A Work in Progress

I am a work in progress and frequently enjoy trying new things to better my life. My latest self-help read (Atomic Habits by James Clear) encouraged me to improve in small, incremental ways. The book is subtitled “tiny changes, remarkable results: an easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones”. Content is easy to understand, intuitively makes sense, and holds the usual challenge of self-help books: you have to actually do the work in order to see the benefits.

I find that having a routine grounds me and completing the routine results in a sense of accomplishment, so one of the early recommendations to stack habits (combining new plans with existing routines) really resonated and felt straightforward to implement. On the other end of the spectrum, and perhaps hardest for me to incorporate into my belief system, is the idea that habits don’t have to be perfect right away; doing something in the direction of the right thing is better than waiting until you can act perfectly.

At the end of January, I decided to work on solidifying one good habit (EHR inbox at zen zero as each workday starts) and building a new one (daily exercise). I started with a nice foundation on the work goal; most days I cleared my inbox as a matter of routine; it was only when life got chaotic that I would miss a beat and get behind. My personal goal, unfortunately, was not beginning with any recent base of healthy activity. Although I have been successful in the past at exercising consistently, the last few years are populated with intermittent workouts followed by long periods of inactivity.

I knew that if exercise was going to happen at all, it had to be first in my day. Sitting down at the computer to check “just one email” leads to getting lost in the next thing and running out of time in my morning to fit in exercise…and then the rest of the day flies by with no pause for physical activity. I also knew that reviewing routine messages and test results in the evening after clinic tended to be like slogging through mud for me; I moved slower and slower with each task. I started my new plan by stacking my existing habit of early rising with getting dressed in exercise clothing. Once I was dressed, it seemed silly not to head to the basement for a workout. I found I needed time after working out to cool down, so I stacked that with clearing my EHR inbox before my shower each morning.

This worked surprisingly well for days when my schedule was “normal” (whatever that means!)…and started to fall apart on days when I traveled, had early morning meetings or late nights, all of which happened the third week in February. The first time I had to be somewhere at 6:00am, I considered skipping my new habits in favor of having a few moments to relax after my usual rising time; if I couldn’t get in 25-30 minutes of exercise and clear my entire inbox, was it even worth trying? Thank heavens for happy coincidences, I hit the refresher on “just do something” in the book! A five-minute yoga video and urgent messages answered meant I got to check the box on the habit for the day, even if I wasn’t perfect in my performance.

I would love to say it was easy. (It wasn’t.) I would love to say I’m now set for life on these two habits. (Pretty sure I’m not!) I can say that I feel successful at building a solid base for both habits and that I remain a work in progress.

Twenty-nine days down, a lifetime to go.