How to Make a Habit

By Linda Walker

“You are what you consistently do.” Aristotle knew the power of habits. So did Vince Lombardi. Habits are a powerful force in your life. Bad habits can reduce your productivity, impact your health and annoy, or worse, family and friends. Good habits are equally powerful, with far-reaching effects.

Replacing bad habits with good or creating new good habits is a strategy for overcoming some of the symptoms of ADHD. It’s not as “sexy” as a miracle cure, but it works. We buy lottery tickets instead of saving our pennies in an account earning compound interest. Saving practically guarantees you’ll become a millionaire, but it’s not as sexy.

However, once you decide to exploit the power of habits, using what works instead of just what’s sexy, the most common question is, “How?” How do you create a habit? Myths abound, but three easy-to-implement strategies provide a no-hassle way to form lasting habits.

Build your habit around a system that works. A system is a consistent way of doing things that achieves predictable results. Develop a habit to do something that doesn’t work very well, and either you won’t stick with it long enough to create a habit, or you’ll form a bad habit instead of a good one.

One of my brothers is always late, so when we invite him to family gatherings, we tell him it starts an hour earlier than it does. You could make a habit of asking people to lie to you about appointment times, but if you want to be punctual, a more effective system would be to set alarms using your cell phone or a reminder program.

Create your habit one step at a time. Start with a step so small you can’t possibly fail. Baby steps help learn any new activity, but build your habit using baby steps a baby would take! Success provides its own reward and the feeling of accomplishment encourages you to continue your efforts. Remain patient, adding a step at a time, and you’ll transform your life, just like compound interest.

Improve your punctuality starting with only one alarm. If you set an alarm for every appointment immediately, you’ll soon ignore them. Instead, set just one alarm and develop the habit of checking your agenda when the alarm rings. Stop what you’re doing and go to your appointment. Once you respond to one alarm, add a second one. Add alarms judiciously and soon you’ll be consistently punctual.

Whenever possible, add new habits to existing habits. If you already have a routine you follow, you can add a tiny step easily. If you try to create a whole new series of habits at once, it’s too easy to see missing one step as a failure. Too many failures and you lose all motivation to continue.

Building on your habit of responding to alarms, you can easily increase your productivity using a strategic and simple To Do list (now, tomorrow, later, etc.). Decide when you want to do things on your list and set appointments with yourself to do them. When your alarm rings, your established habit of responding to the alarms impels you to work on the task you decided you wanted to do. Add this work habit and soon you’ll be accomplishing more than ever. Keep it up and soon you’ll be punctual AND reliable!

When my husband was diagnosed with diabetes, he knew he needed a lifestyle makeover. However, he knew changing everything at once was a doomed approach. Instead, he started slow. Believe it or not, to start exercising, he forced himself to walk around the block every time he had a cigarette! Today, he exercises regularly, weighs 100 lbs. less and no longer smokes.

Habits are powerful and effective. Learn to make habits, one step at a time, and a world of endless possibilities opens up to you.

Linda Walker is a professional ADHD Coach who helps entrepreneurs, artists, ADHD adults and other creative geniuses live their best life. Learn more powerful strategies to instantly boost your productivity faster than you ever dreamed possible: http://www.productivitymythsbusted.com.