Article #08: Micro Habits and Friction Points
“The first step to forming good habits is to have them on your radar as habits to develop in the first place.” - Jujimufu
Forming Habits
You may have heard that it takes roughly 28 days to form a habit. For you, this could be true. But much like the daily 2,000 calories diet, this is a nice, rounded number — that most likely doesn’t fit you at all. A 2009 study came to a vastly different conclusion for how long it takes for a habit to form: anywhere between 18 to 254 days!
There are plenty of factors that influence how quickly a habit becomes habitual. First, the complexity of the habit can make it difficult to build. Doing 10 pushups in the morning is easy; completing a full body workout, twice a day, can prove to be a challenge. Second, the measurability of the habit can make it difficult to even know if the habit has been “completed” or not. Writing 1,000 words a day, or writing for an hour a day is easy; having a habit of, “writing daily,” is too open-ended to know if enough time and effort were spent. Third, your desire or drive for forming and maintaining these habits greatly influences the outcome. Knowing and believing the “why” behind a habit makes it easier to approach; second-guessing the “why”, or the “why” being completely unknown, leaves you with nothing to stand on.
If you want to achieve your goals (hopefully you have goals set from Article #07), then you should plan and develop habits that push you towards your goals. With the three factors in mind from above, you want your habits to be: simple, measurable, and purposeful. Five “Micro Habits” that follow those three factors is easier (and therefore better) to keep than one habit that is complex, immeasurable, and unguided.
Making Habits “Simple”
If you developed an If/Then Chain for a goal from Article #07, you are already on your way to making your habits simple. A habit should be as tangible as possible. Think about the process of writing: each word helps form each sentence; each sentence helps form each paragraph; each paragraph helps form the entire piece. The goal of writing is to elaborate the main idea by forming sentences that are specific, but relatable to the main idea. Instead of “write an essay”, the habit should be, “write a sentence”. It’s difficult to know if an essay has been fully written; it’s simple to know if a sentence has been fully written. Instead of “exercise daily”, the habit should be, “complete an exercise for a specific muscle group daily”. It’s difficult to narrow down your choices when the options are almost unlimited; it’s simple to pick from a small list of exercises when the objective is narrowed down. Instead of “clean the house”, the habit should be, “clean and organize a room”. It’s difficult to tackle a large task; it’s simple to retain focus when a task is small and approachable.
Making Habits “Measurable”
If you have been experimenting with the Scientific Method (Article #03), you should have noticed by now that things that can be measured makes the documentation easy. If you have run into a problem with trying to measure parts of a goal/habit, the best place to start is this: how could you include numbers into your experiment?
Don’t have a goal of writing everyday.
Do have a goal of writing 1,000 words everyday, or writing for 30 minutes everyday.
Don’t have a goal of exercising everyday.
Do have a goal of completing 3 sets of 12 reps for an exercise everyday.
Do have a goal of jogging, running, or biking for 30 minutes everyday.
Don’t have a goal of cleaning/organizing everyday.
Do have a goal of cleaning and organizing a room once a week.
Do have a goal of cleaning for 15 minutes everyday.
Figure out what values/numbers you could measure, and start measuring them. This will help show you if progress is happening, and it also offers you an easy thing to change if you think the progress is moving too slow.
Making Habits “Purposeful”
If you want to find the motivation for forming a habit, make sure the habit relates to your bigger picture. This step is already completed if you mapped a goal, and wrote out an If/Then Chain relating to one of the Major or Minor Concerns (Article #06). If you want to make the purpose of a habit extremely clear, write the end goal with the habit. Take, “exercise daily”, and modify it into, “exercise daily, because I want to maintain/improve my physical health, promote my mental health, and have the energy I need to accomplish the rest of my goals”. At this point, if you are second-guessing the usefulness of the habit, you should also start second-guessing if your goals are actually your goals.
Friction Points: Remove Hurdles
I discovered the concept of “Friction Points” from a man who goes by the name Jujimufu. He has accomplished a lot of physical feats (e.g. can do lots of acrobatic tricks, all while being a huge bodybuilder, while also dabbling in strength competitions, all while maintaining a successful content creator career and business). If you want to see the definition of “controlled chaos”, look up “Jujimufu Flamingo Kick” on Youtube.
In his book “The Builder”, Juji talks about how if you want to make accomplishing your goals and forming habits easier, identify and remove friction points from your life. What are the small, annoying things that stand in your way? Do you want to start eating healthy, but you hate standing in your kitchen because everything is messy and the sink is always full? Friction points identified: organize your kitchen, and keep your sink empty. Do you find it difficult to get into a productive workflow because you constantly have to spend time setting up your work space? Friction point identified: figure out how to keep your workspace permanent, or at least parts of it permanent.
Want to know a simple, easy habit to start that will show you where you can improve in life? Make a daily habit of identifying friction points in your life. Start by trying to identify 3 friction points a day, and write them down on a piece of paper. Once it becomes difficult to find 3 points a day, reduce it to 1 friction point a day. After you have a decent list of friction points, make a second habit of removing 1 friction point a day (or removing 3 friction points a week).
At A Glance:
Make a habit of forming habits.
Make sure the habits you are forming are: simple, measurable, and purposeful.
A habit that involves numbers is a good habit to form.
Look for “Friction Points” in your life, document them, and remove them.
Recommended Exercises:
If you have goals planned out with If/Then Chains, try to write out habits that you can, and should form today. If you don’t have If/Then Chains written out, go back to Article #07!
Start a habit of identifying friction points in your life. Try to write them down in a way that allows you to organize them (Does this friction point exist in a specific room? Does the friction point affect your Health, Wealth, or Home? Is there a specific goal that this friction point is slowing down?)