GTD. Read the book and formed the habits.
Very specifically for me, two parts of Getting Things Done:
- get things out of your head
- always set reminders
I have felt so much lighter for over 15 years because I can safely forget all these things I used to struggle to remember so that they wouldn’t sneak up on me.
Getting things out of my head was easier to build as a habit at the dawn of having a computer in my pocket all day. Even back then, I simply chose to be an asshole for a few months, stopping everything to write things down or to do them on the spot if they truly took only 2 minutes. Especially taking photos of receipts and labeling them when traveling for business.
Setting reminders was similar, but rockier, since calendar apps sometimes have defects. I gradually learned which alarms to trust and learned to use those more often. Even so, Samsung Clock has at least once surprised me by setting my alarm volume to 0, causing me to miss one alarm in the last 10 years.
In both cases, I did nothing special except decide to build the habit and spend the effort to ingrain the habit through repetition over the span of a few months.
Exercise biking
How did I develop it ? : Noticed that I was am fat and bought an exercise bike.
Now I don’t have to catch my breath everytime in get up from a seat.
Not drinking. It’s a habit I started after nearly 2 decades of being a terrible alcoholic lol
Always give your best. That includes not being perfectionistic. And of course in relation to your energy level and skill. So keep it holistic.
You might think some things are more meaningful than others to do, so you do your best, but then not for things that seem to be less important. But instead of that think of it as developing yourself. And you are always there with you, doing it. In the long term it really pays off because you’ll improve all across the board. From spelling and vocabulary to cooking and cleaning. It’s okay to sometimes spend half an hour writing a reply to a single random person.
After all, who are you to judge what’s meaningful? You see people walking everywhere in a hurry, doing important things. But is it? And perhaps that single random person really appreciated your effort and it was meaningful in some way. And perhaps your ability to put half an hour into writing a comment pays off when you are communicating with someone at work. You just don’t really know. All you can do is focus on the things you are attracted to, and to do them well.
