If you want to change a habit or behavior, you need to pay attention to your current routine and make a conscious effort to do something different. That may seem a little daunting, but you can break down this self-evaluation into three steps:
1. Track: Find a way to measure what you want to change. You need to discover your baseline before you can make realistic changes. Use tools like habit trackers and timers to figure out starting point. Don’t skip this step! We often overestimate or underestimate how often we do something or how long we spend on it. Gather data first.
2. Try: Decide what you can do and take action. Once you have an idea of your baseline, choose a concrete step to take. Try to keep this effort small! Make a plan and stick to it as best you can.
3. Tweak: Evaluate whether this effort made a difference and decide what to do next. Did your habit change the way you intended? If so, congratulations! If your baseline only changed a little, how can you tweak your new behavior to get the desired results? If not, what can you try instead? Make a new plan and continue tracking your habit.
These three steps don’t usually stand alone as a one-and-done list but act more as a cycle. You may tweak a habit, continue tracking it, and go on to try yet another variation. Or you may find your solution and then move on to track, try, and tweak a different habit.
Challenge:
This week, I challenge you to choose a habit on which to use the “track, try, and tweak” framework. Maybe you’ll measure how much time you spend on a specific task or how many days you do a particular activity over a specific period, but try to pick a single habit for the moment. Be aware that the tracking stage may take longer than this week, so this may be a longer-term project. Once you have enough data to decide, choose a way to alter your behavior. Continue tracking and tweaking your changes over time.