A New Plan for Habit Progressions Part 3 - A New Hope

What I’ve done for the last 38 days is work solely on 750words.

My theory is that after the a rough patch and after the midpoint, things start their inevitable slide towards automaticity - this is a theory that runs counter to Lally’s research, and is something I’ll discuss later.

My new plan was to work solely on 750 words until after the midpoint, and then start a new habit, the theory being that after the midpoint the will needed to sustain a task becomes less and less. Two tasks overlap, but in the best way possible. The starting task is easy for a bit, and the previous task is approaching automaticity and taking less willpower.

I feel the change in 750 words now. I’ve streamlined the process using the book Self-Discipline in 10 Days and pegged it to a specific time i.e. as soon as I get up in the morning. I’ve taken the Automaticity Index questionnaire and it seems to corroborate my feelings - it is on it’s way to becoming a habit.

I chose working out as my next habit - specifically doing some form of kettlebell workout right after I finish my 750 words - and I started Day 1 this morning. This will be a long one - I’ve pegged it at a 125 day midpoint with an estimated 250 days before it becomes a habit. I’ll be streamlining the process like 750 words, and I’ll be taking notes on how much willpower it takes, it’s automaticity by taking the questionnaire, and how it interacts with my previous habit in the making. I’ll also be using fitocracy and a Google docs spreadsheet to keep track of it.

A New Plan for Habit Progressions Part 2 - Assessing Tasks

So I’m going to just attempt a rough estimate to peg ½ points of automaticity based on difficulty. I’ll divide my tasks into 3 levels
Easy - Reading (Goodreads), Daily meditation, flossing
Medium - Khan Academy course, Duolingo, 750 words
Difficult - Working out, eating right, not drinking alcohol or coffee, music

Flossing is a simple task, reading is something I like and do regularly anyways, and daily meditation is itself very simple and takes very little time.

Courses tend to take more energy from me - especially if they require homework, and 750 words though is enjoyable, sometimes takes a long time depending on the day

Working out is difficult even according to Lally’s data, as is eating right over time. Alcohol and coffee are such an easy thing to indulge in here and there because it tends to be cemented with socializing.

Two things I didn’t include are social events and quantifying my finances. Socializing is hard to start off, and I think it should be left until the end, especially since it’s often difficult to eat right - so it should be done after automaticity is achieved with that. And Finances….I have no idea how difficult that will be especially since initially it would be just a matter of observing my finances, not doing anything about them. So roughly speaking, I’ll rate the actions from 1 (easiest) to 10, then roughly rate the number of days to reach automaticity, and then half it.

Flossing - 1 - 18 days - 9 day midpoint
Reading - 2 - 30 days - 15 day midpoint
Meditation - 3 - 40 days - 20 day midpoint
Finances - 3 - 40 days - 20 day midpoint
750 - 4 - 50 - 25 day midpoint
Duolingo - 5 - 66 - 33 day midpoint
Khan Academy -  5 - 66 - 33 day midpoint
Music - 7 - 100 - 50 day midpoint
Not drinking coffee/alcohol - 10 - 250 - 125 day midpoint
Working out - 10 - 250 - 125 day midpoint
Eating Right - 10 - 250 - 125 day midpoint
Socializing - ?

I’ll have to take into account that these numbers may change as I evaluate them with the automaticity index.

A New Plan for Habit Progressions Part 1

So in light of feeling the brunt of all these attempts at habit formation, I’ve stepped back and tried to look at a better plan based on all the stuff I’ve been reading.

So here’s my theoretical framework: If self discipline is one deplete-able resource, and if automaticity is when an action approaches an asymptote of 0 willpower, then the best way is to have a slowly unfolding progression of new actions taking over as the first action slides towards that asymptote.

For example, if drinking a glass of water before breakfast takes 18 days to form into a habit, then I’d want to start another habit at some point past the mid point where the slide to full automaticity is underway.

I’m assuming, perhaps erroneously, that tasks take a certain amount of willpower on day 1, and start getting harder as the “streak” of sustaining the habit continues as days go by. This certainly is true for my own personal attempts. Going to the gym is easy on day 1 or 2, but it gets more and more difficult to continue the streak of days (obviously there are some random days where it’s more or less difficult).

Given the above, and given that different tasks take different amounts of times to reach automaticity, then it makes sense to start Habit 1 until the midpoint of automaticity, then start Habit 2 until it reaches ITS UNIQUE midpoint, etc. This way the process of automaticity itself shoulders the brunt of sustained will - rather than how I’ve been doing it now - which is simply adding tasks 1 week later regardless of their difficulty or willpower expenditure.

So now the question is, how do you establish midpoints? I do not want to test each task, so what I’ll do is ball park it using Lally’s experiment - I’m assuming that tasks that take the least willpower will take the quickest to form into habits and the ones that take more will take longer.

So with Lally’s data, I can estimate that easier tasks will take 18 days, middle of the range will take 66 days, and the most difficult will take 250 days - I’ll divide each to peg the midpoint, and estimate the variations between tasks that I’ve already labeled as Easy, Medium, and Difficult.