"We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Will Durant
The most important posts about habits:-
- My habit system - I used all the information I'd gleaned from reading all the best books and resources on habit formation to create a "system" that I run through when trying to build habits.
- Why trying harder doesn't work - the fundamentals of willpower, why it's so valuable and why it's a poor strategy for habit building
- How to design your life to preserve willpower - by being mindful and understanding how our willpower becomes unnecessarily depleted on a daily basis can help us maintain self control and see things through to the end
All My Posts about Habit Formation:-
1000 Perfect Days – A Framework for Achieving Life Changing Results
A Practical Approach to getting out of a Negative Slump
So you're going through a patch where you feel completely demotivated to
The One Simple Daily Writing Habit that Changed my Life Completely
Why Meditate? What will you get out of it?
I've had people ask me why I'm trying to build meditation as
Developing the Habit of Seeing Things Through – How To Become a Finisher
Signs of Willpower Fatigue: How To Tell When You’re Burnt Out
If we know that willpower is a finite resource that we should
The Surprising Little Known Facts about The Real Cost of Decisions
How to Preserve Our Most Valuable Habit Building Asset – Willpower
In previous posts, I've described the strength model for willpower depletion (otherwise
How To Know if A Behavior is Habitual? Measuring Habits
All this talk about habits, but what actually is a habit?In simple
How Long Does it Really Take to Form a New Habit?
How to Be Prolific: A Look into the Mindsets of Prolific Creators
The one thing that really impresses me about someone is if they
Why Trying Harder is a Terrible Strategy – The Strength Model for Ego Depletion
This time you're not going to quit...It's new year's eve and you've
Showing Up Consistently and Using Brute Force
As I sit here and write this post, I'm experiencing resistance. I don't
How to Build Habits for Good – The Warrior Habits System
By taking the time to grasp a basic understanding of how our
Holding My Feet to the Fire...
I'm currently using the techniques that I talk about on this site to write daily, record a daily video, write a daily ritual and read. You can track my progress here. And here is my current habit system (regularly updated as changes occur!)
My Favorite Habit Building Resources
I keep the following list of books and online resources updated whenever I come across awesomeness:-
- The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg - one of my favorite books about habits. Must read.
- Behavioral change by BJ Fogg - Stanford professor with lots of amazing resources on behavior change and habit formation
- James Clear - one of my favorite writers on the subject of self development and habit formation. I recommend signing up and studying his free habit guide.
- Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney - one of the leading resources on willpower, what it is and how to preserve it.
- Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results by Stephen Guise - a nice procrastinating busting method of building habits by starting with really small commitments.
- The Now Habit by Neil Fiore - a great book about the psychology of procrastination and some practical tips you can use to resolve that with certain overlaps into habit formation.
- Cool presentation by Roy Baumeister - nice overview of willpower, signs of willpower depletion, and how to strengthen it.
- Finisher's Formula by Ramit Sethi - while this paid course is mainly about how to train yourself to see things through to the end, a lot of the material is about habit formation and includes a really awesome interview with Charles Duhigg, the author of "The Power of Habit".
Here is also a list of the best scientific studies on habit formation and willpower preservation.