Joe's
Digital Garden

5 Habits & 2 Vices

Building on top of [[atomic habits]]. Each pythefnos we select five daily habits and two vices to track.

Habits

  1. Each habit should be called out: when such occurs, I will do such.
  2. The cue for the habit must occur at least daily, or likely occur daily.
    • e.g., teeth brushing occurs at least daily
    • e.g. polish my boots when I return might occur daily, but I might not venture out that day.
  3. Using the root of a habit chain is highly encouraged. In which case completing the entire chain is a prerequisite to the task
    • e.g. After lunch, I will take a siesta, then sit zazen for ten minutes, then practice yoga for ten minutes.
    • e.g. Before taking off my shoes, I will untie them, then polish them, then set them in the boot box before changing into my moccasins.
  4. We must not break the chain.
    • Life happens, we can skip up to four days per pythefnos
    • We must not skip two days in a row
  5. At the end of each pythefnos, we evaluate our habits and can elect:
    1. Rotate out a failing habit if it would not be a suitable candidate for the upcoming pythefnos (e.g. we can't lift weights if we're on a trip)
    2. Rotate out a habit we've mastered. We can always rotate it back in if we start slipping.
    3. Expand a mastered habit by either increasing the difficulty (heavier weights, more reps) or extending the chain (add an aerobic workout after weights).

Vices

Vices are more difficult to break than habits are to build. They will require much more creativity. As such, I elect to focus on only two vices at a time.

Furthermore, vices are often a good thing to excess. It is fine to drink, but not go on a bender. Feasting is fine on occasion, but overeating daily is gluttony. As such, we do not aim for abstinence but rather moderation. We achieve this through habit shaping.

  1. For each vice, we must determine what healthy moderation looks like.
    1. How often should we indulge in this vice?
    2. How much should we indulge in this vice?
    3. Where or when is it acceptable to indulge in this vice?
    4. Is it okay to occasionally overindulge this vice?
  2. We should identify what cues lead to over indulgence in a given vice.
    • Can we modify the environment to make these cues invisible?
    • Can we replace the vice with another habit that fulfill the same desires?
    • Can we remove the reward component of the vice?
  3. Identify a strategy for shaping the habits around this vice.
    • Break the strategy down into small incremental steps that takes us towards a more healthy relationship to this vice.
  4. Identify what "success" means for tracking on a daily basis and for the overall pythefnos.

Linked References