Do you ever feel inspired by someone’s story or eager to try something new based on someone’s experience? When I want to learn and try new things, I sometimes go from feast to famine mode. When I am enthusiastic about something new, I want to learn everything and do it right away. That is fine when you have no dinner plans and want to try a new restaurant you heard about but when it comes to daily routines and habits, there are only 24 hours in a day and most of that is usually for sleeping & working. When reading a new book or listening to a podcast, they often have a lot of helpful and practical information that can help you start many life-changing habits. But after a while, you can get overloaded with information or tired of trying so many things before you even know if they are working or not. I then go into famine mode and stop learning or trying anything new to give my brain a rest. To avoid going to either extreme, I have had to systematically Identify, Adopt and Adapt new things to try and get similar results that may have inspired me in the first place.
1) Identify the specific task/habit/strategy you want to try out.
I was a night owl before. I had stressful mornings because I would stay up late to finish things that I could not do during the day, and I would usually wake up to my daughter coming into the room or my wife’s alarm clock (since she has an earlier workday). I admired the early risers I heard about in books and podcasts who did a lot of things before the sun came up, while I would try to do them right before sleeping. After hearing enough examples of that, I was sure that it was something I needed to do if I ever wanted to get more things done. I didn’t have a plan, but I wanted to give it a try and see if it could work for me, so I wrote down what I wanted to do and why I thought it was worth trying.
2) Adopt fully the specific task/habit/strategy you want to try out.
I was aware that rising early would be hard so I had to make sure I could stick to it for several weeks and not just for a day or two. I chose a time when I could afford to sleep in a bit more than usual, which was during my vacation between Christmas & New Years. I decided to wake up at 4:00am for 2 weeks.
3) If it works for you, Adapt the specific task/habit/strategy into your life for the long term.
After trying it for 2 weeks, I noticed positive changes and the benefits of waking up early, but it was not something I could keep doing for the long term at that point. I was not sleeping enough so even though I was achieving goals and exercising in the morning, I had a hard time staying alert while sitting still during the day. I had to make some changes if I wanted to continue. I examined the rest of my daily routine and had to eliminate some things to keep the things that I valued. At that point I would use late nights to relax and unwind from the day by watching tv shows or movies. Because I was ready for the day before my daughter got up, the morning routine was less stressful and that affected the rest of the day. I didn’t need that evening time to relax like I used to, so I stopped watching tv on weekdays and saved that for the weekend instead. This let me go to bed a little earlier. Also, while I was doing a lot of things in the morning, 4:00 gave me time to do things and then have an extra hour to start the day leisurely. I changed the time to 5:00 instead so I could still do things but had to be a bit more efficient with starting the day. Cutting off a bit in the evening and a bit in the morning then made it possible to adjust into my day-to-day life for the long term and not just for a short period of time.
You don’t have to go for extreme or drastic changes, but that change gave me the opportunity to create my “compounding interest” hour where I could regularly explore new things that interest me and keep the ones that were helpful and replace the ones that were less helpful or not needed anymore. What are some things that you have added to your life that are giving you benefits now? What are some things that you have been wanting to learn or try that you haven’t done yet? What are some things that you would regret if you never got the chance to do? Let’s find some ways to incorporate them into your life!