When I was a kid, I would start every school year with the best of intentions. I’d tell myself, This is the year I’ll be organized and disciplined. I’d buy all the right tools—fresh notebooks, post-its, label-makers—and convince myself that the new me would follow. But what I wasn’t doing was building the habit of being an organized person. I thought just having the tools would turn me into someone who actually uses them.
The real challenge was practicing being the person I wanted to be. It wasn’t just about buying new supplies; it was about living with the discomfort of doing things differently and enduring the tedium of making small changes to slowly build a working system.
For example, I used to jot down notes, ideas, and to-do lists in email drafts—a messy holding place I expected to organize “at some point.” But when I admitted that this wasn’t a system, just a dumping ground that wouldn’t fix itself, I wanted to turn it all around right away. My habit was to get a burst of energy to finally fix the mess, start with the best of intentions, and then drop it like it was on fire… because it felt like it was. It was too much, all at once. The work seemed obvious and easy: Just create a beautiful new system that would change my life in the most profound ways… in one afternoon. But that wasn’t possible.
When we’ve been in a behavior pattern for a long time, it takes time to turn that around in a significant and lasting way. And that’s not the feeling we’re looking for when we’ve decided to change. We don’t want an adjustment period, but our bodies and minds likely need one.
Instead of expecting myself to morph into some ideal version overnight, I had to be okay with small moves. My goal was to create a system for searchable, organized information. To achieve this, I made small choices. I had to pause my automatic response to dump info into my email drafts and accept the discomfort of taking a few moments longer to come up with a better choice.
It feels more exciting to do something big and hope for big results, but it’s much more useful to incorporate small changes and build longer-lasting habits. Over time, these small steps lead to real progress and can even bring genuine joy.
ACTION: Take one small step today towards building a new habit. Whether it’s organizing a single file or jotting down a to-do list, start with a small, manageable task that aligns with your goal. Notice the difference it makes, no matter how minor, and build on that progress.
