Three Times a Week is a Habit
By Tana M. Mann Easton, Lead Efficiency Engineer
Readers of this blog may have noticed that I reference the Before Breakfast podcast with Laura Vanderkam quite often. Laura Vanderkam is a successful author, speaker, and podcaster who looks at time logs for successful professionals and analyzes how people actually spend their time. In a recent episode of her podcast, Laura said that, generally speaking, performing a habit three times a week is a habit in her opinion.
I found this statement by a figure I look up to as incredibly liberating. So many of us, myself included, think that if we want to say we have a habit, that means we do it daily. There’s a perfectionist bend to this way of thinking that often sets us up for failure because doing anything shy of brushing our teeth every day is sometimes a tall order. But for someone like Laura to say that she considers anything she (or others) does three times a week as a habit, it opens the horizons of what is possible to implement as a habit in my life. For example, as I get older, I have a desire to incorporate more strength training and stretching into my life. However, my weird brain seems to think I need to do these activities every day in order for it to be good enough. But when I think of finding the time for each of these activities every day in addition to what I already do, the prospect becomes overwhelming. However, when I consider finding time for these activities only three times a week, the prospect seems more doable. And practically speaking, three times a week is definitely better than zero times a week for both activities.
Are there any goals in your life that you’re not starting because you feel like you need to do them every day? Does three times a week seem more manageable? If so, get started at the lower frequency and call it a habit.
If you or your team would like to sign up for our 2 hour Balance and Productivity training to instantly double your meaningful output and find the feeling of lasting flow and optimized work life balance, please email me at tana@focustoevolve.com and say hello!
With Sincere Gratitude,
Tana at Focus to Evolve