How to Use Google Calendar Notifications to Support Atomic Habits, 2022

The guide Atomic Habits, by James Clear, is among the most in-style self-help books available on the market at the moment. We gained dive too deeply into the content material of this guide, however, in this article, you’ll discover ways to make the most of Google Calendar to take motion on the important thing behaviors James highlights in his guide.

If you’re completed with this text, you’ll have a Google Calendar system that may allow you to create new habits to hit your life targets and finish dangerous habits which can be holding you again.

What Are Atomic Habits?

In his guide Atomic Habits, James Clear dives deeply into the psychology behind why some individuals are capable of making good habits stick, and put dangerous habits to mattresses.

The important thing takeaways from his self-help guide are:

• Success in life comes from small, incremental enhancements over time, created by good habits.
• Fairly than specializing in big-picture targets, give attention to creating an efficient habits-based system.
• Change habits by analyzing your “ideally suited” id, and crafting your habits to assist that id – who you want to turn into.

An important takeaway of this guide is the 4 Legal guidelines of Habits Change.

1. Make it apparent: Write down your current habits, together with the dangerous ones you wish to do away with, and the brand new ones you wish to create.
2. Make it engaging: Pair a behavior that you simply get pleasure from doing after a behavior you might want to do however could not get pleasure from fairly as a lot.
3. Make it straightforward: Arrange your atmosphere so that issues like making a wholesome breakfast are very straightforward to do within the morning, and embrace reminders that’ll set off that behavior.
4. Make it satisfying: Observe your behavior by checking it off on a calendar or whiteboard every time you fill it that day.

In response to Clear, your atmosphere is the important thing aspect that fosters change. For those who use Google Calendar day by day anyway, you may tailor it in a manner that helps your efforts towards conducting change.

1. Get Your Habits Prepared for Google Calendar

For those who haven’t learned this guide but (however it's best to!) I'll stroll you thru fast steps to gather your habits in preparation for loading them into Google Calendar. 

The thought is that you might want to work your manner out of your “id” checklist to the precise habits and their frequency. That is the “make it apparent” half. A Google Sheets spreadsheet is the proper device to make use of for this.

Create three columns known as Identification, Habits, and Frequency.

Fill out the spreadsheet utilizing the straightforward examples above as information. The id column must be private id statements that type the core constructive beliefs you've gotten about who you're as an individual. 

The Habits column lists each day's habits that assist these constructive identities. And eventually, the Frequency column will element how typically you propose to apply these constructive habits.

Observe: This course won't cowl stopping dangerous habits, as a result of Google Calendar is primarily the device you’ll use to encourage and provoke good habits. Learn Atomic Habits in case you’re focused on studying the right way to cease dangerous habits as effectively.  

2. Schedule Habits as Google Calendar Occasions

Along with your checklist in a single hand, log in to Google Calendar (at calendar.google.com) together with your Google account, and beginning with the day of this week that you simply wish to begin the behavior, create a brand new occasion. It will obtain the “make it straightforward” part of behavior planning.

Default reminders aren’t enabled in Google Calendar so you’ll customize these occasion particulars to work in your habits.

For instance, if I wish to do three 60 second planks day by day, I’ll strive to do them very first thing within the morning earlier than I prepare for work. This implies I want a day occasion notification at 6:30 for that behavior.

To make sure you’re reminded to do that day by day, set the dropdown recurring frequency (set to “Don't repeat” by default) to the frequency you wish to do this behavior. 

In this case, I wish to do that day by day earlier than preparing for work, so the proper frequency for that's to set the dropdown to Each weekday.

Select the proper frequency in your personal behavior.

Subsequently, you’ll wish to obtain a reminder when the time comes. Default notifications have a sleep delay added to them. To repair this, click on Add notification and set the snooze to 0 minutes earlier than the occasion.

Work via every one of the habits you wish to be sure you’re doing every week or month, on the frequency that you simply' Ve outlined. 

For instance, as soon as I’m completed organizing my morning behavior routine in Google Calendar, the morning schedule seems like this:

Every one of those habits contains the automated recurring setting and a notification configured for that point within the morning.

3. Set Up Clear Notifications You Can't-Miss

The beauty of Google Calendar is that you can ensure notifications happen wherever you're, whether or not that’s working on your desktop or laptop computer, or if you’re away from the pc and carrying your cellphone.

To make sure you get a pop-up on your pc, log in to Google Calendar and choose the gear icon to open Google Calendar settings.

Choose Notification settings from the left pane, and on the proper modify the next settings:

• Notifications: Desktop notifications
• Present snoozed notifications: 0 minutes earlier than occasion
• Play notification sounds: Enabled
• Notify me provided that I've responded “Sure” or “Perhaps”: Disabled.

Desktop pop-up notifications are higher right here since in any other case push notifications will go to Gmail. With electronic mail notifications, you’re extra probably do not see them the second you might want to do the behavior. 

Subsequent, you’ll wish to arrange the Google Calendar app in your cellular system to obtain occasion notifications as effectively. Be sure You've put in Google Calendar in your Android or in your iOS system. 

Launch the app, choose the hamburger “menu” icon on the higher left, and choose Settings.

Within the settings menu, the faucet is Normal.

Within the Normal menu, choose to allow Notify on this system, after which faucet Calendar notifications.

Within the Notification menu, modify the next settings:

• Present notifications: Enabled
• Alert: Chosen
• Present as a pop-up: Enabled
• Sound: Select any alert sound you favor
• Ignore Don't disturb: Regulate as to if you’d like notifications even with Don't disturb enabled.

When you’re completed, you’ll not obtain reminders to do your constructive habits whether or not you’re working on your pc or simply carrying your cellphone. Since most individuals use their cellphone as their alarm clock, the cellphone is a good way to obtain morning behavior reminders as effectively.

4. Make It Enticing and Satisfying With Apps

The very last thing you’ll want to make sure you’re pushed to maintain doing these habits is to make it engaging and satisfying to take heed to your Google Calendar reminders moderately than ignoring them.

To make it engaging, it's best to observe a behavior you have to do with an occasion for a behavior that you simply love to do.

For instance, I wish to hit the gymnasium a few days throughout the week. I additionally wish to spend time with my spouse. We love watching Netflix motion pictures collectively, so I pair that exercise after the gymnasium occasion. The following day, we order a wholesome Door dash meal after the gymnasium as a once-per-week reward for efficiently figuring out that week.

Clearly, you don’t wish to create engaging habits which can be dangerous – like smoking or consuming alcohol – as a reward. However, by following robust good habits with enjoyable good habits, you’re making these tougher habits extra engaging. You have got one thing to look ahead to afterward!

To make ending habits satisfying, it’s a good suggestion to make use of a goal-tracking app. My purpose monitoring app of alternative is Time, which is out there for each Android or for iPhone. This can be a paid app, however, there are many different free goal-tracking apps on the market.

There's lots of psychological analysis that exhibits the motion of checking off accomplished habits in one thing like a goal-tracking app satisfies and motivates us. That is very true if the app creates “streaks” of intervals the place you’ve efficiently accomplished the behavior many occasions in a row.

Begin Optimistic Habits and Enhance Your self

Don’t be like everybody else and quit all your New Yr’s resolutions by the third week of January. By giving extra thought to which habits you wish to set up, and utilizing instruments like Google Calendar and purpose monitoring apps, you’ll create a system that may preserve you reaching your habits (and your targets) on a constant foundation.

Bear in mind, each massive accomplishment in life comes from very small, incremental enhancements over time. So set up your system, and begin making these enhancements.