Find your MAP to your Habits

Feb 2, 2022 | Maria Benzo | @mvbenzo | Comments (12)

To change or incorporate a new habit is difficult.

I want to share Tiny Habits®, a method designed by a scientist at Stanford University, Dr. BJ Fogg, that you may find useful (I do). For starters, habit formation is a skill, the more you practice the better you get, but Tiny Habits aims to rewire the brain to make your habit second nature.

For any behavior change to happen there are three ingredients: first motivation to do the behavior, second is the ability to do the behavior and the third is a prompt or anything that reminds you to do the desired behavior. Yeah! When those three ingredients come together at the same moment the behavior happens, it creates a pathway in your brain for further changing your behavior

A secret to start planning is to make the behavior really easy to incorporate. Identify the smallest (tiny) version of the habit that you want to incorporate in your life. When we say habit we mean an actionable behavior, not a long-term outcome. For example, a behavior can be "eat one fruit per day" which is different from an outcome "lose weight". We want to focus on tiny actionable behaviors that are easy to accomplish. A little advice…lower your expectations: Take any new habit you want and scale it back so it's super tiny and simple so that it's almost like you have no excuse not to do it. So even when you're in a rush or you're sick or you're distracted, it's so tiny you can still do it.

Then you find where the tiny change fits (anchor) naturally in your existing routine. For example, do you turn on your computer each day, do you brush your teeth, do you prepare a cup of coffee, do you put on shoes? Any repeated action that you already are in the habit of doing daily can serve as an anchor moment for you to attach the new habit that you want.

Then every time you do this tiny change you need to fire off a positive emotion (a celebration). It can be a "Woohoo!", a fist pump, a smile, a happy dance, it can be whatever makes you feel good.

Like mnemonics? Check this...There are three things to consider when choosing your new habit and this can be summarized in the acronym MAP.

M: Motivation; Why is this new habit important to you? Why does it matter that you do it?

A: Ability; Is this behavior doable? Is this something within your control?

P: Prompt: When will you do it? What will be your Anchor moment?

So here you have it, find your MAP to your new habits, and make your own recipe so it will work.
Then, just do it.

Related blog posts:
The power of tiny actions

Interested in more newsfeed posts like this? Go to the Health & Mindfulness blog.

cathypeirson | @cathypeirson | Feb 3, 2022

Love this!

Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Feb 12, 2022

In reply to @cathypeirson "Love this!" + (show)

Hi Cathy, good to “see” you again. What small tiny habit would you like to start to MAP?

Laurie, Volunteer Mentor | @roch | Feb 13, 2022

Great blog,
What has worked for me is attaching a new habit to an existing habit / task as author suggested. Example, every morning while coffee brewing I unpack dishwasher. In kitchen already waiting for coffee, it is easy to put dishes away at same time. I always make coffee so simple logic to add another task to existing task. But before I started doing this, the dirty dishes seem to always stack up because dishwasher was full.

Another great book is "The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business", by Charles Duhigg. The interesting part of the Power of Habit is they explain how big business use habits to influence our shopping decisions.

Laurie

cathypeirson | @cathypeirson | Feb 13, 2022

In reply to @colleenyoung "Hi Cathy, good to “see” you again. What small tiny habit would you like to start..." + (show)

Hi Colleen, I really want to get back into watercolor again and have entered a calendar event (MAP) in my MSS daily. That time is for me to play with paints and be creative. I purchased a nice sketchpad and sometimes just draw, continue working on a painting I've already started, or add a mindful thought. The big difference from before it that I don't feel I need to finish....just do a 'piece'. I find that I really look forward to that daily.

Jennifer, Volunteer Mentor | @jenniferhunter | Feb 13, 2022

In reply to @cathypeirson "Hi Colleen, I really want to get back into watercolor again and have entered a calendar..." + (show)

@cathypeirson Hi Cathy. I'm glad you are finding creative time helpful in your life. I am all for that! I am a watercolorist myself and also paint in oil and making artwork lets me connect the things in my life and understand their meaning if I ask myself why I wanted to paint something specific. If you get serious about painting, there is the Scottsdale Artist School near you where you can take workshops. They do have some good and well known artists who come in to teach there.

You may also enjoy this Connect discussion on art and healing https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/art-for-healing

cathypeirson | @cathypeirson | Feb 13, 2022

Thank you! I am interested in SAC and have looked into classes.

my46th | @my46th | May 1, 2022

I think this is nervousness: shaky hands when doing a dressing on a patient, or sometimes giving simple injections even i do it everyday. Most of all when giving reports to hospitalists or even my nursing assistants. When i need to see my own GP for my own back injury, my hands are so shaky it is so shameful. I tried to analize myself and thought maybe because I also work with him sometimes.
I find myself disorganized too, at home or at work.
I write a list of chores for the day for example: putting in laundry in the washer, and then cleaning the 2 bathrooms while waiting for my 1hr. laundry. At end of the day I forget to put the laundry in the dryer and I don't finish the first bathroom either, because I find myself doing other things for example when I see there are towels that needs to be put away. When I go to another room where i have to put the towels, I see chores to do there therefore forgot to continue cleaning the bathroom and the wet clothes that should be put in the dryer. In that room where I put the towels, if I think I need the vacuum, I will go downstairs to get it, but then I get the urge to vacuum downstairs too, so that I will not finish the 2 first chores in my list. At the end of the day, I will only accomplish one in my list.
Same scenario happens at work, i will make a list of tasks: focused assessment for 8-9 patients, wound dressings in between sheduled medications and helping my assistant with personal care for at least 4 patients. At the end of the shift, I feel so disorganized and not confident that I have done my best, and did only 2 of the wound dressings. I reflect on my day and I cannot remember why I got out of track, it is all like a blur.
Oh i remember that most of my patients have behavioral issues or 1-2 of them are on delirium. 😀
Good thing the next nurse are always considerate.
So..I thought mindfulness will help me, but where do I start. What is there that needs to be change in my routine?

bebeerose03 | @bebeerose03 | May 1, 2022

Thank you ! I needed this.

Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | May 13, 2022

In reply to @my46th "I think this is nervousness: shaky hands when doing a dressing on a patient, or sometimes..." + (show)

@my46th

Jump to this post

Oh my @my46th. Just reading your note makes my head spin. I know that scenario all too well, especially that part "I need the vacuum, I will go downstairs to get it, but then I get the urge to vacuum downstairs too, so that I will not finish the 2 first chores in my list"

You would like to start practising mindfulness to see if it will help. But you don't know how to get started. @mvbenzo @paulalina @cstaryos might have some ways to get started.

Here's a good place to get started:
- Practicing Mindfulness: 15 Tips on Meditation Practice https://connect.mayoclinic.org/blog/mindfulness-in-health/newsfeed-post/15-practical-tips-on-mindfulness-meditation/