gateway habits

I was thinking today about how so many of my good habits are gateway habits, not the actual activity I want to be doing.

In other words … my writing habit is to simply open my laptop every day. I keep track of it. Did I open my laptop? If so, I get a checkmark for the day.

Because it’s a gateway habit to actually writing.

Of course, now that it’s open, I might as well do something while I’m there. But keeping it at the forefront of my mind makes it so much easier to get words down.

My exercise habit is to check in at the gym. Just … have them scan my phone. That’s it. If the front desk has scanned my phone, I’ve done the habit.

I don’t worry about how much or the type of exercise I do. I just have to show up.

Because showing up is so much of the work.

Now, obviously, since I’m there, I might as well make use of it. But I used to have such a mental barrier to actually opening my laptop or suiting up to exercise. Thinking I had to get down thousands of words or log so much time.

Making the habit so much simpler has given me this great sense of accomplishment. Oh, and incidentally, I’ve been writing daily and working out several times a week.

This is obviously from James Clear’s Atomic Habits, and all I have to say is that it works. If there is something in your life that you want to change, break it down to a much simpler gateway habit.

If you want to drink more water, you just have to fill up the glass. Or if you want to read a book, you have to open it. Something where you it’s so easy that you don’t psyche yourself out of it because it’s too hard to do. If my goal were that I was going to run on the treadmill for thirty minutes six days a week, I’d do it for a few weeks and then quit. But making it a goal to check into the gym 3-4 days a week is eminently doable.

If I come across anything that I want to change, this is how I think: can I break this down into something so simple that I can’t come up with any excuses not to do it? If so, that’s my new habit.