Get Organized Once & For All: Establishing Habits with Tasha

Habits are those things that you train yourself to do almost on autopilot. Habits can help reduce the mental load we have when we spend time debating with ourselves about doing a task or when we’ve had a long day and now we’re having to make all new decisions about what we need to do. Essentially, establishing habits is a great way to get more energy back into your day.

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BE SPECIFIC ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO DO

In the example of establishing devotional time in the morning, Tasha was more specific than “have devotional time.” She set a specific goal of reading one psalm and writing one page in her prayer journal.

BE SPECIFIC ABOUT WHEN YOU’RE GOING TO DO IT

The easiest way to do this is to stack the habit with something you’re already doing. In this case, doing a devotional in the morning while having coffee.

With any habit you are trying to establish, if you don’t carve out the time in your day to take this additional action, it’s easy to get to the end of the day and realize you’ve run out of time. So, deciding ahead of time when you will carve out the time is going to be key.

THE NEED FOR CONSISTENCY

Often when people think of habits, they think in terms of having an unbroken streak. Even habit trackers lend themselves to the idea that the goal is to get to the end of 30 days and see that every single day has a check mark.

Consistency, though, means most days. Most days you’re going to have devotional time. If you miss a day, you haven’t failed.

It might even be helpful to build in an intentional break from your habit to relieve the pressure of maintaining a streak and you know you have a plan in place to come back to this task again.

Consistency keeps you from having a huge backlog, but it’s also going to prevent you from throwing in the towel when you miss one day.

KEEP IT SMALL

Whatever habit you’re trying to establish, keep it small and attainable. It’s also helpful to try sticking to just one new habit before adding any more on. It’s easy to get excited and want to try to start a lot of new routines, but for most people focusing on one change is more manageable and easier to stick to.