Creating good habits

It is amazing how often I tell my students how important it is to create good habits and how rarely they listen to my good advice. It is even more amazing how rarely I take my own good advice.  

Ok, so I'm sold on this whole "creating good habits" premise, but how does one go about doing so?  We all know that bad habits are easy to slip into; a few days of slouching at your computer and (Bam!) you're slouching all the time.  We all know that bad habits are hard to break; just try breaking (or ask someone who has) a nail or pen biting habit.  Many people have heard the old adage that it takes 21 days to make or break a habit.  One thing that people don't realize is that those are 21 consecutive days.  Good habits need consistent effort to create and maintain.  

Technology can be leveraged in order to help remember the different habits you are trying to build.  Reminders are helpful during those 21 days so that you don't miss any in an effort to create those good habits but I caution anyone going this route against using an app created just for this one task in mind.  It's better to use an app that you are already using (your calendar app, your to do or task app) so that you are not creating too much stress on yourself trying to remember to check a new app so that you remember to do all of these new, great, habits that you are trying to foster.  

There are many ways that you can use automation services such as IFTTT and Zapier in order to use the Web 2.0 services that you are already using to remind you to do the habits that you are trying to create.  For me, I have Zapier scheduling weekly (for my weekly tasks ) activate Google Tasks which is synced with my favorite To Do app called To Do Tomorrow which I have been using for years.  For me it just works because I have some tasks that I do once a week and some I do every day.  Any questions on using these services, feel free to ask in the comments!