess everything up. I skip my breakfast, I have milk when I was supposed to have my lunch and I have lunch when I was supposed to have afternoon snacks—so you see, everything is pushed ahead and by the time I get all those things done, It's quite late in the night and I feel lazy to get anything done. Also, the following night, I'd have trouble falling asleep and I'd fall into a vicious cycle of unproductivity, laziness and procrastination. I can't emphasize any more on how crucial an early morning head start is.

I better re-read my article Everything You Need to Know on How to Wake up Early and ensure that I get the head start I need. My sleep cycle will have six and a half hours of core sleep beginning at 12 at night and I'll add two naps of thirty minutes each at twelve in the noon and six in the evening. That amounts to about seven and a half hours of quality sleep. I have structured my cycle so that I can later change it to a polyphasic sleeping routine comfortably. After getting only six and a half hours of sleep, I'll feel sleepy in the morning hours initially, and so the thirty-minute nap at twelve will help me refresh for the next waking slot which will begin with lunch. After lunchtime, the nap at six is designed to refresh me for the slot later.

After getting into the habit of waking up early and at a fixed time and taking naps at those before mentioned times, I will move on to a polyphasic sleeping schedule. I know, I've used it like twice now without explaining what it is—it is just sleeping in multiple sleeping slots. It basically has to do with having multiple short naps per twenty-four hours so that I eliminate unnecessary sleeping stages and prioritize the essential ones. As a consequence of the same, I will be focusing on quality of sleep and not the quantity, which will free up a lot of time for me to get even more things done—to be exact, I'll sleep for only two hours per twenty-four.

Don't get too excited. I know polyphasic sleeping sounds like the holy grail or the ultimate body hack, but there are a lot of things, challenges you need to take care of otherwise it'll take a toll on your health. If the adaptation isn't done correctly, it'll be one hell of a schedule to maintain. My suggestion? Stick to your normal monophasic sleeping schedule but you can begin with waking up early. That's a good start. I'll explain polyphasic sleeping in a later post, probably after I myself get polyphasic (I've been polyphasic only for a short period).

For those of you claiming that they already do wake up early, I'll tell you if you sleep for late on Sundays, then you're really not doing it right. Yes, you heard me—you have to wake up at the same time every day regardless of the day and only then you'll be able to take advantage of it as a habit. For any habit to form, you need to be consistent for a certain period of time—some research says for about 21 days. My take? Do it for 30 days in a row. That's better and will definitely ensure that you've got a solid habit and not a hollow one.

How does the experience differ? If waking up early is a habit then you won't need any alarm clock. Your body will naturally wake you up at your desired time, and you'll feel fresh right after you open your eyes. Even if you try to, you won't be able to sleep in any longer—you will have fully woken up. But, if you have consistently woken up at a fixed time throughout the week and fail to wake up at that time on Sunday, then, congratulations—for your entire week's grind gets flushed down the toilet. I bet it won't be as easy to get up the following day.

So, start with a 30 day trial of waking up at a fixed time. You'll really be surprised with the results. And yes, your overall energy levels will actually increase and you'll feel a lot better—for those of you who have this certain excuse for Sundays that they need extra sleep so that they can recharge themselves for the following week. Begin small; begin with fixing up your morning ritual.

The next thing on my list is definitely going to be working out. These days, whenever I think of working out, I'm either too hungry or too full to do it or the time isn't right. So, I have figured out that after getting a stable schedule, it will be easier to time it all and get some exercise every day. I will also tell you that having regular exercise as your habit will turn out very beneficial for you in the long run because if only you have health, can you enjoy success, money or whatever that it is. Working out every day will also keep you fit and in good shape in the long run—not to forget that it will decrease the risk of countless health issues coming complimentary with an ageing body. Also, exercising has some positive effects on sleep quality too—it gets easier to fall asleep at night.

My suggestion? Incorporate some form of exercise in sufficient amounts into your life, and make sure it is in the earlier part of the day—any form of exercise increases the body temperature and heartbeats and doing that few hours prior to sleep will disrupt your ability to fall asleep instead of aid it.

So far, I've talked about waking up early, which is like the skeleton to a happier and productive life, while daily exercise comes under health. What next? Wealth. How to make wealth your habit? While you can't make being wealthy as such a habit, but you can have habits which will make you wealthy. How does that work? It surely does when you invest in yourself—you sharpen your abilities or expand your sphere of skills or knowledge which fetches you wealth. Wealth is what you receive in exchange for the service or value you provide. If you improve your service or the value you are providing, then that will fetch you more wealth. Now, how does it tie up with habits? Make habits which will help you to improve the quality of your service or value.

For me, I want to establish a habit of reading something every day. I wish to always keep learning, I wish to make that a habit. These days, I am reading all the blogs of a particular blogger: Steve Pavlina, and I want to read each and every blog he has posted. He writes about self-help and personal growth and also does experiment a lot—things I have interest in myself. I have one more blogger's entire blog left to read—Mark Manson this time, the Author of an amazing book: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. Really, you should go and read that book. That book provides a very unique perspective on life and will completely alter the way you deal with things now. After reading that book, I felt a compelling drive from within which lead me to his blog.

Quite to say, I've got a several hundred, if not thousands of articles to read. I better make it a habit to read daily, otherwise how else am I supposed to catch up?

Not just articles but I also have a lot of books pending to read, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change by Charles Duhigg being the book I am currently reading. It is all about how do you break toxic habits and cultivate ones which can help you transform your life. It's been a wonderful read so far—definitely worth reading, and it has also helped me realize that the secret to a higher quality of life lies in your habits. Look at habits as your biological programs which initiate at a set time and carry out a said task, which can build you up or destroy you. Constructive habits will construct you into a better person while destructive habits will make things worse in the long run.
Here are their blogs:

• Steve's Blog
• Mark's Blog

This was my example. In your case, you have to identify what you need to do. Maybe increase your knowledge in your field? Know more ways of getting a particular job done? Whatever that helps you to really step up your level—for learning should never cease and is something which will not even go to waste. It will help you one day in ways you would have never imagined and if you are providing value or a service that people will benefit from, then it will also fetch you some money.

Happiness next. Not directly, because it is rather complex. It is not as simple as what all we've covered so far. There are various factors responsible for it—physical, financial and the one which I will now cover: mental. You will be happy if your physical, financial and mental health is doing well. Your mental health is as important as your physical health is, and taking care of all three aspects I've put down so far will make sure that you will be happier than you are right now.

How do habits play a part here? Well, this section will need breaking of certain habits more and less of creating new ones. The so-called social networks we use, though they might seem to connect people and also have the word "social" aren't as fulfilling as they might seem. You might be an online celebrity with millions of followers on various social sites and you might also be indulging in a lot of texting and what not, but the truth will remain that you're all lonely by yourself, staring and spending time with your phone and not an actual human being. You will, of course, have certain issues piled up deep within and won't be as happy as it may sound online.

We humans have evolved so far for face to face communication. A major chunk of our communication is indirect and via body language, facial expressions, touch and eye contact. Actual spoken and direct communication is surprisingly less. When we spend more time socializing over Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media, we deprive our brains of these essential stimuli or indicators of actual 'social' exchanges and as a result, our brain reports 'social' deficiency, which we fail to acknowledge since social media keeps us under the false impression that we are getting enough of socialization, while in reality, we're getting deficient of it. This deficiency may result in mental health issues like depression, anxiety and loneliness—again, preventing you from living the best life you wanted to, or enjoying every passing moment.

Instead of spending time with your smartphone (yeah, plenty of smartphones do we have. Time to have smarter people), spend time with actual people. Hold actual conversations and discussions—I'll tell you that they are a lot more interesting and fun. I have completely gotten myself off of social medias—I use a few, majorly to promote my blog and other articles and I also avoid any conversations online and from my experience and what all I have learned so far, sometimes profiles online don't seem real to me, even though they are. I don't see texting someone the same way as really conversing with them, it's more like I'm talking to a chatbot configured to answer like them—for all I know, the person I'm texting could not even be real. So, though social media might be connecting us in one way, they are really disconnecting us in several others.

We should spend more time conversing and enjoying the present moment with people who are around us, and not people who might not even exist. Especially when you are at home, do you talk more with your family, or are all of you busy texting other chatbots?—completely oblivious to people, real people around you. Then what about people who live far? Friends and relatives? Meet them or call them instead of texting them. You can exchange photos and everything via the social media, maybe even video call every now and then but don't let that be a substitute to actually seeing or conversing with them.

During my childhood, there weren't as such many social media, I didn't even have an internet connection back then. I used to call my friends or we used to meet. Life was still possible and even making friends. But today, when I was deep into social media, the calling function in my phone was basically useless. I hardly met anyone and never even called much—texting took over all forms of communication.

Conclusion? Spend more time with real people—make it a habit to meet people at least during the weekends and have fun together, not considering work related meets. Do control your social media usage—you're wasting a lot of productive time there and also creating a lot of 'social' deficiency. Call people instead of texting them, use your messengers and all to exchange pictures or other multimedia.

Finally, create a balance between all the three things we have discussed so far. Take care of your physical, financial and mental health and discover a happier, successful, and a lot more productive you. Wherever you are, and wherever you will go depends solely on you. You have to take the initiative, you have to put some efforts to get started and I'll tell you—the rewards will come flooding in your life.