Introduction
Have you ever felt so far gone from your life that you felt like you were a lost hope? Like there was no way to change, just stuck in your own ways? A lot of us have been there, especially as young adults navigating through life and college just hoping to survive and make something of ourselves… it’s easy to fall down a slippery slope of burnout before our whole lives start to fall apart. I’m here to show that things can change, and things can really get better, one day at a time.
My name is Ariane and I am a 4th year student at OSU who went from being a straight A, goal driven, and organized student in highschool, to a de-motivated and overall tired young adult in college. Over the past 3-4 years I have gotten a little bit better at not procrastinating and building my motivation and a routine, but experiencing frequent life changes and even changing my major has brought lots of inconsistency to my routine. It was beyond overdue for a change, so I did this in hopes to build myself back up to the put together individual I once was and creating stability in my life.
My purpose, my goal, my WHY
As stated earlier, within the past few years alone I have encountered many changes in my life, whether it had to do with adjusting to new classes after changing my major, relocating to a new home, jumping between jobs, or trying to balance keeping up with rigorous school work while maintaining my mental health. I’ve spent far too long living an inconsistent lifestyle, being on and off with a good routine just to fall off of it a couple months later, then repeating the process. Now its been my goal to implement concrete habits into my lifestyle that will allow me to keep up with my tasks even when life is throwing a lot at me. How did I do it? By creating a SMART goal!
So… what is a SMART goal? Simply put, SMART goals are goals that are:
- Specific : can you narrow down what it is that you want to accomplish?
- Measurable : can the goal and your progress be tracked over time?
- Attainable : can you achieve this goal within a reasonable time frame?
- Realistic : is it possible for you to even achieve this goal?
- Time – bound : how long will working towards this goal take? Is there a deadline?
My SMART goal was to challenge myself for the rest of the semester by implementing at least 2 new personal and academic tasks into my routine each day, working my way up to 4 tasks completed each day. These 4 tasks I monitored were going to help with my procrastination, motivation, and to add a bit more structure to my daily routine.
The book that got me going
To help me get started on this new journey of mine, I chose to read a book called Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results by Stephen Guise. I chose it because straight off the title, it related to my situation and what I wanted to accomplish, which was working on small day to day habits that would make a huge difference in my everyday routine and in my life overall. This book is all about curating mini habits, starting with growth strategies and ways to implement them, and even discussing the mental aspects behind our actions, like how creating mini habits can improve our mental health and improving self autonomy.
The book really connected to my goal by giving tips on how to not only start doing these new habits, but it gave some insight as to why was I stalling on starting a new routine for myself, and how I could get my brain to defeat itself and just do what it is that I want to do.
What did I do?: Strategies and ideas
The first strategy I implemented from the book was pacing myself and starting very small. I knew I couldn’t just immediately get myself to doing several new habits at once, so the book suggested that starting with even just one new habit a day and gradually working my way up would help get me into the rhythm of a new lifestyle. Another strategy that I still working on but implemented here and there was a reward system for when I accomplished my goals. Having a reward system is important because “Success leads to more success”(Guise, 2013, p. 93). In the book, Guise also talks about how rewards encourage repeat behavior, and how it can even help restore your willpower to accomplish things. Now this was a little hard because I wasn’t sure what to consider as a reward, or even what to reward myself with, considering I would always reward myself with whatever I wanted. Because of that, I had to learn how to build resistance to doing whatever I wanted to do, with things still left to be done.
Monitoring my progress
A good method to tracking my progress as recommended in the book was to use a calendar. On page 95, Guise talks about using something like a dry erase board to write all of your habits on, and marking off the days on a calendar that you complete them. I did something like that for both of my tracking methods, but in my case I decided to also include the days when I rewarded myself and what I rewarded myself with. Take a look:
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Tracking method one: pro-retro calendar. Here, I listed out each of the 4 tasks I wanted to focus on and checked off which ones I completed that day. These tasks included making my bed, going to the gym, doing my homework and studying, and doing the dishes. If I met the number of tasks I was supposed to complete that day, I would check the box for “yes”. If I failed to meet that number of tasks, I checked the box “no”. Each week I was supposed to meet a certain number each day, and if I was consistent for 3-4 days or more, I rewarded myself (which is shown what day I rewarded myself too). Each week I also increased the number of tasks I wanted to complete each day by one, starting with two tasks, ending with four on the final week. I found this method to be the quickest and the easiest because I could just write down what I did on my iPad.
Tracking method two: excel sheet for tracking. This was sort of like the calendar… just not a calendar. This one wasn’t too bad either, but not as quick as just turning on my iPad.
Major takeaways, what I learned, final words to those who just needed a push:
The first main thing I learned from doing this is that it really is that easy to get started on change. You don’t have to do a complete 180 on your life in one night. Think of what you want in the long run. What are some super, ridiculously small and easy steps to take you there? My goal was to begin with at least 2 tasks per day and work my way up to 4, which I was able to do.
Another important thing is that it’s gonna take time. All good things come with time and patience, and giving yourself a chance. I learned that I’m not perfect, and I did slack off sometimes during this mini experiment (which to this day I am still working on), but overall I accomplished more than I expected to. My only hope is that since I’ve been doing these tasks is that I can stay consistent with it and not fall off like I usually would, but I guess only time will tell.
This project showed me that I am bigger than my problems and I am capable of more than I think- it just takes time! I’ve had so much trouble with motivation, procrastination, and burnout, but doing little things everyday has helped with giving me some peace of mind knowing that even if I had a bad day, at least I can come home to a clean room with my bed made, at least the dishes got done, at least my homework is finished, and at least I may even has the time to go to the gym to help alleviate some of the stress.
I highly encourage any and everyone out there who feels like time has run out for them or like there’s no use in trying to at least start with one new habit a day. Just one can take you really far, even if it’s something small. Make sure to record your progress if you can and even give yourself a pat on the back for doing something. Be kind to yourself and get started!
References
Guise, S. (2013). Mini Habits Smaller Habits, Bigger Results. CreateSpace Publishing.
