Making New Habits Stick

A new year has rolled around and it’s tempting to write a list of goals as long as your arm in a bid to signal “New Year, New Me”. But what good are New Year’s resolutions if they are far by the wayside as soon as February arrives?

Making lifestyle changes that will stick – in other words, good habits – is the best way to achieve your aims. Here’s some ideas how.

Where to begin

Why not try to build some new habits into your way of working in order to make yourself the most productive you can be? Do you find yourself getting stressed with your workload? Train yourself to make a short, manageable to-do list every day where you break each piece of work down into small bites.

Find yourself having too much month at the end of your money? Track your spending every day and review where you make unnecessary purchases at the end of 3 months.

Looking to get fit and gain more energy? Try the NHS Couch to 5K podcast – it really works.

Hold yourself accountable

A great way to make new habits stick is to remind yourself you need to do them. This small change means that your new goal doesn’t get lost within your busy lifestyle to be overwhelmed with the guilt of going off the wagon.

So, for example, if your new year’s resolution was to drink more water, try downloading an app on your phone like My Water Balance which will send you a notification reminding you to take a drink. Or, buy a water bottle like the fab ones from HydrateM8 with hours printed on – allowing you to see visually how much you should be drinking each day.

Make small changes

A new year’s resolution to “travel more” might seem like a great one, but where to even begin? How can this be measured? What does “more” even mean?

Instead, deciding on tangible, realistic time sensitive targets (AKA SMART – Specific, Measurable, Aligned, Realistic/Relevant, and Time-bound) is much more do-able.

So, “travel more” can become “book one weekend mini-break before June” or “travel abroad for my summer holiday”.

This way, you know exactly what you want to do, your aim is easier to achieve and you really know once you’ve completed it, which brings us on to…

Treat yourself

Identifying the need for improvement in your life and turning these improvements into good habits is no mean feat. Remember to pat yourself on the back for all your hard work. Whether that’s a new book, a meal out with friends or even just that cheeky bar of chocolate. You’ve earned it!

We hope our tips help you get started on a habit-changing more productive 2018 – we’re following our own advice, we’ll check in again in three months ;)