4 key Atomic Habits I practiced to build a habit of playing Ukelele
Ukelele is a musical instrument that my spouse gifted me as an anniversary gift. Those who are not aware what it looks like, here’s an image of the instrument I was gifted. It is mini form of guitar with just four strings.
Out of excitement, I took online lessons on how to play Ukelele for some days. I would play it daily for an hour or so. But soon I began to loose interest to an extent that I would find it a daunting task to pick it up, tune it and then practice chords. Result — you guessed it- soon the instrument was lying at one corner of my room.
In mid-march, I started reading this book by James Clear on ‘Atomic Habits’. While I was reading it, I came across some powerful, sensible and practical advices, and I thought I’ll put some lessons in practice.
First, I reflected on what I did wrong. I rushed into learning a new thing and after few days, I gave up. I didn’t continue. So in order to make it a habit like running or reading, I knew I had to do it on a daily basis. So I made some changes in my routine based on what I learnt in the book.
1. Habit stacking.
Habit stacking means putting a new habit next to a current habit to make it a part of your lifestyle.
I reflected on my daily habits. I found that I usually pick a book to read, without fail, post dinner. I found this to be a good place to layer a new habit into my lifestyle. Hence, I decided I will pick up Ukelele after my daily ritual of reading.
2. Create a motivational ritual
It implies doing something you enjoy before a difficult habit or a new habit you intent to build.
This was the intent behind placing Ukelele practice next to reading a book. I enjoy reading, especially in the evening, after my work day is over. I find it relaxing and feel good about it. I could easily use the good vibes and mood to build a new habit like playing Ukelele.
3. Reducing Friction
Decreasing the steps between you and your habit that you want to develop.
To ensure that I may not excuse myself after reading session, I decided to pick up Ukelele along with the book and place it near me. As a result, it became easy for me to switch from reading to playing Ukelele. One might find this ridiculous, but often, laziness takes over me especially towards end of the day and I usually avoid or delay doing tasks which makes me to move from one spot to another. This minor change of picking and placing ukelele next to me proved to be a critical in this entire process.
4. Two (2) minute rule
Two (2) minute rule implies downscaling your habit until it can be done in 2 minutes.
Last time, I found it difficult to learn Ukelele ‘everyday’. Hence I used two minute rule to overcome this. This means, I wrote what would be two minute version of ‘playing Ukelele’ look like:
Playing Ukelele becomes “Tune in Ukelele daily”
The idea was to make it as easy as possible to begin and stick to it. Because once you start doing right thing, it becomes easier to continue doing it. It does not feel like a challenge. This two minute habit is often termed as ‘gateaway habit’ that naturally leads to more productive path.
In few days, I moved from tuning Ukelele to practicing finger and warming up exercises. This happened because of the mind-shift change. I was anyway picking Ukelele, so why not run my fingers on it for some more time.
Currently, I am playing Ukelele for 20 minutes daily, practicing some chords. Have learnt to play some beginner’s songs as well! In just approx. 40 days, I can see a progression and I feel happy about it.
Not just for playing Ukelele, I am using my learnings from the book to change my other habits as well — like keeping up with my blogging. Fingers crossed on this one. By the way, this post is the result of it.
In case you have read this amazing book ‘Atomic Habits’ and putting some lessons to practice, please share your experience in the comment box. Otherwise also, please drop in your comments if you enjoyed reading this piece. Stay safe and stay sane!
