3 ways to stick with your New Year's resolution in 2020, according to a habit journal company that is one of Amazon's best small businesses
- Self-improvement is a challenge, but the award-winning cofounders of Habit Nest say you'll be more successful if you commit at least three days to a new challenge.
- Habit Nest was recently awarded Amazon's best small business with owners under 30, and Business Insider asked the cofounders for their best piece of advice for successful New Year's Resolutions.
- Other techniques they recommend include creating "real-world notifications" or triggers, and sharing your journey with others to hold yourself accountable.
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Every January, nearly half of US adults have resolutions for the coming year. But by February many of us have given up, and less than 20% of Americans polled by Business Insider expect resolutions to last through December.
Entrepreneur Mikey Ahdoot knows this frustration first-hand.
When Ahdoot graduated from the University of Southern California in 2013, he was "pretty damn pissed off" about his life. He was self-conscious about his weight, energy, motivation, and lack of discipline, all of which he felt were undermining his happiness.
After brainstorming ways to change his life, he realized that cultivating and refining new daily habits were key to his personal growth.
So Ahdoot and two friends decided to codify the process that they now market with a line of daily habit journals through their business, Habit Nest.
Habit Nest's journals, which are available in printed or pdf formats, are more of a workbook than a typical diary. Each includes exercises and prompts tailored toward goals like productivity planning, daily nutrition, and physical fitness.
The company recently won Amazon's Small Business of the Year award for owners under 30, and the team's approach has helped hundreds of people start - and stick to - new daily habits.
Business Insider asked Ahdoot and cofounder Amir Banayan to share their top tips for sticking to New Year's Resolutions, and here's what they said.
Stick with a new habit for 3 days
Ahdoot's number one tip is this:
- Make a diehard commitment to sticking with a new habit for three days. I mean diehard. Like a saw could come flying out of the sky and cut your arm off and you would still get that done - it could be eating a certain way, waking up at a certain time, doing a gratitude practice, or whatever.
What this does is:
- Gives you a short window to practice discipline.
- Creates a pact with yourself that you know you'll stick to, which builds confidence.
- Gives you time to taste doing that habit and see if you actually enjoy it or not.
- Removes the fear that this is something you have to do for life and that it's so hard. The first three days of changing behavior for anything are drastically harder than the rest.
Use "real-world notifications" to stay on track
Because Habit Nest journals rely on pen and paper, they aren't able to attract your attention like an app on your phone.
To get the most out of the journals, Ahdoot recommends creating a sort of "real-world notification" or trigger that serves as your cue to use the notebook, like leaving it on your pillow or nightstand.
"You need a trigger to use this journal consistently, so we recommend putting it somewhere where you need to interact with it every day," he said.
Ahdoot and cofounder Ari Banayan said this technique is helpful in other ways as well, like practicing gratitude or mindfulness throughout the day.
"We're constantly reacting to things during the day, right? We are like reaction machines," Banayan said. But those emotions can serve as a reminder to reinforce new habits: "By becoming aware of my reactions, I can change them."
Ahdoot and Banayan don't claim to have invented these methods. These reframing techniques have been widely and empirically applied with success in everything from zen meditation to cognitive behavioral therapy.
Get other people involved in your journey
When Ahdoot first started experimenting with new habits, he promised friends on Facebook that he would pay them $10 if he was late to meet them somewhere.
"This curbed my lateness habit real quick (for a total cost of $40)," he said.
Habit Nest journals include a page of accountability questions to help users stay consistent with their effort and focused on their goals.
Prior research has shown that simply articulating a goal in specific terms helps people stay on track, and that some of us perform better when we feel like people are watching.
Whether your goals include getting healthier, being more productive, starting a business, or taking your career in a new direction, you'll probably need to build some new habits to achieve your goals. Using these three tips could help you make sure you succeed.