Habits Archives - The Art of Improvement

How to Change Your Bad Habits

Do you have a bad habit or two? Most people do. While good habits can be helpful, and make it easier to live happy, healthy lives, bad habits can make things more difficult to achieve our goals, and to be the people we want to be.

So if you have a bad habit that’s creating problems for you, it should be easy to just stop doing it, right? Well, no. As most people would agree, it’s not that easy. Stopping a bad habit can be nearly impossible depending on how deeply rooted or physically addictive that habit may be. But turning it into a better habit, could be the trick to making the change.

So how do you change a bad habit into a good habit?

7 Smart Habits to Boost Mental Clarity

A common meme online says, “My brain is like an internet browser. I have 19 tabs open, 3 are frozen, and I have no idea where the music is coming from!” Sound familiar? With so many things to do and think about these days, you may well find yourself lost in brain fog, and wondering what to do about it.

Returning to a state of Mental Clarity can take time. But utilizing some strategies for reducing stress and reorganizing your thinking may help.

7 Habits Of Unsuccessful People You Don’t Want To Copy

What is success and how do you achieve it? Perhaps one of humanity’s most deep-rooted searches, ‘success’ is the ultimate power card available to each of us. In the search for true self-pride, we humans will push our minds and bodies to their limits. Perhaps that’s why you’re here.

To be successful, you must surely focus on what to do, right? Knowing what to avoid can be just as, if not more helpful. If you don’t know the habits of a typical unsuccessful person, then seeds of unwanted behaviours may grow without you realising. Cutting them out at the root before they’ve had a chance to prosper is a good start.

The Life-Changing Power of a Daily Walking Habit

Go to any city or town anywhere in the world and you’ll find people walking around. Only you know where you’re going, but do you know what’s happening to your body and mind when you walk around? Chances are you don’t, at least not to the fullest extent.

Of course, there’s a difference between walking to a destination and just going for a daily walk. You’re more likely to feel the benefits if you’re not looking at a watch every two minutes. Even so, the physical and mental advantages are there.

7 Micro-Habits That Will Completely Change Your Life in a Year

For many people, every New Year comes with the New Year’s Resolution. These usually take the shape of fairly life-changing goals, such as finding a new job or finally getting ripped for the summer.

However, such a mindset is destined for failure.

Sure, it’s a good idea to have overarching goals. They provide a sense of focus and a general direction to head towards. But it isn’t sustainable. Think about it, if you woke up every day telling yourself “I need to find a job”, the enormity of it all will weigh heavy. You can’t just find the perfect role with the click of your fingers. If anything, a constant reminder of your overarching goal will weigh you down.

5 Habits You Should Avoid to Become Highly Productive

Highly productive people have certain habits that other people don’t. What are they doing that sets them apart? How are they getting so much done, and achieving their goals? We all want to be successful, but what are we doing wrong?

Here are a few habits you really need to avoid, if you want to get on track with being highly productive.

How to Develop a Reading Habit

What was the name of the last book you read? Can’t remember? Well maybe it’s time to build a new reading habit! You may think you don’t have time to read. Or maybe you haven’t enjoyed reading much in the past.

Author J.K. Rowling suggests,

“If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.”

Finding a book that interests you can make all the difference in the world. And books aren’t the only reading material. There are all kinds of magazines, booklets, newspapers, and ebooks. You can read a paper book or get an ipad to hold your book collection. Whatever works best for you is just fine! The main thing is to start reading!

10 Habits That Damage Your Brain (and one that helps it!)

Robert Frost once quipped that:

“The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.”

And while Robert of course meant it as a joke, he was right about one thing — the brain is a wonderful organ. It’s one of the most complicated objects known to man, with 86 billion neurons and hundreds of billions of nerve fibers.

However, despite the delicate and complex nature of our brains, we often don’t do much to make sure it’s functioning properly, or to make sure we’re setting it up for long term health. In fact, you may have some habits that, left unchecked, could have serious consequences. These habits could actually damage your cognitive ability and increase your chances of developing complications like Alzheimer’s or dementia later in life.

So, if you’re wondering whether you’re setting your brain up for a long, healthy life, here are ten habits that might be causing your wonderful organ harm – and one habit that might actually be doing it quite a bit of good:

9 Things You Can Do to Change Your Life

Have you ever wondered what life would be like if you didn’t falter on your goals? Imagine checking all the boxes off your to-do list, reading a book a week, maintaining your work-life balance, and leading a healthy life. Dreamy, isn’t it?

In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear explains that it is possible, but maybe not the way you imagine. He writes that:

“Success is the product of daily habits — not-once-in-a-lifetime transformations.”

According to James, building habits is a never ending process. It is not about the end-goal, but about the journey leading to it.

10 Strategies to Help You Eliminate Your Procrastination Habit

Are you a chronic procrastinator? Do you often have thoughts like “Oh, it’ll be fine if I save this for tomorrow” or “That’s so far away, I don’t have to worry about it yet”?

If you find yourself procrastinating regularly, you’re probably stuck in a habit of procrastination. Eliminating your procrastination will mean eliminating your habit. But completely eliminating a habit is a difficult thing to do. Instead, it’s much easier to replace an existing habit with a new one.

Of course, the best way to do this is to replace your procrastination habit with a “get things done!” habit. That way, everytime you would have gone to procrastinate, you now do something else instead – your work!

Here are a few different strategies you can use to replace the procrastination habit with a “get things done” habit and finally kick the stress, anxiety, and overwhelm.