Bad Habits: Warm-Up

Bad Habits: Warm-Up

1. 
   What are some things that you do like to do every day?
   
2. 
   What are some things that you should do every day that you don’t always?
   
3. 
   You are about to read an article about bad habits. With a partner, try to predict the content by writing down a list of common bad habits.
   
4. 
   What’s the best way to break a bad habit?
   

Reading: Bad Habits to Break to Improve Our Lives

1. When things don’t turn out as planned, excuses arise. We find convenient ways to rationalize why we couldn’t or wouldn’t do something. These excuses waste time and prevent us from moving forward. This can create cycles. Stubbornly, we procrastinate, believing that tomorrow is more convenient than today.

2. Interconnectivity distracts us from completing tasks efficiently. The internet is full of shallow content meant to temporarily grab our attention. After a distraction, research by professor Gloria Mark has shown it takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds to completely return to a task. By putting away our smartphones, we can engage in the kind of deep work needed for productivity. Furthermore, though people may claim they are great at multitasking, research shows that 98% of us cannot do it well.

3. We often believe that saying ‘No’ is impolite or unfriendly. As a result, we say ‘Yes’ to everything, often at the expense of our own personal time and schedule.

4. With the rise of social media, it has become much easier to compare ourselves to others. What’s worse, we often compare ourselves to empty projections of someone’s outward appearance that may not even reflect a lived reality. This can make us insecure and discontent.

5. Our minds are full of trivial commentary, doubts, and criticisms. We let these inner voices consume our existence. Lost in mental noise, we neglect the beauty of the present moment.