Quotes About Routine

Habit makes it dangerously easy to become numb to our own existence. For

A reader posted about a more modest change: "I dreaded my dentist appointment because I knew they'd ask how often I floss. It occurred to me that I could just floss every day, and then that question would never bother me. It puzzles me why the solution suddenly became so obvious and so easy in that moment.

Same person, same activity, different habit.

My idea of "this is the kind of person I am" is so bound up in my habits and actions that it's hard for me to see. But eventually, I realized that my sense of identity makes it easier or harder to change a habit.

that the real key to habits is decision making—or, more accurately, the lack of decision making. A habit requires no decision from me, because I've already decided.

Studies suggest that we repeat about 40 percent of our behavior almost daily. So if we change our habits, we change our lives.

In ordinary terms, a "habit" is generally defined as a behavior that's recurrent, is cued by a specific context, often happens without much awareness or conscious intent, and is acquired through frequent repetition.

With habits, we conserve our [limited] self-control.

For this reason, we should pay close attention to the convenience of any activity we want to make into a habit.

I concluded that the real key to habits is decision making—or, more accurately, the lack of decision making.

An unmade bed is a common broken window, which is why "Make the bed" is one of the most popular happiness-project resolutions, and in fact, as Charles Duhigg points out in his fascinating book The Power of Habit, the habit of bed making is correlated with a sense of greater well-being and higher productivity.

Andy Warhol wrote, "Either once only, or every day. If you do something once it's exciting, and if you do it every day it's exciting. But if you do it, say, twice or just almost every day, it's not good any more.

I concluded that the real key to habits is decision making—or, more accurately, the lack of decision making. …A habit requires no decision from me, because I've already decided. …This freedom from decision making is crucial, because when I have to decide—which often involves resisting temptation or postponing gratification—I tax my self-control.

It's true that novelty and challenge bring happiness...but routine can also bring happiness. The pleasure of doing the same thing in the same way every day...take[s] on a certain beauty and provide[s] a kind of invisible architecture...

When scheduling a new habit, it helps to tie it to an existing habit, such as "after breakfast," or to an external cue, such as "when my alarm rings

Surprisingly, stress doesn't necessarily make us likely to indulge in bad habits; when we're anxious or tired, we fall back on our habits, whether bad or good.

The second reason rewards pose a danger for habits is that they require a decision. A habit, by my definition, is something we do without decision making.

In The First 20 Minutes, Gretchen Reynolds notes, "I stand on one foot when I brush my teeth at night.

It was interesting to have a better sense of my daily habits

habits eliminate the need for self-control.

What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while

The reward for a good habit is the habit itself.

For this reason, it's all the more important to try to shape habits mindfully, so that when we fall back on them at times of stress, we're following activities that make our situation better, not worse.

What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while.        You