The Habit.

For the last few months I have been using a Habit Chart to start good habits. It looks like this.

This chart is helping to cut down my wasted efforts (time in front of the TV or playing mindless timewasters) and encouraging me to spend time on the things I actually want to do.

What I've done is broken down my life - all the things I want to be better at - into seven responsibilities. Every time I do something to fulfill that responsibility, I fill in a vertical rectangle with the date and squiggles. By the end of the month you have what amounts to a primary-schooler's impression of a bar graph.

This chart gives me the incentive to do the daily grind that it takes to form good, lasting habits.

Going back to a previous braindump about the Success Circle, being successful at something is a habit borne of practice - every day. It doesn't matter how much you accomplish of the task, as long as you regularly, consistently practice at it. Quality in any discipline is 90% perseverance.

It can be incredibly easy to put off practice. I would know, I have an entire misspent youth of experience to back that up. The problem with putting off practice is that the procrastination itself becomes a habit.

When you put it off for one day, another day won't hurt.
And then another day turns in to a couple more.
And a couple more becomes a week.
Then one more week. And before you know it, you've spent a month without a single instance of practice.

It was important for me to include personal responsibilities to the list. Being a good father and a good husband is pivotal to having a stable environment to let me work on other things. And it takes a lot of work to fulfill those responsibilities. This chart keeps me accountable not only to myself, but to others that rely on me to pull my weight.

Now I have a way to look at how I've spent my time, and know which areas I can use some more practice to make a lasting habit of.

-Anthony