So, first, an apology for missing last week – I took vacation from the 5th through this coming Friday, so I was basically in weekend mode on the 4th and 5th – which means I completely spaced any kind of idea of writing the post. My bad.
I’m also hitting a specifically female time of life which is making me spacier than usual as well as having less energy. The culmination of which is that it took 5 days of doing bugger-all before I started on some much-needed house cleaning.
The point is that I’m pretty much running on habit at the moment, and anything that breaks the routine throws me badly. This isn’t exactly unusual: if you look at it closely, most of what most people do during the day is habit, not least because if we stopped to evaluate every decision we make during a day we’d never get anything done.
This matters a lot in terms of making things happen like, oh, words on a page. You get into a habit of doing something, and then when you start whatever your trigger routine happens to be the habit will kick in pretty much automatically. It’s like you’re telling your brain “it’s time to do this thing now”.
Of course, it can get kind of… interesting… when you’ve got a lot going on or you get thrown like I have been lately (lately being the last year or more. Don’t ask and I won’t rant at you). I’m pretty sure everyone here who has a regular commute has found themselves automatically taking their normal commute route when that wasn’t where they were going, just out of habit. Or – one of mine – going to the kitchen to refill my water bottle when I get up from the computer, even though what I actually wanted to do was use the bathroom. It’s just that when I get up it’s usually for more water so that’s the programmed default as it were.
Programmed defaults aren’t just for humans, either – the Husband and I have been having quite a lot of fun with the Bugger-cat and the Baby-cat lately, since both of them are having irritable bowel issues, and are on steroid medication as a result (the Baby-cat also has kidney disease which the medication is helping). After they get captured and tortured… ahem… medicated, the Husband usually has a little ice cream – and gives them a small amount as a treat. So now as soon as they’ve had their pill and their squirt of vitamin B supplement, the pair of them park where he typically gives them their little bit of ice cream and wait for their treat. It’s hilarious to watch. Her Royal Highness Princess Buttercup is of course above this sort of thing (not that her kitty rank stops her trying to steal chicken from my plate), most likely because she is perfectly healthy and not being subjected to the horrifying indignities of being given pills.
So yes. Habits matter. We program them into ourselves, and once you’ve programmed a bad one, the only effective way to get rid of it is to program a different one in its place. Everything I’ve read says it’s best to do this one bad habit at a time – a useful thing to know, that.
Now I just need to kick the habit of not putting a book down once I start the bloody thing. I can’t afford the late nights when I get caught in something and forget the time.
Mad Genius Club 
13 responses to “The Importance of Habits”
Running on habit? I guess. And powered by coffee fumes, tea, and lack of sleep. Whee~
Go to bed, chocolate rabbit.
I AM FUELED BY CHOCOLATE AND SUGAR TODAY
The world does not contain enough chocolate to fuel a sleepy Kate. I’m glad it gets you bouncing off walls.
The schedule at Day Job is changing. All of a sudden I woke in a cold sweat last month (!) terrified that something would be different from what it’s been for the past four years. Duh. I’ve gotten habituated to “do this at this time, break here, other thing at this time” and now… I’ll find out in August what the new routine is. I don’t like it already. 😉
Oh I hear you and sympathize. I went through that kind of upheaval in February when we moved location. Not fun. Still figuring out some of it.
I just assumed you were doin LibertyCon stuff then the 4th etc…
Alas, no. Liberty means flying, and flying is a pain in the anatomy these decades. I need something special to make that trip.
I just need to kick the habit of not putting a book down once I start the bloody thing
I quit reading for years because of this. Then Netflix happened and watching TV became just as bad: I’ll go to bed after one more episode. Doh! It was a cliff-hanger; just one more.
I’ve mostly switched back to reading.
Well, at least with TV you’re doing it in a comfy chair. I can’t have books in the bathroom or my reading habit will cause me to devour a book per visit.
23 skidoo
I misread this early in the morning as, “the importance of hubris”, to which I thought I heard a voice whisper: “Beware hubris.”
Oh, hubris is extremely important to avoid.