How to Keep a Habit

I recently fell off the wagon with my writing daily habit.

I had a legitimate excuse (DisneyLand!), but missing a single day led to 3 more missed days.

Building a habit takes hard work and consistency.

Here are 3 strategies to help a habit stick:

1. Never miss a day

Often referred to as "the Seinfeld method"—the trick is to do the task every single day and never ever break the chain.

2. Never miss more than one day

Missing one day is a mistake, but two is a trend. When you miss multiple days in a row, it becomes really difficult to get back into the habit.

This is what happened to me after my DisneyLand trip. To get some extra sleep, I skipped writing the night before. Then I missed the following day. Suddenly, getting back in the habit felt like too much work.

3. Just start again

This is what I'm doing now. It's easy to get discouraged when you've lost the habit, but rather than getting overwhelmed and beating yourself up... just start again!

Don't build it up to something grand, just do the task. Something simple to get back into the motions again.