Habit Formation

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 (4 mins Read)

Based on collective feedback from the previous article, I have decided to focus on anecdotes within this article on how I built some habits into my life.

Let's start by defining a very interesting concept called the utility function.


The Utility Function


In Economics, the utility function represents the satisfaction that consumers receive for choosing and consuming a product or service. During my B-school days, just like many of my batch-mates, I decided to define my own personal utility function.


Hence, I want you to think of the utility function as something that you wish to define your own life with.

It consists of variables one may wish to maximize/minimize in life. For example - one may wish to maximize their happiness and wealth while minimizing stress.


Your own utility function may contain more than just one variable. Mine would read something like this:


My aim in life is to maximize these. With this in mind, I have defined the habits that I need to get to that ultimate state of invincibility. Habits are the building blocks to achieve that reality.


Habits and Compounding


Habits define you, make you who you are. Do something constructive consistently over a period of time and it breeds success. My favourite image to illustrate the same:



As promised earlier - Instead of going into gyan mode, I'm going to narrate my experience of a habit I have struggled with - waking up early. More recently, I have been able to build this into my life.


Having said this, everyone is a WIP and so am I, so take the ideas below with a pinch of chat masala. Let's begin!


Problem Recognition


I have struggled immensely with waking up early all my adult life. People belong to the 5 a.m./6 a.m. CEO clubs. I was a proud lifetime member of the 10 a.m. club.


And I enjoyed this guilt-free. Comfort is easy, comfort is enjoyable but comfort does not let you grow!


Waking up late had many detrimental effects on my lifestyle - I would let the world get to me with their problems as soon as I started my day and instead of starting my day calmly, I jolted myself up with frustration.


Not the ideal way to start anyone's day, is it?. How did I solve this? By acknowledging the problem and then attacking it through some quick wins and some hacks with a strictly defined moving target.


Initial Changes and Small wins

  • I set both a sleep alarm(rang at 12 midnight) and a wake up alarm(7:30 a.m. to start with).

  • Having a morning routine - meditation, a jog, and 30 mins of nothingness listening to music.

  • Read a book before sleeping for 10 minutes. This was the book I started with(My mind needs more convincing)





How I used data to solve this problem [Hacks]

Fitbit to the rescue - I tracked my sleep patterns on Fitbit to understand my optimum level of sleep.

This is a fun exercise one can do with any basic tracker or a pen and notebook.


For me, the biggest revelation was to control my sleeping time. Any delta there would cause an automatic shift in my wake up time.

Easier said than done though - It has been an uphill battle to pull my sleep time* but I have made small changes to get to where I am today(Reducing screen time was another habit I built - will talk about this some other time). The graph below helps drive home the point.

Over the months, talking of averages - I now sleep at a better time, wake up at a better time and sleep a fair amount of hours(needs to be amped up marginally)**. I am also slowly moving towards my 6 month target of 6 a.m. (2 months to go and I've cracked 6:30 a.m. now)


(* - Dec'20 data missing because my tracker was in repair. Apr'21 wake up time was influenced adversely due to 4 sick days) (** Sleep time is roughly 86% of hours in bed)


Other optimizations:


  • I supplemented my loss of sleep with 15 mins power naps or a 30 min Yoga Nidra session during the day. There will be teething issues though - I once fell asleep during an office meeting.

  • Set the curtains open when I slept so when the light hit my face, I'd wake up. (works like a charm)

  • Calendarized everything. If it was on my calendar - I was more likely to acknowledge it. (Thanks to my Brit counterparts at OYO for this life lesson).


Again - I don't do these things everyday or perfectly.


There are also mornings where I do nothing but lie in bed watching people's lives on Instagram stories. There will be a range of days and that is ok. Getting it 80% right gets you there.


Summarizing . . .


To conclude my basic learnings on habit building:

  1. Start small, keep persisting. Small incremental process changes over step jumps.

  2. Habits that compliment each other and build an enabling ecosystem give compounding returns (Will cover this further in the next article).

  3. I was able to sustain habits that were linked to my personal goals/utility function than habits that were not(Still haven't learnt the guitar!!).

How has this habit of waking up early benefitted, you may think. The top benefits for me have been:

  • More time to pursue my hobbies (I read, meditate and run)
  • A much calmer start to the day - I do not rush into work as soon as I get up and still start my work day 1 hour ahead of anyone else.
  • I have become more perceptive of things and people around me and seen a positive change in my outlook towards life.

There is a lot more I wished to cover but that's all you get in a contracted 3 mins 4 mins article. :) I hope and wish this article helps you. In the next one, I will elaborate on the ecosystem such small habits, when put together, create.


Next article: Enabling Habit Ecosystems

Extra material:

  • A great video by Robin Sharma here on habits

  • Atomic habits by James Clear

  • Follow Naval, James Clear, Julian Shapiro on Twitter.

  • Yoga Nidra by Divya Rolla(Look her up)


Peace!

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