Building up habits

It's hard to start new things.

But it's not so hard to attach something new to something that you already do.

For instance, I've had some problems with acne since I was a teenager. This is a little personal, but I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I'm well into my 30s and issues with my skin aren't fully settled. So, some nights I have a special solution I put on my skin to dry up pimples.

That's an easy thing to forget. Life creeps in, we get busy, and it's easy to miss the simple things. I also don't want to add it as a todo item on my task list—my goal is to shrink the list throughout the day, not eternally add to it.

Some days I've put the note on Things 3: Remember to put on the zit cream (or some variation of that), but then my task list just sort of fills up and it's one more thing to think about; and I don't really need to worry about it till right before bed.

So I've found a simple solution.

I put the container for my acne onto of my Qi phone charger. That means there's no way to charge my phone at night without moving the container, and remembering that I needed to use it. Same thing with vitamins. I'll put them on top of my charger.

Then, my brain knows the task is handled, and I'll remember it at the right contextual time.

That's such a simple example, but it's nice to have little tricks that work outside my daily todos, habits, and other systems.

Whenever I'm trying to figure out whether to add something new to my life, I try to see if it's worth creating as a whole new task, or whether it can attach onto something else I'm already doing. The software that we're working on has a similar benefit.

It's a tool that I'll ultimately use for publishing, so each day when I sit down to write I've got an opportunity, and a reminder, to interact with the tool.

Also, don't stress things too much. Life is short and long. There's so much we want to do, but sometimes it's ok to take a break, and focus on other things.