A strategy for sticking to your habits

⏰ Today’s tip: To build a routine you’ll actually follow, schedule it.

As our sister publication Elemental notes, we’re at our best — happier, more focused, more rested — when our days have some structure to them. All your old routines may have gone out the window when the pandemic started, but you can create new ones that are easy to stick to by building them around the clock.

Assign things specific times: Instead of saying you’ll go for a walk after a few hours of work, say you’ll go for a walk at noon. Then, when 12:00 hits, get up and go. Without a schedule, “habits depend on willpower,” therapist Matt Traube tells Elemental. But when you give everything a time, “It takes the thinking out of it so you can get to the doing.”

📚 More from Forge on planning your day:

5 Things You Should Do Before Lunch
Read more >>

You Still Need an After-Work Routine When Working From Home
Read more >>

In Praise of the 7-Day Quarantine Workweek
Read more >>

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