The Habits That Keep Me Sane
TL;DR;
Habits are important. If you want to build the life you want to build, make sure you are making the right small decisions every day.
Habits
Not long ago I read the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. You have likely heard of this book before as it is one of the most popular personal development books out there. As you probably guessed from the title, this book is all about the power of habits and makes the declaration that your life is based on many small decisions, habits, rather than major, life changing decisions. While this is a great book that I would highly recommend to anyone, my relationship with habits started several years ago when I first read “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy. This book discusses the massive impact that small changes, compounded over time (hence the book title), can make a difference in your life. The author uses the example of an airplane leaving Los Angeles and heading for New York City, if the nose is off by just 1%, the plane will end up 150 miles off course and arrive in Albany, New York or Dover, Delaware! These are great books to read, but what is the point of reading them without following that reading up with some kind of implementation?!? That is what I want to talk about here: what are the habits that I try to follow every week to keep me sane.
I would categorize my habits into two buckets: habits I consciously track and habits I just do automatically. For several reasons, I will primarily focus on the habits I am currently tracking. Many of these habits are tied to personal or professional goals. These goals can range in timelines, from 6 months to 25 years. This is a practice I would highly recommend if you are trying to achieve a specific goal: what are you going to do every day/week/month, to reach those life/annual/quarterly goals. It is much easier to fit a 30 minute activity into each day than fit a 6 hour activity into a quarter, at least for me! All the following habits are tracked in an app called TODO, which I pay for because the free version only stores so many apps at once, plus, if I do well at implementing these habits, the app should pay for itself in the long term (in theory).
Habits:
Take vitamins every day
Ever since I turned 30, and the suggestion of my health-conscious wife, I have started taking multi vitamins. I don’t feel a lot different, but it is supposed to be good for you.
Read 30 minutes every day
Reading has been a big part of my life since college (funny enough I didn’t like reading until after college). This is perhaps the biggest part of my personal development in technology, business, leadership, and faith.
Journal every day
You have probably heard the benefits of journaling more than you probably want to by this point. I have enjoying spending a few minutes every day to just jot down some thoughts and feelings. While I don’t know if this really helps me in any meaningful way, it is very likely just like many goals in which you cannot tell you are making progress day by day, but something that compounds and you end up in a much better state of mind after building the habit.
Work on side project of some kind every day
This can be many different things: working on this blog, working on a side business for an appliance store, or building something for personal use in a new technology. The primary goal is to continue to learn and grow as a professional developer and leader.
Daily devotional every day
My faith is important to me, and this goal makes sure that I plug into the Holy Spirit every day. I need to focus on the most important thing to me every day, and that is what this if for.
Get 200 grams of protein every day
I am currently working on building as much muscle mass as I can and protein is the most important part of that. I have struggled with my diet for a long time and this is probably the most difficult daily habit to hit every day.
Workout 4 times per week
As I mentioned above, I am trying to put on a lot of muscle mass. But getting huge is not the only thing I workout for. I can tell I feel better on the days that I workout, so it definitely has a positive impact on my mental health. It also improves my energy levels throughout the day.
Do something special for my wife 3 times per week
My marriage is important, and as life gets more and more busy, I need to continue to connect with my wife. This might seem odd to put on this list, but I really want my wife to know that she is important to me, so whether it taking the girls for a bit so she can relax, a coffee from her favorite coffee place after she didn’t sleep well, or a back rub after a long day, this is how I can strengthen my relationship with my most important partner.
As you can see I have a mix of physical health, mental, and spiritual goals throughout every week. Nearly all of these goals can be tied back to either a) an annual goal I am shooting for or b) shaping me into the person that I want to become.
I would highly recommend that everyone have some type of habit tracker! This doesn’t have to be a paid app. It could be a notepad by your desk, a spreadsheet on your computer, or check marks tattooed on your butt! Not only do these goals give me a little win every day, but it helps me know that I am making the right decisions to build the life that I want to build.