YOU sit down at your table, crack your knuckles, and tell yourself it’s time to write that essay your English language teacher assigned you last week.
Ding! Your phone suddenly buzzes with a social media notification, which you proceed to briefly assess under the pretence that it may be important and end up mindlessly scrolling through your news feed. After your arguably satisfying scroll, you realise that you’ve wasted several hours and not gotten any work done.
In Atomic Habits, author James Clear suggests that the key to making substantial, sustainable improvements is adopting minute, consistent habits that can easily fit into our daily lives.
I have found the mechanisms described in his book effective and would thus like to pass on these five productivity tips.
1. The 1% rule
Good habits are crucial for sustainable growth. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that making a small change – for instance, becoming one per cent better at something each day – is unlikely to make a significant impact in the long run. True, if you save a couple of dollars today, that won’t make you a millionaire.
If you, however, choose to consistently make choices like saving a few bucks every day – no matter how insignificant in the moment – it could add up over time.
2. Remove distractions
Remember that time when you badgered your mum to get you that mouth-watering, sugar-filled treat from the supermarket, only to find it tucked away in the shelves two months later? The reason for this is simple: when that treat is stored behind plenty of other snacks, it’s easy to forget about it altogether.
Using this logic, we can make the activity we want to perform more obvious. Want to get more studying done? Place the right materials on your desk. Want to practise guitar more often? Leave it out in the open. The inverse is just as effective for breaking bad habits. If we don’t notice something, it’s unlikely to affect us.
Kvanh: It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that making a small change is unlikely to make a significant impact in the long run.
For instance, if you spend too much time on your phone, you can keep it in a different room. If you find that you play video games for far too long, remove them from your home screen.
3. Join like-minded groups
It’s human nature to want to fit into our social circles and we tend to do this subconsciously. For instance, you may start to mimic the way your friends speak. You become more accepted by your peers when you do so, in contrast to having behaviours completely different from theirs.
Therefore, you can use this to your advantage by joining a social group where the behaviours you seek to acquire are the norm. This is because your brain would actively direct you to behave in a way that fits in with the social norms of the group.
If you join a book club, you’d be more inclined to foster the reading habit, for example. There are many avenues for you to meet people with similar interests such as joining a society in school or even a Facebook group.
4. The two-minute rule
We often avoid good habits because we feel overwhelmed by them. Want to study? You may think of the long, tiring hours you might have to spend doing so.
The trick is to let the first two minutes ease you into it. This works in part because it is harder to start good habits than making them last.
For instance, it’s harder for us to start writing an essay in contrast to continuing doing it at the halfway mark.
Think of a two-minute activity you can perform with ease to get you into the right state of mind. If you want to run, start by putting on your shoes; if you want to study, start by opening up your notes, for example. 5. Reward yourself
We are more likely to perform a habit if it offers us a reward. For instance, we go to the gym frequently so that we can appear fit.
The problem with good habits is that when we practise them, we don’t reap their benefits immediately.
If we study for an hour, we don’t immediately receive an A. This causes our brain to steer off course and pick up habits that may allow instant gratification but could be detrimental in the long run like procrastination.
The trick is to allow instant rewards for our good habits.
After reading a chapter or two from a book, reward yourself with a round of your favourite video game, for example. That way, you can stay motivated to follow through with what needs to be done, while waiting for your delayed rewards to arrive like scoring that A.
It is, however, prudent to ensure that your instant reward does not conflict with the long-term benefits you strive to achieve. For instance, don’t eat a bowl of ice cream as a reward for exercising.
Achieving the seemingly unattainable can be a daunting challenge but by learning how to work smart, all of us are just a habit away from unlocking our full potential.
Kvanh, 17, a student in Selangor, is a participant of the BRATs Young Journalist Programme run by The Star’s Newspaper-in-Education (Star-NiE) team.
1 Rank the five tips offered in Kvanh’s article, starting with the one that you are most likely to adopt in your daily life.
2 Now, browse the Comics section of today’s copy of the Sunday Star newspaper.
Look for a comic character who could benefit from one of the five tips.
Cut out the picture of the character and paste it in your Star-NiE scrapbook.
Then, look for another comic character to represent you. Cut out the picture and paste it next to the earlier character.
Now, create speech bubbles to play out a scenario in which your comic character advises the other on how he or she could apply the tip for a productive life.
Since 1997, The Star’s Newspaper-in-Education (Star-NiE) programme has supported English language teaching and learning in primary and secondary schools nationwide. Through Star-NiE’s teacher and student workshops, annual contests and monthly English language resources for classroom use, participants of the programme reportedly showed marked interest in the language and progress in their proficiency. Now in its 25th year, Star-NiE is continuing its role of promoting the use of English language through a weekly activity page in StarEdu. These activities are suitable for use individually and in groups, at home and in the classroom, across varied proficiency levels. Parents and teachers are encouraged to work on the activities with their children and students. In addition, Star-NiE’s BRATs Young Journalist Programme will continue to be a platform for participants to hone and showcase their English language skills, as well as develop their journalistic interests and instincts. Follow our updates at facebook.com/niebrats. For Star-NiE enquiries, email starnie@thestar.com.my.
