Category Archives: Habits

The HabitBull App for Your Smartphone

Goal Achievement, Habits

HabitBull

“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.” ―Colin Powell

HabitBull & Habits

In this article I want to discuss this brilliant app that I have started using on my smartphone.  The app is called HabitBull and is available on Android and iOS.  I have used apps like this before to track my performance each day but this is the best one I have come across to date.  The app is very intuitive and has a very nice design.  The app is very customisable and allows you to track your daily habits in a way that suits you.  I have just started using the app in the past few days and already I am comfortable using it and I am excited about it.

Habits are key to Success

There can be no doubt about the fact that habits are key to our success.  As quoted above from Colin Powell excellence is about the little things that make up our lives.  What time do you get up in the morning?  Do you make your bed?  Do you brush your teeth? What do you eat for breakfast?  These are all small actions in themselves but at the end of the day these small actions build up to determine who we are.  In the last post I talked about planning and setting goals for the next 6 months to the end of 2019.  Habits are what will determine  whether or not you will achieve your goals.  As I finish writing this post I get to tick off on HabitBull my daily habit of spending one hour on doing something creative.  Let’s see where that habit takes me by the end of 2019!

Find out more

If you would like to learn more about HabitBull then please check out their website here.   You can track up to 5 habits using the free version of the app. so you have nothing to lose.  The premium version is less than $10 and so is inexpensive.   If you want to learn more about habits in general , how they are formed and broken etc then I cover the topic in detail in my course ‘Reinvent yourself: 30 Experiments in Personal Change‘.  Please click the above link to get the course for the discounted price of €12.99.  You can take the free course preview.  The course comes with a 100% money back guarantee if you are not satisfied.  

Best wishes,

Tom

PS  I have a limited number of FREE promo codes for the audio version of my book ‘Experiments in Personal Change’ on Audible.  If you would like a free audio book please email me – tcarroll ‘at’ lifeisalaboratory.com and I will send you a code to access the book.

The power of slow

Discipline, Goal Achievement, Habits
Slow down
The power of slow

I came across the saying above ‘One slow thing at a time is a powerful way to live’.  That saying has stuck with me for years and I find that it really helps me when I feel I have too much to do and I feel overwhelmed.  I just tell myself OK Tom just do one thing and do it slowly.   No pressure at all.  The sense of being torn between different things fades away and I get into doing one thing.  Also the sense of pressuring myself to do something quickly fades away.  I have given myself permission to do one thing and do it slowly.

Benefits of slow

Slow takes away the pressure my monkey mind is putting me under.  I have to get this, this and this done today.  Saying one slow thing at a time gives me permission to take my time and relax and do one thing and focus on it and enjoy it.  I become more present in the moment.  It is paradoxical because I find that telling myself do one slow thing at a time actually helps me get more done!  Multi-tasking is a myth.  What multi-tasking really means is rapidly switching between tasks.  Multi-tasking is really switch-tasking.  Every time we switch tasks there is a stop/start process that goes on in the brain and this stop starting process is energy sapping.  I feel that this is certainly true in my own case and I prefer to focus on only one task at a time.

Beating procrastination

I also find that telling myself to do one slow thing at a time helps me beat putting things off.  There is no need to procrastinate because I have given myself permission to do one thing slowly.  I think this reduces the energy barrier to starting something new because you have given yourself permission to do it slowly.

In summary

Doing one slow thing at a time is a powerful way to live.  The next time you are feeling overwhelmed or are procrastinating just pick one thing and give yourself permission to do it slowly.  Enjoy the slowness of it and watch yourself get more done.  Let the power of slow work in your life!

Best wishes,

Tom