Time Management: Developing Habits

I write for Time Management for iPad Magazine, an authority on Time Management. This link takes you to Issue 12, which includes an article I wrote on developing habits. Here is an excerpt:

“Old habits are hard to break. New habits are hard to keep. This is because habits are conditioned actions that are worn into a person’s physiology after a great many repetitions. Think, for example, when you are driving your car and you have an experienced driver riding with you in the passenger seat. This person will involuntarily move their right foot in a braking reflex at the moment he/she determines a need to brake, even though, consciously this person knows that you are the one actually in control of the car.”

“In addition to repetition, a habit also needs a reason to exist; something has to make it worthwhile. If you noticed one day that there was a fifty dollar bill taped to the streetlamp pole near your house, you would probably think it was your lucky day. If it happened a second time, you would think it strange, but pleasant. After third and fourth time, your habit of walking would change in terms of route or timing in anticipation of seeing a daily financial bonus attached to the post. The day it stops happening, you will feel disappointment, but the urge to continue walking this route will last for a long time afterwards, because in addition to repetition, habits are supported through positive reinforcement…”

To read more, please click here.