Productivity Arata! So you want to create a new habit? And you want it to be easy? Okay, for that I bring you a very simple tip that will serve you well as you cultivate any sort of habit that you think will improve your quality of life—eating more healthfully, going to the gym, developing good study habits, curbing your tendency to complain…
By the way, congratulations on watching this video, because you know that the great achievements in life are not made through the effort of a single day. To achieve great results, to get to where you really want to be, you must act consistently every day, even if just a little bit.
1. Complexity is the enemy of implementation.
Arata Academy has different online courses in various topics related to our motto: “Your continued improvement”.
That’s why we speak here about all these aspects of life: better relationships, better communication, better professional performance (for you who are employed), better entrepreneurial attitude if you have your own business, better study skills to prepare for examinations if you want to be a public servant. We are also preparing materials in several new areas to continue bringing you what you need to follow the motto, “Your continued improvement”.
I want to explain this because occasionally people get confused, thinking that Arata Academy is only about productivity or just about entrepreneurship. Not at all! Arata Academy is EVERYTHING related to continued improvement. By the way, watch a video that talks about continued improvement in this link.
Besides Arata Academy we have a parallel initiative which is natugood where all the discussion is focused on wellness, nutrition, and fitness.
And the reason I tell you all this is the following:
Many people contact us, through both Arata Academy and also natugood, telling their personal stories and asking for help. After seeing a few tens of thousands of messages, we realize a very clear pattern:
When a person has great willingness to change habits, to instil a new habit, the excitement and anxiety are so great that there is a tendency to complicate things. They tend to believe that a complicated plan is more powerful. Nothing could be further from the truth. Write this down: Complexity is the enemy of implementation.
The more complex your plan, the more confused you get. You will get lazier, will forget all the details. When there are too many instructions, when the plan is too detailed, you’ll get tired before you start. You procrastinate, and in the end, you will do nothing.
2. Keep things simple.
Since the complexity will slow you down, keep things simple. That’s why I’m recording this video for you. What is the simplest way of all for you to implement a habit?
Take a big calendar. Stick it to the wall. Take a red pen and hang it from the side. Starting today you perform the activity you want to become a habit. Imagine for example that you want to create the habit of studying every day. You will study, then get up, go to the calendar and make a nice big red X on today’s date. Excellent! Tomorrow you repeat and put another X. If you do this for one week you will notice that you’ve just completing an entire row, almost like you’re playing BINGO. It’s nice to look at that row, at that growing chain of multiple red Xs.
Simplicity is the following: for you to create a new habit, there are three rules, just as someone said in a famous movie:
Rule number one to create new habit: do not let the chain break.
Rule number two to create new habit: do not let the chain break.
Rule number three to create new habit: do not let the chain break.
It’s simple like that. Do not complicate it more than that.
Two quick comments: The first one is that you can now download an eBook, How to Create and Change Habits here in this link.
And for you who are already Productivity Ninja course students, you can log in to the students’ area, and you will find that today I put up new bonus material, which includes several special links with tools and applications to help you. If you are already a student, go ahead and log in now. If you have any difficulties, please contact the team here in this link, which is our official channel of communication. Please do not ask questions or make requests on social media or on YouTube comments, because our team responds only to messages sent on the official channel. Again, if you are not a student, you can still visit this link now and download our eBook about how to create and modify habits.