Even if you’ve mastered your habits, sometimes you get off track. Whether it’s because work or school got busy, you got sick or something else, there will always be moments you break your good habits. And when you do, it’s important to bounce back as soon as possible. But how? Here are my 5 tips to get back on track with your daily habits.
1. Get up early
Having a good daily habit routine, means having time to actually do them. A big reason I procrastinate is thinking that I don’t have enough time to do my habits especially in the morning. To stop this from happening, I get up earlier. Not a lot, but enough to do the habits I want to do. When you’ve slipped up and need to rebuild your habits again, this is a good thing to start with.
2. Start simple and easy
Don’t just start where you’ve left off. That can be overwhelming. I like to start with a few habits and preferable with ones that I find easy. To me this is journaling and reading in the morning. These are habits that I like to do and am less likely to skip. When I’m back on track with those I add another habit or two and after a bit of time I’m back on track.
3. Remember your why
Think about why you want to have these habits. Why are they important to you? What’s your long-term goal? The answers to these questions is your motivation. Without motivation, it’s impossible to have long term habits. After a while, we forget the reason behind our habits, because they are habits and we do them almost without thinking. When you’ve slipped up, your first instinct may be to wonder why you actually used to do them. Remembering your why helps you get back on track. You’ll know why these habits are important to you.
4. Plan your habits
Planning your habits will help you remember and actually do them. Want to build your habit of working out back up? Choose a specific time to do your workout and block that in your calendar. This way you won’t feel like you don’t have time. Want to start eating healthier? Plan your meals for the week, so you don’t need to think about it during the week. You’ve planned when you’re doing your habits, so there is no need for last-minute excuses or not having enough time. You actually made time for it.
5. Prep your habits the day before
Beat procrastination and prep your habits the day before. If you want to exercise in the morning, lay out your work-out outfit the evening before. Do you want to journal first thing when you wake up? Prep your journal page the day before. This makes it a lot easier to continue your habits long-term. You’ve already laid out your workout clothes, so why not workout? Or you’ve already chosen a book and put it next to the coffee machine, so why not read while drinking your cup of coffee?
Slipping up is okay. Just try to build your good habits back up. We all slip up every now and again because that’s life. It’s unpredictable, so there’s no need to beat yourself up for it. The only thing you can do when you slip up, is start over and rebuild your good habits.
Want to keep track of your habits? I created a habit tracker on Notion. Get the template here.
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