Loading practices
Loading practices
Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Structure and routine
Most people who grew up being organised at have some resistance to this, and it makes sense. So make it yours in a literal way: it holds the things you care about, in your words, including the ones nobody else would think to put in. A system that only tracks other people's demands is one you will quietly sabotage.
Celebrate His praise during the night, and at the beginning and end of the day, so that you may find contentment (Quran 20:130). Even a fixed practice is pointed there at the good it does the person keeping it.
طه
فَٱصۡبِرۡ عَلَىٰ مَا يَقُولُونَ وَسَبِّحۡ بِحَمۡدِ رَبِّكَ قَبۡلَ طُلُوعِ ٱلشَّمۡسِ وَقَبۡلَ غُرُوبِهَاۖ وَمِنۡ ءَانَآيِٕ ٱلَّيۡلِ فَسَبِّحۡ وَأَطۡرَافَ ٱلنَّهَارِ لَعَلَّكَ تَرۡضَىٰ
so [Prophet] be patient with what they say- celebrate the praise of your Lord, before the rising and setting of the sun, celebrate His praise during the night, and at the beginning and end of the day, so that you may find contentment
Qur’an 20:130read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
In a study of people building a flossing habit, how automatic the new behaviour became was shaped by where it sat relative to an existing routine, alongside past behaviour and motivation. Motivation turns up there as part of the mechanism rather than as an afterthought. It is a small observational study of one behaviour, so it points a direction rather than settling anything.
Judah G, Gardner B, Aunger R. (2013). Forming a flossing habit: an exploratory study of the psychological determinants of habit formation.. British journal of health psychology doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
You keep up the things that serve your own goals and abandon the things you carry for other people.
Attach a new habit to one you already do: after wudu, I read one page.
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?
When you set your own deadline, watch what happens to it. Thursday becomes Friday, Friday becomes Monday, and it helps to know what that slide actually costs rather than guessing at it.