How to Build Daily Habits that Support Your Goals

How to Build Daily Habits that Support Your Goals

Reader Comments (17)

  1. Hi Loryn,

    This is a great post and quite timely for me! I am older person who spent most of my life before social media even became a “thing.” Now that I blog, however, it has become more and more a part of my daily life. And I find it frustrating at times.

    Even when I think I am focused and intent on spending just a few minutes on Facebook or Instagram, before I know it a whole hour has gone by. And sometimes I close the apps more tense or agitated than when I logged on!

    I am basically a very organized, goal-oriented person. However, social media is an area that I have to watch out for! The most effective plan for me is to schedule certain times throughout the day to check in on social media and email. I set a timer so it can jangle me back into the real world. This helps more than anything else in keeping me from wasting time and energy chasing rabbits!

    Your tip to breathe while waiting for email to open–excellent. I recognize myself in that to some degree. I don’t know what my expectations are at opening my inbox, but I will be conscious now to relax and breathe along the way!

    Great post! Thanks so much!

    • Thank you so much, Jane! I’m glad you found it worthwhile 🙂

      I like your tip of using a timer to limit your social media time — I used to try and set a time limit for social media, but I never tried to couple a timer with that technique. If I need another tool in my arsenal at any point, I’ll be sure to give that a try!

  2. Hey Loren, I had hold my breathe while reading your article. Took deep breathe now. Really a fantastic article. I sometimes delete all the social media accounts out of frustration from my phone. But guess what again install after few days.
    I have been writing always more than one page for years now. It feels good. I also workout everyday.

    Your last suggestion is what I need most nowadays. To not put much pressure on myself. Yes, it is very hard to keep PATIENT. But we writers must have it NO Matter what.

    • So glad you liked it, Hemendra! Sounds like you’re off to a great start, too. Being patient with yourself can really be one of the hardest things — we want so badly to just force new habits into being, like when we rage-delete social media apps from our phones 😉

      Best of luck with staying patient in 2018! 🙂

  3. I absolutely love this article, thank you so much for writing it!

    As someone who is trying to build a company on the side of having a 40-50 hr/week job this really hit home for me.

    I just started the full-time job less than a month ago, so organizing my life has been somewhat of a mess.

    Again, thank you for the post!

    • Thank you, Jeremy! Sounds like you’ve got your hands full 🙂 I don’t have a side-business, but I do have a side-blog and a few long-term side-projects, and I’ve found it helps to focus on sustainability. As in, what can you reasonably expect yourself to every week/month to help keep your business alive and growing?

      Best of luck!

  4. Loryn- a number of your suggestions are extremely helpful, particularly focus on several of my more serious “productivity” glitches. I’m a researcher and writer trying to complete the 1st draft of my next book that seems to be taking longer than it should.

    While I DO take reflective walks each morning, I’ve underestimated the importance of taking along my journal. Defining my goals for the day is an activity I’ve underutilized. So, as the cliche goes: “Today is the first day of the rest of my life!” Thank you for reminding me how valuable implanting such simple strategies can be. I’ve pasted some of them onto my home screen sticky-notes!

    • Marlene —

      Thanks for your comment! Oh goodness, yes, I’m intimately familiar with the “this is taking longer than it should” feeling! For me, a goal-oriented perspective helps me figure out what is worth the extra time, and what isn’t.

      Best of luck with your next book! I hope some of these tips help speed up the process 🙂

  5. Loryn – this is terrific! I’ve been speaking and writing about productivity for a decade and this is refreshingly “new” – love the idea of breathing before getting sucked into the phone-hole.

    • Thank you, Hugh! That means a lot — there’s been so much written about productivity it can be difficult to make it fresh. Glad you enjoyed it 🙂

  6. The to-do list one is the one that often used to bite me. I’d fill my list with a zillion things and wonder why all I did was move them across from one day to the next. Now I apply a labelling system. Things are: ‘time sensitive’; ‘important but not urgent’; and ‘nice but not essential’. Then I work through them in turn. So if I get to the end of the day and all that’s left is the last one, it’s not the end of the world.

    • That’s a great idea! To-do lists can be really useful for helping track what needs to get done, but it’s important to make sure they don’t compound your stress. Sounds like you’ve got a good system going!

  7. Thank you for your post! Very simple but helpful steps. I am a “willing victim” of social media but I realized that I’m not getting any younger and the best time to start on reaching for my dreams is NOW! But truthfully it’s easier to just sit back/lie down and browse Facebook/Instagram. This post, however, has made me more determined to break this habit and be more smart with my time. Especially on the weekends! Thank you again.

    • Digital entertainment can be such a trap! That’s why it’s so important to identify what you really want to achieve. But, of course, we all need a bit of slacking off every now and then… 🙂 Best of luck, Hannah, thanks for reading!

  8. Great post, thanks for the insights! These tips are great, especially when i work from home and try to get as much out of the day as possibly. I’m definitely gonna try the timer method. Keep up the good work!

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