This is the year.

You'll rise early, go to yoga or crew, make green smoothies, and do all your class readings.

Two months later:

You're up with the sun — because you didn't sleep at all. Your yoga mat makes a great pillow, you're still not sure what exactly crew is, and the only green thing you've eaten is that questionable fuzz on your leftover pizza.

Time to find an actionable route to self-improvement.

keep it comin'

Start making changes

Focus on one goal at a time. The early bird, green-smoothied, yogi or rower in you has to start somewhere.
Identify the specific actions that support your goal. If you want to eventually greet the day before noon, set your alarm 10 minutes earlier and work up to it.

what next?

Make a plan to keep it going

Support. Don’t try to go it alone. Put that morning-person dorm-mate to use: have him holler at your door on his way to becoming CEO of everything.
Cues and rewards. Got up on time for two weeks in a row? This requires a treat.
Environment tweaks. To force yourself out of bed, place your alarm on the far side of the room. Or get one of those alarm clocks that run around the floor, so you have to chase it down, corner it, and beat it with a heavy textbook .
Adjustments for anticipated obstacles. Realistically, Wednesday’s going to be a late night? Nap that afternoon, and allow yourself some flexibility on Thursday morning. Within reason.

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Stay on track

How to stay on track with rewards.

What are your goals?

A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. a plan backed by action makes your dreams come true. - Greg S. Reid

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Desirable Habits

Systems for your self-transformation

By Sandra McGill

A brand-new school year, a brand-new you. Sound familiar? Many of us start the school year with high achievements in mind (make straight As, quit the sugar habit, finally achieve a work-life balance) only to end up making no progress. Often, it’s worse’being a student is associated with a decline in healthy behaviors like physical activity and nutritious eating. Science has shown us that noble goals and willpower aren’t enough to fix this.

studentvoice

The science on healthy habits

Fortunately, science is also telling us how to develop healthier, more productive habits. “We actually know a great deal about strategies for helping people change behavior,” says Dr. Timothy Edgar, director of the health communication program at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. “Unfortunately, those who design interventions still rely too heavily on telling people the reasons why they should make a change, instead of identifying the barriers, real and perceived. Once those barriers have been identified, the key is to find ways to make it as easy as possible for people to engage in the desired behaviors.”

The technology of healthy habits

That’s becoming easier all the time. Technology is harnessing behavioral change strategies and delivering them to us in increasingly useful forms. “With the tools we have now, people are able to get a lot more information about not just their own health currently, but also a better sense of their motivations. And that’s because if you measure something, it’s something you can manage,” says Khinlei Myint-U, corporate manager for product development and communications at the Center for Connected Health, at Partners HealthCare, Boston’s largest health care network.

The habits students want most

In a recent Student Health 101 survey, respondents ranked sleep, fitness, and diet and nutrition among the top behaviors they’d like to address. “I wish I could sleep eight hours, but I usually sleep four. The result is a foggy mind and general malaise. I know I feel great when I do sleep enough,” says Natalie K., a graduate student at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Telling Natalie to go to bed earlier isn’t the answer. Like most of us, she could use a realistic system that lowers the barriers. Here’s how to have your best semester—with new habits that last through December (at least).

1 Translate your goal into a system or action

Goals represent the person we’d like to be: fit, healthy, productive, and respected, with an enviable credit report. But those goals are both too big and too vague to be helpful. To make progress, we need systems or actions. Here’s the difference:

Goal Get more sleep
Action Use a sleep schedule to increase my average sleep by 15 minutes a night per week until I reach my target of [___] hours per night and [___] hours per week

For an example of a sleep schedule chart, CLICK HERE.

Goal Reduce my junk food intake to one snack or dish every other day
Action Pack alternative snacks: e.g., fruit, wholegrain crackers, cheese, veggies, and granola

2 Incorporate these features into your system or action

The features listed in the What works column have been proven to help change our behaviors. Incorporate as many as possible.

Example 1 Get more physically fit
Example 2 Get more organized

What works Target one goal at a time
Example 1 Improve my physical fitness
Example 2 Improve my organization

What works Take a realistic action or approach
Example 1 I love running (or at least don't hate it)
Example 2 Calendar and planning tools on laptop synced to phone for easy access

What works Start small
Example 1 Incremental training program with realistic goal, e.g., Couch 2 5K running plan
Example 2 Make half my deadlines without requesting an extension

What works Join a team
Example 1 Find or start a running group
Example 2 Recruit friend, coworker, or family member with the same goal

What works Make a specific plan
Example 1 Group runs on Sat & Tues at 8 a.m.; solo runs on Sun & Thurs at 6 p.m.
Example 2 Meet Sunday afternoons to review and plan; check schedule three times a day

What works Incorporate cues and rewards
Example 1 Group brunch on Sundays; fame and glory via student blog
Example 2 Flag upcoming deadlines; for each success, see a movie

What works Tweak your environment
Example 1 Keep sneakers and rain jacket by the door
Example 2 Baskets to hold papers and books for each class; large desk calendar highlighting due dates, deadlines, and appointments

What works Anticipate and plan for obstacles
Example 1 Run an hour earlier or in the evening to beat the summer heat
Example 2 A paper and a work presentation on the same day; adjust schedule in advance

Happy woman working out with an exercise ball

3 Consider using a behavior change tool

Online tools and systems

These free and low-cost online tools and resources are based in decades of research on health-related behavior and motivation

stickK.com (http://www.stickk.com/)

Make a Commitment Contract to achieve your weekly target (e.g., “go to the gym twice”). Free to join. For accountability, you can commit to making an automatic financial donation to a charity you despise, any week that you don’t meet your target. You can appoint a friend to monitor your progress and others to cheer you on.
Designed by Yale economists and based on evidence that we do better when stakes are on the table. (That’s stakes, not steaks.) We tend to be motivated by money and reputation.
Evidence base: Behavioral economists back up what we kind of knew anyway—we don’t always do what we claim we want to do, but incentives help us do it. Ian Ayres, a co-creator of the site, is the author of Carrots and Sticks: Unlock the Power of Incentives to Get Things Done (Bantam, 2010).
Cost: Depends on what you pledge and how closely you stick to your plan.

liveWell from Prochange Behavior Systems

This online mobile-compatible program is designed to help college students eat healthily, exercise regularly, manage stress, and improve their well-being.
It’s a self-administered program with questions and feedback individualized to each student. It can be assigned by a professor as part of a course curriculum or group project.
Web activities are matched to individuals’ readiness to change. Sample activities include exercise videos, budget grocery shopping lists and tips, and stress management tools.
Evidence base: Extensive research supports the Transtheoretical (Stages of Change) behavior change model, which matches tools and approaches to individuals’ readiness and evolves with them. In tests, students whose classes incorporated liveWell did better on almost all measures (exercise, diet, stress, and well-being) than students whose classes did not.
Cost: $15. For more information, CLICK HERE.

Tiny Habits

This program empowers behavior change by targeting your environment and promoting baby steps. It targets three new habits over five days. You’ll interact by email with B.J. Fogg, the social scientist who created this tool and directs the Persuasive Tech lab at Stanford University. New sessions start each Monday.
Evidence base: Many years of research lie behind the creator’s behavior model—which emphasizes motivation, ability, and environmental tweaks—and also the use of mobile phones as a prime platform for behavior change systems.
Cost: Free.
To learn more, CLICK HERE.

Low-tech behavior change tools

Try paper and a pen (remember those?). Snag some templates to get you started, and don’t underestimate their value. Cathleen C., a graduate student at the University of Chicago in Illinois, says, “I have a wall calendar in my kitchen where I log my Pilates routines and the approximate number of miles I walk each day. I love seeing what I’ve accomplished, so tracking my progress is really helpful. It also helps me notice patterns in my exercise routines.”

Note-taking systems (California Polytechnic State University)

Weekly study schedule (Portland Community College)

Sleep chart and tracker: Become a morning person in only two weeks

Food-tracking worksheets and calorie reference charts (USDA)

We’re seeing an explosion of new digital and online tools designed to help us manage our behavior. How to choose one? Check out Wellocracy, a site for choosing and using personal health and wellness technologies, from the Center for Connected Health. Helpful tools provide:

Immediate feedback
Motivation (e.g., smiley faces)
Easy access (e.g., via your phone)
Updates through the day

“You want to know, ‘I’ve done 6,000 steps! If I just walk home or take the stairs, I might make it to my goal of 10,000 steps today,’” says Khinlei Myint-U.

Popular behavior change mobile apps

Most behavior change mobile apps have not been well evaluated. These are well-reviewed:

Proactive Sleep

FEATURES:
This app is designed to optimize your sleep quality, with a focus on falling and staying asleep. It tracks behaviors that influence sleep hygiene (your bedtime routine), including exercise, diet, and caffeine, alcohol, and medication use.

Ambient sounds and a vibration waker. The website has additional resources, including a sleep diary and info about sleep.

EVIDENCE BASE:
Daniel Gartenberg, a PhD psychology student at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and founder of Proactive Life, has contributed to the sleep research behind Proactive Sleep.

DEVICES:

iPhone
iPod Touch
Android

COST:

$0.99

Habit Streak

FEATURES:
This app helps you set goals, reminds you of them, prompts you to record your progress, and visually presents your new habit streak as it forms, inspiring you not to break it.

EVIDENCE BASE:
Habit Streak appears to have been inspired by Jerry Seinfeld’s approach to productivity: cross off days on a paper calendar. The crosses form a chain that steadily lengthens, inspiring you not break it.

DEVICES: