‘2’ Ways I developed New Habits While Working From Home

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Most of us keep delaying our passions for when we have enough money and resources and end up losing the opportunity altogether before even making a try.  Someone rightly said;

“The best time to start was Yesterday.  The next best is Now.”

• Unknown

The quote beautifully sums up the price we pay for procrastination and for forever deferring what we really want to do.  Nielsen’s study (done in USA) has thrown some interesting facts on how we on an average spend our daily time.

Watching videos, browsing social media and swiping on tablets and smartphones, account for a whopping 11 hours people spend their time on.  62% of this is spent on phones alone, linked to applications and web browsing translating to almost 7 hours of continued usage.

Our mind has become conditioned to respond to mobile’s notifications to such an extent that even if we are deeply busy and involved, just a slight beep is enough to captivate us and turn us into a zombie impulsively reaching out for the phone.

All these time wasters work in very subtle but engaging way deviating us from our goals and turning us into amazing excuse makers depriving us of the time, better used for developing our self.  When I began working from home, I realized I was falling in the same trap and for the first 15 days remained a slave to these patterns.  I finally shackled off when;

• I began taking a close inventory of how I was spending my time. Noting down how I have been spending it, from the time I wake up to when I sleep, I could spot time wasters I never thought of I was indulging in.  Spending time on phone and watching sports on TV, took the top spot.  Asking myself if this is what I really want to do at this time also helped in changing the pattern.
• Began Creating a Daily Goal – I set out small daily goal of accomplishing three things, no matter what. Write at least one page of the book, I am currently working on, read for at least an hour (I love books, so it was easy) and to make at least one new blog entry.

These things worked amazingly well for me and post those 15 days, I have been able to read six books including Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche, add 80 pages more to my book (the target was 1 page, but I was able to write more on weekends) and have been continuously writing a blog every day.  I have also completed 3 courses on Coursera, my favorite being, Positive Psychology by Martin Seligman and People Analytics.

I am pleased with myself and now I am planning to have a relook at my goals to see where I can contribute more.  The activity has now become a habit and I feel dissonant If I there is any deviation from this pattern.

Inventorying and creating daily goals has been pivotal to the creation of my new habit and I believe it is worth trying, to let the results speak for themselves.