You may have had a good habit, maybe even for a long time, and though it was good for you, you stopped doing it. Something happened that led to you dropping the habit. How do you recover lost habits?
Re-commit
Don’t just say “Oh, I’ll get back to it,” or, “I wish I was doing that again.” Draw a line in the sand!
If you want to run a mile but can’t find the motivation, have a friend drive you a mile from your house and kick you out of the car. Burn the bridge back to that unproductive behavior, and re-commit to your own personal Rubicon.
There are lots of healthy habits to acquire; walking outdoors, saving money, and cooking meals at home are all great ideas. But I have a list of eight non-negotiable daily habits that everyone benefits from. Identify the ones you’d like to start, and use our Practical Tips to Start a New Habit to incorporate them into your life!
8 Non-Negotiable Daily Habits
1. Get up at the same time each day. When you wake up at the same time each day, you train yourself to sleep better. Having a daily wakeup time helps start your day off right.
Imagine this: It’s a Friday night, and you want to cook, but your sink is full of three-day-old dishes and Tupperware from lunches this week—yuck! You know it would be better to keep on top of your dishes every day so the kitchen is clear whenever you want to use it, but how do you start a new habit like that? Instead of hoping you magically achieve perfect dish discipline overnight, use these techniques to build a solid habit.
This book explains the science behind habits, and why we do what we do. It’s a great resource for learning about what habits are, and how to build them.
What’s the best way to maintain a new habit? Whether you’re training for a marathon, want to keep better track of your finances, or want to start eating an apple a day, new habits need some maintenance, or they won’t stick. There are several ways to do this, including:
Use a habit tracker
There are many ways to track your new habit. You can make your own with a sheet of graph paper, or there are resources like this free printable habit tracker from Organize to Excel that you can download.
Of course there are also lots and lots of apps to choose from! Some are free like HabitShare, an app that lets you share your habits with friends, and some are paid like Streaks, which features reminders and statistics and comes in at $4.99.
When you think about organizing with teens, you may want to close the door and ignore everything. (Just kidding! But, really, give yourself a break.) But if you help them take ownership of their space by giving them storage options and create a compelling “why,” you’ll have a much easier time.
Create a compelling “why”
Remember being a kid? How annoying was it to have a chore mandated with no explanation? Instead of using “Because I said so,” work with your child to come up with a good reason (or reasons) why they should clean their room. Maybe they want to be able to find the Lego they want instead of hunting for it in a huge, messy pile. Maybe they want space in their room to swing a sword around, or to have a cozy reading nook.
Ask them! “What do you want to be able to do in your room that you can’t do when it’s messy?”
Getting their input and finding out their reason to organize will not only help motivate them to take responsibility for their space, but you might also learn about an interest you didn’t know they had!
