Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Gotta recommend probably my favorite book for staying on track: Atomic Habits by James Clear. It goes over a lot of methods described here, as well as so many other useful strategies. The author really breaks down how good habits are formed and reinforced, but also how bad habits can be broken. 10/10 ADHD Recommend

"atomic habits" might be helpful to you.

https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299

I'm not very good at being disciplined either -- you have to create systems where instead of relying on self-control, good behavior is automatic. For example, I get a phone notification when my next event is supposed to start, so my brain gets the signal that it's time to switch to the next task. I also have a regular 4:30PM alarm that's just a gentle reminder to not be doing anything stupid at that time, since I noticed late afternoon is when I start to drift off :)

The book Atomic Habits talks about using cues like this to grow better habits. I highly recommend it for anyone who has a tough time committing to good habits.

To those who are interested.. a book "Atomic Habits" by James Clear is amazing piece on how habits work and how to develop new healthy habits.

Try finding hobbies to replace this bad habit. A good one might be fishing. Read this book: Atomic Habits

It’s actually pretty interesting and helps you understand why you get addicted and form bad habits, and gives you reliable steps to stop. Good luck! Gaming is great, but getting 4-5 hours of sleep nightly is quite bad in the long run

In the words of Taylor Swift - it’s never too late to be brand new.

Also check out atomic habits

https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299

It’s seriously SO good! There are so so so many good ideas in there. Well written, quick page turner. Atomic Habits It’s about $17 on Amazon or in stores at Target. Or you can get it as an audio book for free probably using a free trial! (That’s what I did, and then ended up buying the book too because I wanted to reread and jot down notes.)

On that note, here's a great book on building habits:

https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299

Sure can! Enjoy :)

https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299/ref=nodl_

Reading a book now called “Atomic Habits”, by James Clear. The subtitle is:

“ An easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones”

I think it is an excellent book!

https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299

related: https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299

I read through this book on habits last year, and it has a lot of good advice. It's probably worth a read if you've got a little money burning a hole in your pocket.

Some tips for establishing good habits:

• Figure out a method of accountability. It's easy to push things out of your mind if they're always out of your sight. It could be as simple as making a paper checklist that you'll pass by regularly. I use an app on my phone called Strides that lets you set/track habits, pop up reminders, etc. Maybe get a friend to remind you about something daily.
• Set up rewards for getting something done. It can be something as simple as saying, "Once I finish cleaning the basement, then I can eat ice cream."
• Be specific about when you're going to do things. It's easy to say, "I'll write a paper" and then just never start. It's harder to put it off if you say, "I'll start writing that paper at 6 p.m."
• Break big projects down into more manageable tasks. This keeps them from seeming overwhelming. Then you can check them off as you go. Checking things off tends to be satisfying, and it let's you see progress.

Some tips for avoiding bad habits:

• Make bad habits harder to do. For example, you're less likely to eat junk food if you have to dig it out of your pantry closet than if it's just sitting on the kitchen counter.
• Figure out what triggers your bad habits, then eliminate the trigger. If the problem is you don't get enough sleep, why is that? If the problem is you stay up half the night reading silly stuff on Reddit, then maybe install some blocking or parental control program on your computer that shuts it down at midnight.

Perhaps this book can help you.

The reason why your attitude at home changes is that we are highly dependent on our immediate environment. You can't change that very easily. That's one of the reasons, people get new ideas while traveling.

You've taken a huge step already, being honest with yourself and wanting to stop spinning your wheels. Now the next step: read this book.

(I'm not affiliated with the author or publisher in any way. I think the answer you've reached out for may be in here. If not, what the heck, it's just a book.)

Read Atomic Habits! https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299

https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299

This one might be relevant. It was the first book to pop into my mind. Granted, I have not read it so I don't know if it is any good.

I just recently started reading the book Atomic Habits, and I think you would benefit from this, because it explains your behaviors to you. Your lifestyle is not unusual. But you are stuck in a trigger/reward cycle.

The book also outlines how to progressively improve your life. Scorched earth on everything is not the only option. Cutting out games is a good idea, but I am not sure if cutting off Internet browsing is realistic.

Anyway, check out the bock. It will lay out a plan much better than a reddit response.

https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3Q8D4BMSBL8TN&dchild=1&keywords=atomic+habits&qid=1603720379&sprefix=atomic+ha%2Caps%2C185&sr=8-3

She's great and her method got me out of a pretty big rut. This video with her is even better, I watch it every now and again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCHPSo79rB4

If you wanna change your habits (the only way to change your life that works really) read this guy https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299

I found a pdf of this book online, too tired at the moment but send me a pm if you want the link

Hey, as I was reading this, I felt “this is me”. A lot of us can relate. Unfortunately, given the immediate change caused by COVID, it is very easy for your psyche/routine/motivation to take a change for the worst. I asked for similar advice a while ago, and fortunately it got a lot of traction and a lot of good advice. I still find myself referring to it just for motivation and reassurance every once in a while. Bottom line, don’t beat yourself up about it, but try to pick up slowly where you left off. Don’t let lost days make you think “that’s it, no point”. That’s just your mind allowing you to give up. It’s hard. Motivation is hard. I really want to read Atomic Habits by James Clear but that also requires motivation 🤣🤣

Yup.

Ring fit adventure

Atomic habits for those who find themselves struggling with habbits.

Here's the thing - there are some good doctors and not so good doctors both in terms of their skills and how they handle patients. So it really comes down to your specific doctor.

That said, stop worrying about it now. First off, you are just increasing your anxiety for the appointment which is going to make you unhappy between now and then. If it happens, it happens, but no reason to get yourself worked up in anticipation during this period where it is not an issue.

Secondly, if you think someone crying at an appointment from a general question is the worst thing they've seen, I doubt it. Many have had to tell people or their family they have or may have cancer, are terminally ill otherwise, wipe up after people's messes, and all sorts of not fun stuff. A young gal who is struggling with some issues and sobbing is sad, and they will want to help you, but they aren't going to be feeling weird about it.

Finally, if you work on your anxiety and depression, along with your weight, it will help you to be happier and in turn more confident in general. Some of the SSRIs can cause various side effects, including increasing negative thoughts, especially in young people. Ideally you are seeing a psychiatrist and a therapist at the same time since the combo of drugs and therapy is statistically the most effective treatment.

My suggestion:

Lose weight. That is probably a touchy subject, but doing so will make you feel better about that part of yourself. Myfitnesspal and calorie counting worked well for me this year, I went from 197 to 172. (5'9) it isn't easy - and I have a metabolic issue left over from my cancer - and over time you can drift from sticking to it, but it does increase your awareness for things like how many calories a slice of toast or cheese has. You CAN do it and you CAN stick to it and you CAN start healing your mental state to get you less reliant on brain altering medications which have various side effects.

Then as you work on the other parts of your life, all these changes add up to be big changes.

Read this, or download the audiobook. It really helps you see how tiny good changes add up to great things, and how tiny bad changes compound.

https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1PGJUBCFUL4XJ&dchild=1&keywords=atomic+habits&qid=1601983506&sprefix=atomic+%2Caps%2C199&sr=8-1

You're young, you have your life ahead of you, and you want to take charge to be happy and make it the best you possibly can.

I'm saying all this from a perspective of knowing exactly what it feels like (to me, I don't know how you specifically feel) I was on something like 8-10 different meds for anxiety/depression, and it made the depression worse. I've cut them all out. the only one that worked was lithium carbonate, but it made my anxiety substantially worse so I couldn't take that.

Buspirone has been a game changer for me in terms of anxiety so I am on that now and may consider trying the lithium again.

I have cried in doctors offices. I've cried for no apparent reason sitting in my car in a parking lot. I've been told I have cancer, teated, then found metastasis multiple times, I have cried in front of my doctor whom I know pretty well once, a random doctor, a veterinarian, and I've fought back tears plenty of times. This is coming from a guy who almost never ever cried in his life.

I have a number of chronic medical conditions and it is not always easy, but I can either focus on those or focus on the fact that I can make life the best I possibly can and try to enjoy it. You can too.

Wish you the best!

Not a doctor.

Your post really hit home for me. I'm sorry for your pain and love your compassion for your Mom.

I was you 30 years ago but in college. I couldn't figure out what was going on. None of my old "tricks" worked. My study habits were non-existent and I was constantly behind and in panic mode. Here is what I recommend:

1. Be honest with your Mother so that she is looped in. Reading your post would be a great start.
2. Seek counseling for your depression; it really works. If you take anti-depression meds just know that they are only a crutch. A helpful crutch but not a panacea. You must do the work.
3. You are likely compounding problems by swinging your blood sugar from high to low. Fix your nutrition. Avoid carbs after 8 pm; add in fruits (with good fiber) and vegetables to your meals.
4. Exercise; even if its just a short walk. Exercise in the morning is even better (walk to school, take the dog out, run around the neighborhood). This will help to release tension, encourage proper sleep, and get you moving.
5. Understand that high school studies get much harder in Sophomore and Junior years.
6. Clean up your sleep hygiene. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every school night. Be reasonable on the weekends. Don't stimulate your self with video games within at least 90 mins of bed time.
7. Be nice to yourself. There are enough assholes in the world.
8. Being introverted (me too) is tough. Make time to interact with friends in person or online. (I took a job where I had to interact with the public and that helped a lot).
9. Schedule time to be off. Do something you enjoy or just zone out.
10. Read and apply this book https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299/ref=sxts_sxwds-bia-wc-drs1_0?cv_ct_cx=habits&dchild=1&keywords=habits&pd_rd_i=0735211299&pd_rd_r=99ebd405-b895-4f30-b544-9dcf602d3d95&pd_rd_w=mGd0X&pd_rd_wg=XgUPq&pf_rd_p=c33e4373-edb9-47f9-a7e6-5d3d6a7a4ad0&pf_rd_r=HAM494ERBCGB6Y1WYPXT&psc=1&qid=1607369360&sr=1-1-5e875a02-02b1-4426-9916-8a5c26cd5a14
11. Start small and shoot for consistency. Build on success.
12. Now is not forever. This shit sandwich is temporary. Only you can help yourself.

I hope this helps. Feel free to DM me.

This book is worth the read https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299

It's hard to find that motivation, but I'll tell you a secret: motivation is bullshit. The habit of just powering through is the real winner. James Clear's book helped me out a lot with developing that habit: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735211299

Good luck, you got this as long as you keep trying.

This book!

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https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299/ref=sxts_sxwds-bia-wc-p13n1_0?

Do you like books? This one can be magical:

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https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299

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Mind blowing insight and very good. Andre's method is great! The hard part is to do it and be consistent at it.

You should maybe have a mentor or someone that can support you in the next few months? Transition is the hardest part, when one want to change to the better or do something new.

I work as a personal trainer and as a security guard, while going to night school. I will end up either as a psychologist, a teacher or working in IT. I haven't decided yet.

I am mostly just talking from my own experience, as I had to learn from my mistakes. I came from relative poverty, and made lots of errors in my late teens and early twenties, wasted a lot of time. I always had to learn the hard way.

It's quarantine here, I got plenty of time.

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1. Your focus and time is limited. Write down a list of the few things that matters most to you. Stop paying attention to stuff that give you nothing in return; politics, drama, pointless crap, etc.
2. Google "stoic philosophy". Check out some youtube videos. I think it will do you a lot of good. Read "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius(It's a pretty short book).
3. Read/listen to the audiobook "Atomic Habits". This will give you the science of creating good habits. You might know all the theory, but how do you put this knowledge into practice? This book helped me a lot.
4. Eat healthy. Diet is very important. Stop eating candy, sodas and fast foods. Eat whole foods; veggies, fruits, clean meats, nuts, legumes and grains.
5. Eating blueberries have demonstrated in studies to improve memory. Perfect if you want to be at your mental best in school.
6. I know I already mentioned it, but get down right religious with your sleep schedule. It's the single best thing you can do for your health.
7. Work out. Lift weights, do cardio, train martial arts. It will improve your life in every aspect.

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You must take care of your health, your education, your career, your relationships.

"It gets easier. Every day it gets a little easier. But you got to do it every day. That's the hard part. But it does get easier"

Definitely anything by Cal Newport. Start with Deep Work. He also has a very useful [podcast].

You can't go wrong with Atomic Habits by James clear.

Also -- and I know you didn't ask for this -- look into memory techniques. A really great book to read is Moonwalking with Einstein. It's not really a how-to book -- it's extremely entertaining, but it does teach a lot of techniques. A shorter and more to-the-point book is The Memory Book. If you use these techniques you'll be way ahead of all of your peers.

1. Note down things you wanna try. Hobbies, new music genres, things you've never done before. Procrastinate but in a controlled and planned way, savor the "newness". Set a time and a date, spend 30 minutes on it. Then evaluate the experience and if you like it, repeat it. It could become a new hobby or even a vocation, and these are the best ways to get to know people and make friends.
2. Measure what you wanna change. Take cellphone use, for instance. Install an app that tells you how much time you spend on it, then try to commit to diminishing it little by little. Even from 8 h a day to 7 h and 58 minutes. Every little thing counts, just put a hard limit and be ready to enforce it. Congratulate yourself on the work well done.
3. Be ready for up and downs. Healing is a process, and it's gonna be hard to change. But the great warrior isn't the one who doesn't fall; it's the one who immediately stands back up. So have a plan to bounce back when you don't meet your own expectations.
4. Explore yourself. Rather than learning and being productive, I think introspection and knowing yourself is the biggest time investment you can ever make. Set aside some time to reflect: write on a diary, identify emotions, maybe meditate, answer one of the 50 questions to know yourself better, keep a Bullet Journal, whatever you like. This can sound odd, but trust me; introspection is the best procrastination possible. Besides, knowing yourself gives you great insight on what you want from your job, your future, your friends and relationships.
5. Pick only one major thing to work on at a time. Multitasking is impossible. When you say "yes" to one thing, you're saying "no" to any other possible thing. So, pick one: better sleeping, healthier eating, emotional intelligence, working out, becoming fluent in French. Devote a chunk of the day to this, every day, and be constante. One hour a day for 30 days straight is better than 15 hours for 2 days and then burnout.

I recommend that you also read Atomic Habits by James Clear to learn more about habits, Mindfulness by Mark Williams if you're up for some juicy meditation and peace of mind, or Finding your element by Ken Robinson if you're interested in digging up what you really want to devote your life to doing.

I wish you the best of luck in this adventure, dude.

I use a combination of Roam, Evernote, and Signal/WA for planning, information collection and organization, and knowledge production.

Information collection happens more often than not on Evernote first. Link dumps especially.

I also have added my own number in Whatsapp and Signal, so I can text myself ideas, pics, videos and links, which I then check and possibly incorporate somewhere in Roam later. Roam on mobile is so slow and unusable that I don't bother with it. But it's fine because I like to use my phone as little as possible.

With my company we use Clickup for project management, so my work tasks are there, but I also write them down in Roam.

Every morning I start with preparing my Daily Notes page where I have three separate bullet points: Productivity, Leisure, and #notes. First two are to-do lists. I have a GTD-style backlog page from which I drag tasks into the Daily Notes page, as well as drag over whatever I didn't manage to do yesterday, if needed.

Depending on the type of work I have to do during the day, sometimes I'm hands on assembling stuff (have a hardware tech company) the whole day without looking at Roam, sometimes I'm working on my laptop the whole day, designing, comms and literature research, in which case I rely on Roam a lot more.

I've been using Roam since late August and am still nowhere near to unlocking the full power of Roam or getting the perfect workflow running with it.

What I'm learning about now is the Zettelkasten method for information gathering and idea generation. Highly advise the book "How to take smart notes: ..." by Sönke Ahrens that does a really good job at practically explaining the Zettelkasten/slip-box method, and is very concise, no fluff. I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate it best in Roam that works for me.

Another Roam-related Zettelkasten writeup.

I don't have any getting started guides, I think the best way to start using Roam is to... wait for it... start using Roam. It's your own exobrain you're building, not mine or someone else's, so your system of organizing thought is going to be unique to yourself, otherwise it's not going to work for you. I think what's more important than a guide in Roam, is the ability to make using Roam a part of your daily habit. Especially initially when everything is still poorly defined and the structure/flow frequently changes. It might take a while until you settle on certain formats, and it's important to keep at it and not get discouraged. The same as learning any other new skill.

The power of keystone habits with Roam Research - nice article by Cortex Futura on chaining habits, where you hook a new habit you want to develop on an existing habit you've already developed by leveraging the delta feature in Roam. A wider implementation of this concept to every day life was written by James Clear in "Atomic habits".

You can also check out Tiago Forte's YT channel with the series "Tiago learns Roam".

For all keyboard shortcuts and tips, check out this site.

Hope this helps. You really just have to keep using it and developing your exobrain. Also follow Roam, Connor (CEO) and #roamcult on Twitter, there's a lot of interesting stuff being discussed and useful videos, demos, links and articles being shared frequently. You can learn a lot from those as well. Good luck.