Micro-habit strategy: integration and selection

Chapter 8

Micro-habit strategy

While everyone else was dismissing it, change quietly began.

The most difficult things in the world must be done by starting with the easiest; the greatest things in the world must be done by starting with the smallest. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

------Based on the subtle habits of Lao Tzu, a thinker from the Spring and Autumn Period of China

Now, we'll integrate all of this into a strategy tailored to your lifestyle. Below is a summary of the aforementioned micro-habits; choose the micro-habits you want to cultivate, ideally no more than four.

Dietary micro-habits

Eat an extra serving of fruit.

Eat an extra serving of fresh vegetables.

Upgrade your diet to a healthier one.

Cook a healthy meal at home.

Drink a glass of water.

Chew each bite of food at least 30 times.

Exercise micro-habits

Do one push-up.

Do one pull-up.

Do one sit-up.

Do 10 jumping jacks.

Run in place for 1 minute.

Run on the treadmill for 1 minute.

Dance along to a song.

Run back and forth up and down the stairs once.

Walk from your front door to the gate of the yard or the mailbox.

Put on your workout clothes (I'm not kidding).

After putting on your workout clothes, do a push-up (or other exercise).

Go to the gym for a stroll without any specific purpose in mind (please don't laugh at me yet, just try it out).

Do 30-second interval training (sprinting, climbing stairs, running in place at your fastest speed, etc., you can do running in place anywhere), or do 30-second moderate-intensity exercise.

Click on a fitness video (or watch a 30-second fitness video).

Stand up and work for a while every two hours, or stand up for a few seconds every hour to wake up your metabolic system.

Special micro-habits

Meditate for 1 minute.

To learn more about microhabits, please visit minihabits.com.

In my book, *Mini Habits*, I introduce basic strategies for cultivating small habits by doing small things every day, thereby changing behavior. After starting to cultivate mini habits, you need to define the basis for those habits.

Basis for determining micro-habits

Micro-habit cues are any signals that remind you to perform the habit. For example, someone who wants to develop the habit of practicing guitar might say, "I will practice guitar every night at 7:30." Their micro-habit cue is the time of 7:30 pm.

The good news is that while losing weight isn't easy, developing good eating habits has a significant advantage over developing other habits-each meal itself serves as a guideline. For example, you can do push-ups at 6 PM (time guideline), before showering (activity guideline), or at any time of day (no fixed guideline, flexible and adaptable). But when it's mealtime, we eat. And whenever we eat, we are cultivating micro-habits through action (for micro-habits related to eating, each meal itself serves as a guideline).

Therefore, all meal-related micro-habits have an activity basis, unless you want all micro-habits to be flexible. This way, you can complete micro-habits at any time of day, even between meals.

My micro-habits are very flexible; as long as they're finished before bed, they're fine. Unlike those around me, I don't rely on schedules at all. I rarely make schedules, I'm not busy, and I live each day as I please. As long as I get what I need to do, I'm happy. It's precisely because of this lifestyle that I can take a spontaneous trip. For me, not making plans means freedom (one of humanity's core desires since ancient times).

I bring this up because most self-help books either ignore people like me or suggest I become the organized type. I understand that lifestyle has its advantages, but my lifestyle, like others, also has its merits. Bad strategies force you to adapt (like dieting), while smart strategies adapt to who you are. The strategies presented in this book are flexible enough to adapt to all kinds of lifestyles.

There are three possible bases to choose from: behavioral bases, time bases, and flexible bases like "just finish it before bed." If you're someone who relies on a schedule, time or behavioral bases will work well. If you have a more relaxed lifestyle and aren't used to making plans, you'll prefer flexible bases. However, there's no fixed rule about which base works best for which type of person. Perhaps someone who schedules likes to squeeze in a little time between tasks to complete a small exercise habit, while someone with a more relaxed lifestyle might use micro-habits to make their life more structured. All of these bases work, but it's important to ensure that each micro-habit has a base (except for dietary micro-habits, which will be discussed later).

Behavioral Basis: This basis is built upon the various things you do every day. Here are four examples of micro-habits that utilize behavioral basis: eat a piece of fruit after arriving at the office, eat a serving of raw vegetables during your first break at work, drink a glass of water after getting home from get off work, and chew each bite of snacks at least 30 times when eating them at work. (A very useful behavioral basis is to do at least one push-up or other exercise after each trip to the restroom. This will increase your daily exercise frequency, and some people can manage this.)

Time-based approach: If you're used to creating a schedule and filling your days with activities, then time-based approaches should be quite effective. Here are three examples of micro-habits that utilize time-based approaches: eat a healthy snack at 3:15 PM, drink a glass of water at 6 PM, and eat a piece of fruit at 7 PM.

Flexible Basis (No Basis): Micro-habits can be completed whenever possible before the end of the day. This choice is flexible, but requires awareness because you must choose when to complete them yourself, rather than relying on pre-existing criteria to remind yourself. Four examples of flexible basis: eat a piece of fruit any time before bed, eat a serving of vegetables any time before bed, chew each bite of food at least 30 times during any meal, and drink a glass of water any time before bed.

Generally, only actions and time constraints can help people form habits. However, completing a micro-habit involves so few and so simple tasks that no specific constraint is needed. We never need a constraint to form bad habits, do we? We can do these things anytime because they are simple and rewarding. Micro-habits are similar, except they are good habits.

Frequent smokers often smoke while eating, drinking, or under stress; their behavior is supported by multiple motivations. Similarly, by choosing flexible micro-habit motivations, you'll allow things to prompt you to act, but you won't rely on any single motivation. Similar motivations will still exist, but you'll act more spontaneously.

The advantage of this approach is the diversification of sources of strength. If you consider each basis as a single root, you can cultivate a very strong root for a habit, or you can cultivate multiple, slightly weaker roots. Each individual root may be relatively weak, but overall, a habit with multiple roots is likely to be more enduring than a habit with only one root. This is why bad habits are difficult to break; we cannot identify and avoid all the basis-there are too many, some even stemming from inner emotions (which are unavoidable).

Through the micro-habit strategy, you can harness this power to do beneficial things. I write every day, but I don't set a specific time to write; I exercise almost every day, but I don't create a schedule. The table below shows the pros and cons of each approach, hopefully helping you make a choice.

Each criterion is rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best. The specific explanations of each criterion are as follows:

"Flexible and random" means that you can decide when to complete a micro-habit.

"Unforgettable" means that this criterion helps you remember to do something. Time-based criterions are fixed and not easily forgotten. You can mark them on your calendar or set reminders on your phone. Flexible criterions, which are not specific or singular, are the easiest to forget. Regardless of the criterion you choose, you can use something to remind yourself. For flexible criterions, you can keep a pen on your pillow to remind yourself to complete your micro-habit before bed; for dietary micro-habits, you can put a sticky note on the refrigerator to remind yourself.

"Rapid habit formation" refers to your behavior quickly forming neural pathways and becoming a habit. Behaviors and time-related factors contribute to faster habit formation, as the brain only needs to recognize one pattern. If you take a flexible approach, multiple factors may arise, and the brain needs more time to solidify these multiple behavioral patterns into habits. Flexible habits are similar to those we unconsciously form. Smokers don't decide to smoke at 11 pm every night; many things can motivate them (multiple factors). Multiple factors make bad habits difficult to break. Similarly, if a good habit has multiple factors, it becomes more "sticky" because it relies on more than one factor.

"Never fail" means successfully completing micro-habits every day without fail. Time-based approaches are the hardest to achieve this. If you haven't finished your task by 2 PM, you've failed according to the rules. With flexible approaches, you have the entire day to successfully complete your task, even if it's just a second before going to bed. I don't mean that time-based approaches are always difficult to succeed with, just slightly harder than flexible approaches.

"Overachievement" means you can do more than the micro-habit requires, and in this respect, the criteria are roughly the same for each.

"Multiple-compatible" means that one criterion can be used for multiple habits. Any criterion can support multiple habits well, and flexible criteria are the most powerful in this regard because you can schedule daily micro-habits according to the rhythm of each day.

The best plan is one that suits you and that you enjoy. All my micro-habits use flexible criteria because they suit my lifestyle where I don't create a fixed schedule. You might not find a suitable criterion immediately, so don't be afraid to try. You can also mix and match different criteria; for example, you can set goals like drinking at least one glass of water daily (flexible criterion), eating a serving of vegetables for dinner (behavioral criterion), and eating a raw carrot at 3:15 PM (time criterion). Generally, the best approach might be to use the same criterion for all micro-habits-it's the simplest-but the only "rule" of a micro-habit strategy is to choose the approach that best suits you.

If you wish, you can choose up to four micro-habits using the methods described above (each micro-habit should also have a basis). You can also choose a "diet plan" for all food-related micro-habits.