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Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Structure and routine
Watch for the all or nothing turn, because it is what usually ends these attempts. One missed entry, then the whole thing gets declared broken and abandoned by Friday. If you have missed three days this week, you have not failed at it, you have used it four. Open it again and put the next thing in.
God wants ease for you, not hardship (Quran 2:185). The measure set for a practice is meant to be one you can keep, not one that defeats you.
البقرة
شَهۡرُ رَمَضَانَ ٱلَّذِيٓ أُنزِلَ فِيهِ ٱلۡقُرۡءَانُ هُدࣰ ى لِّلنَّاسِ وَبَيِّنَٰتࣲ مِّنَ ٱلۡهُدَىٰ وَٱلۡفُرۡقَانِۚ فَمَن شَهِدَ مِنكُمُ ٱلشَّهۡرَ فَلۡيَصُمۡهُۖ وَمَن كَانَ مَرِيضًا أَوۡ عَلَىٰ سَفَرࣲ فَعِدَّةࣱ مِّنۡ أَيَّامٍ أُخَرَۗ يُرِيدُ ٱللَّهُ بِكُمُ ٱلۡيُسۡرَ وَلَا يُرِيدُ بِكُمُ ٱلۡعُسۡرَ وَلِتُكۡمِلُواْ ٱلۡعِدَّةَ وَلِتُكَبِّرُواْ ٱللَّهَ عَلَىٰ مَا هَدَىٰكُمۡ وَلَعَلَّكُمۡ تَشۡكُرُونَ
It was in the month of Ramadan that the Quran was revealed as guidance for mankind, clear messages giving guidance and distinguishing between right and wrong. So any one of you who is present that month should fast, and anyone who is ill or on a journey should make up for the lost days by fasting on other days later. God wants ease for you, not hardship. He wants you to complete the prescribed period and to glorify Him for having guided you, so that you may be thankful
Qur’an 2:185read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A meta-analysis of habit formation interventions found they increase how automatic a behaviour becomes, and its meta-regression looked at which parts of those programmes carry the effect. Automaticity builds by degrees rather than arriving whole. The trials concern physical activity, so the pattern is the transferable part rather than the numbers.
Haoming Ma; Aoqi Wang; Runyuan Pei; Meihua Piao (2023). Effects of habit formation interventions on physical activity habit strength: meta-analysis and meta-regression. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
The benefit rises with how much you use it, so anything above nothing counts for something.
If a young person hears your suggestion of a planner as one more instruction, they will refuse it, and the refusal is about who is in charge rather than about diaries. Hand over the choice of format and the choice of what goes in.
Rather than arguing that someone ought to get organised, ask one question. Would your life be better if fewer things slipped, fewer people were annoyed with you, and you spent less of the day worrying about what you had forgotten?
Put the demanding work where the energy is, not where the timetable happens to be convenient. Then alternate it with something they like, and break it up often.