How, then, do we then create and maintain our good habits while avoiding the bad ones?

1. Know your motivations well

The first step to changing one’s habits is to understand why you’re doing it. Since you’ll be going against your default behavior, you’ll need extra motivation to make the change.

Recent research shows that when we go against the default choice, the part of the brain involved in decision-making (the prefrontal cortex) and the part that’s significant for motivation (subthalamic nucleus) showed increased activity. According to a post on Psychology Today, “These brain analyses suggest that going against the default in difficult decisions requires some kind of extra motivation or confidence.”

It might also help to dig deeper into your motivations. It’s probably not enough to say something like, “I need to stop compulsive email checking so I can focus on work.” Know why you need to focus. Is it to improve your work output? And why would you want to do that? Are you hoping for a promotion?

By getting to the root of why you want to create a new habit, you can see how it is related to the goals you want to accomplish. Once you make the connections or, even better, get them on paper, you’ll have something positive in mind during the most challenging days of habit formation.

2. Start small

How much self control do you have? That’s a tricky but necessary question. After all, your sense of control will allow you to negotiate how you’ll form your new habit — how much time you’ll spend, how often you’ll do it, etc. Then again, estimating control is tricky since we all suffer from restraint bias — our tendency to overestimate self-control. The more self-control you think you have, the more you expose yourself to temptations that will allow you to break it.

If your bad habit is impulse-based, such as digital fiddling or compulsive email checking, the more you have to be aware of your own restraint bias. The way out of this seems to be to underestimate your own self-control and start with baby steps.

For example, instead of promising yourself to avoid Facebook or video games until the end of your workday, why not set a smaller goal? Aim to completely focus on your work for 15 minutes. Then reward yourself with a short break and start another 15-minute set of focused work. Keep going until you’ve reached the bigger goal of separating work and leisure.

By starting with easier goals, the limitations we impose on ourselves will feel less threatening. This prevents us from falling off the wagon and undoing any progress we’ve made.

3. Do it daily

When habit formation is discussed, the “21-Day Rule” is often brought up, which says that you need to be able to do something daily for at least 21 days before it becomes a habit. That sounds easy, right?

Sorry to disappoint you, but the real number varies. Researchers from University College London found that the number lies between 18 to 254 days, with 66 days being the average (via PsyBlog). Though you have to work on the habit daily, it’s not worth it to worry about skipping a day or two as long as you get back on track. The goal here is to get to the point where a task or process feels automated — you no longer feel forced to exercise before your workday, wake up earlier, or work standing up. It just becomes part of you.

4. Use cues to your advantage

Even with your initial hard work, it’s easy to fall back on bad habits when something triggers them. Once that happens, you may have to start from scratch. According to research from MIT, some cues can be used to undermine newer habits in favor of older ones. Lead researcher Ann Graybiel says, “This situation is familiar to anyone who is trying to lose weight or to control a well ingrained habit. Just the sight of a piece of chocolate cake can reset all those good intentions.” For us web workers, this may mean disconnecting the Internet for a while to avoid digital fiddling, or hiding your laptop in a cabinet after working.

This idea is also applicable to creating new habits. You can use cues such as music, a closed door, or specific clothes to signal that it’s the start of your workday. Other cues can be in the form of a reward after successfully completing a task.

5. Track your progress

You’re likely to stay motivated when you see how far you’ve gone. Coupled with the motivations you’ve established in the first step, you’ll feel even more encouraged to keep going because you can see how your effort is paying off. After that, your bad habits, or even the simple laziness of maintaining the status quo, won’t seem attractive anymore.

What habits have you tried changing and creating? Which techniques worked for you?

Photo by flickr user liz_noise

If you want to direct lightning to strike a certain target, you erect a lightning rod. The lightning rod is frequently struck because of its particular construction, material and positioning. To become a lightning rod for inspiration, you have to pay attention to very similar things.

Record the Context

Writing down your ideas is a great way not to lose them, whether you’re doing so digitally or using more old-fashioned methods. But while many people write down what it is they thought of, few think to record what it was they were doing when they had such a great idea. The ground in which the fruitful plant grows, after all, is just as important as the plant itself.

While you’re writing down your genius idea, also jot down when, where, and, if possible, how the idea came to you. The idea is that over time, a pattern might emerge, one that could help you replicate the circumstances which produced inspiration in the first place. There are a couple of particularly good ways to go about this.

The Double-entry Notebook

A really good way to track not only what you’re thinking about, but how and when you’re thinking about it is using a double-entry notebook. It’s simple enough to create, just take an ordinary notebook and draw a line down the center of the page each time you start a new one. You could also pick up a stenographer’s notebook, which is pre-divided for you.

The idea is that you record your thoughts in the left-hand column, and then, right after that, record any contextual details about the conditions that generated the idea in the column on the right (or vice versa, the side doesn’t really make a difference). Include details like where you are, what you were thinking about before you came up with your idea, what was going on around you, etc.

Database/Spreadsheet

If you’re not so interested in the low-tech method, you could do pretty much the same thing using a database or spreadsheet program on your computer. Plain old Excel or Google Docs could do just fine, or a more advanced (and better organized) personal database app like Bento for the Mac might be more to your liking.

With something like Bento, you can create custom fields and enter all kinds of information, while keeping your format consistent. You could do the same thing with a custom form in Word, Acrobat or whatever other program you prefer to use. The important thing is that you have a way to capture data that you’re comfortable using, which should make you more likely to actually use it.

Processing the Data

Truth be told, a lot of what you learn using the process probably won’t be useful in the strictest sense. It’ll all be interesting, and you’ll probably learn a thing or two about yourself that will surprise you. But what you will gain from the experience is a number of shining points of overlap, things that you see recurring over and over again whenever you have your best ideas.

At least some of those things should be replicable, which means that you’ll be better able to provide a working situation in which motivation and inspiration will come easily and without much prodding. Basically, you’ll have reverse-engineered your inspiration process, and you’ll have an informed and complete view of how and why you work.

How do you get inspirational lighting to strike twice?

Image credit: flickr user KM Photography

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks

Singletasking is just what it sounds like: approaching and tackling one task at a time, sequentially, instead of trying to do a whole bunch of things at once, as has become de rigeur in our modern multitasking age. If you’re like me, the thought is probably at least a little refreshing, and maybe more than a little appealing right off the bat.

The principle is sound. Take on one task at a time, and don’t begin another until the one you’ve already started is complete. It sounds simple, but you know as well as I do that actually implementing that kind of thing in real life will take a lot more effort than you might first think. For one, it means ignoring any urge to procrastinate, and making sure that you prioritize very carefully in advance, lest you realize too late that what you thought was most urgent actually could’ve taken a back seat to something else.

But if you’ve been feeling like you’re being pulled in all directions, and wondering about how best to counter the cumulative effects of a schizophrenic workflow, you may want to give singletasking a try. Here’s how I’m approaching it:

Avoid Traditional Task Management and GTD Apps

Traditional task management and GTD apps like Remember the Milk and Things for the Mac are great for handling multiple tasks, but they aren’t so great for when you want to drill down and focus on only one at a time. Inevitably, the specter of everything else you have to get done remains present, so it’s hard to devote yourself to any one thing wholeheartedly.

Try out NowDoThis if you’re looking for a minimalist, almost Zen approach to task management. All you see is the task at hand, which it draws from a list you set to begin with. All you see is the task you’re working on, against a plain white background. It’s great for eliminating distractions.

Only Use One Tab

For many, this will be the hardest rule to stick to, especially if you’re using Firefox 3.5 RC 1, which has that very convenient “New Tab” button built right in. But this rule is probably also the simplest way to keep yourself focused.

If you try and try, and yet you’re still unable to avoid opening so many tabs that you have to scroll (this happens to me every 2-3 minutes), you can try out more drastic measures. This handy little Mozilla extension will actually disable the ability to create new tabs. It’s a last resort, but a great one if you doubt your own will power.

Finally, don’t try to work around this by using more than one window instead of more than one tab. That’s just cheating.

Only Use One Screen

I’m a firm believer in the productivity benefits that having multiple displays leads to. My current setup uses not one, but two monitors in addition to the screen built into my 20-inch iMac. It may seem excessive, but once you’ve tried it, you can’t go back.

Unless, that is, you force yourself to in order to achieve greater singularity of focus. Which is what I’ve been trying to do, and finding that its harder than giving up browser tabs. It might be harder than quitting smoking.

But if I can manage to keep my secondary displays turned off, I do find that I can better concentrate on what I’m doing. Even having to actually go to a different site just to get a screenshot and then go back to continue editing a post is strangely calming for some reason. Maybe that’s just the withdrawal symptoms talking.

This is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of how to shift from being a multitasker to being a singletasker. There’s still the issue of dealing with email, and Twitter, and Facebook, and every other app or service clamoring for your attention. I’ll look at some of those in later posts, but for now, just letting go of Ctrl+Tab is challenge enough.

Have you tried singletasking?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks

So what do we do if we can’t afford to fall into an unproductive day? In this case, prevention is better than cure. We need to develop systems that will prevent unproductive days, weeks, or moments take over our working lives. We may not be productive 100 percent of the time, but there are some things we can do to develop better work habits:

Regular time boxing. I recently finished Neil Fiore’s “The Now Habit”, where he recommends trying 30 minutes of uninterrupted work as a way to beat procrastination. After those 30 minutes, you should take a break or reward yourself before punching in another 30 minutes of uninterrupted work.

Perhaps “uninterrupted” is the key word here, since it’s easy to get distracted when you’re working online. If you’re a random web surfing junkie or if you find yourself compulsively clicking that “Stumble!” button, then this especially applies to you.

When trying time boxing, I suggest that you select a timer that will work with your needs. I sometimes use a kitchen timer, which works well since I don’t bill by the hour and I can use it if I’m working away from the computer. OS X users might appreciate 3-2-1, a simple yet handy timer they can place on their dashboards. For those who use a time-based billing system, you can take advantage of FreshBooks’ time tracking feature.

If you’re looking for more time tracking solutions, a previous post by Mike Gunderloy lists different ways you can do this. (Be sure to skim the comments as well, as there are some great  suggestions from WWD readers, too.)

Make your schedule support your working style, and not the other way around. Some teleworkers say that they like starting work at 9am and finishing at 5 pm like a regular office employee. That might work for some, but just because it’s the model that traditional businesses use, it doesn’t mean it’s right for everyone.

Since teleworkers generally have control over their schedule, then why not follow a schedule that is best suited to your working style? The first step is to know your peak working hours, the hours of the day when you’re most productive. Make sure your working schedule includes those hours.

You also have to consider your ideal way of working. Do you work best in long, uninterrupted stretches, or do you find yourself easily distracted after half an hour of work?  By creating a schedule that is tailored to your needs, you won’t feel too forced or pressured to follow a cookie-cutter schedule that doesn’t fit. Instead, you can spend most of your energy on the tasks at hand.

Take advantage of being in “The Zone”. Even when I’m not working during my peak hours, there are times where I may be doing some gardening or making some coffee and suddenly I get a very, very strong urge to work. I call this “The Zone”, as it puts me in a mental zone where I am so productive and excited to work that I can accomplish so much in a small amount of time. When I’m in this zone, I know that I have to stop what I’m doing and start working.

Why is it important to take advantage of this unexpected urge to work? Well, it’s going to make up for the time when you feel less than inspired to do it.  These “low inspiration” times make work more challenging, so you’re likely to be slower and less passionate about what you’re doing in that moment. If you take advantage of being in “The Zone”, whenever and wherever it happens, then these low inspiration times won’t be as detrimental to your productivity.

Reward yourself. If you become too productive and spend most of your time working, it’s easier to fall off the wagon and revert to time-wasting habits. Trust me, I’ve been there. Now if you’re rewarding yourself after a time boxing session, or after completing a project milestone, then you subconsciously associate the reward with the satisfaction of getting things done.

Use whatever reward makes sense to you. It could be some time off to watch a DVD, an hour working on your favorite hobbies, or even time for a nap. Whatever reward you choose, it has to be something you’re looking forward to doing after work.

The best way to be truly productive is to make it a habit. By implementing these four techniques, we can set up systems that will work with our individual needs, as well as take advantage of unexpected bursts of creativity.

What do you do to prevent unproductive behavior from throwing you off schedule?

Image by H. Berends from sxc.hu

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks

Many artists and writers have their own rituals before working.  Carson McCullers reportedly made sure to wear her lucky sweater before writing, while W. Somerset Maugham would read Voltaire’s Candide.  Henry James has a longer ritual that starts at breakfast and ends after lunch, with occasional interruptions in the afternoon.  Despite half his day devoted to these rituals, James penned 23 novels during his career, plus several other shorter works.

Whether you clean your office or have a more elaborate routine, pre-work rituals are an essential part of your workday. Here are some ways in which they help:

• Builds your mindset. You might not be aware of it, but pre-work rituals can help you establish your work rhythms for the rest of the day.
• Keeps you energized. Before you start work, whether your workday has just begun or you’re returning from a short break, it’s important to have rituals that will energize you and allow you to regroup after grueling mental gymnastics.
• Shifts your perspective. This is especially true for the things you do during breaks.  For me, I find that walking my dog or working on a carpentry project for a brief period allows me to stop my train of thought and focus on something else.  After I’m done with that, I go back to my work with a fresh perspective and approach it in unexpected ways.

But what if the hours you spend on your rituals really take away from your productivity?

Find your ideal working hours. Before you tighten up your schedule, you need to define your ideal working hours first.  This is the span of time where you produce the most amount of work in the least amount of time.  For some reason, you just feel as if you’re more focused and creative during this time.  The reason why you work better might be the weather, the lack of distractions, your body clock – it doesn’t matter.  Find those hours, make sure you factor them into your schedule, and guard those hours with your life.

Once you’ve defined your ideal work hours, it’s time to cut back on your “ritual time,” if you really think that you should be spending time on your work, with your family, or on other projects.  The most important thing is to decrease the time spent on these rituals gradually, over 1 or 2 months, rather than quitting cold turkey.

Let’s say your pre-work ritual currently starts with an hour of walking, a half-hour preparing breakfast, and another two hours of leisurely reading.  Look at all those activities and see which ones are the most essential to you, and which ones you can reduce without hurting your creativity or productivity.  If you feel you’d rather spend less time reading, you can lessen your reading hours to an hour and 45 minutes for one week, then reducing 15 minutes each week until you reach your target time.  You can always make up the lost reading time after work.  Or, if you also feel like you can spend less time making breakfast, find a way to at least prepare part of it the night before.

Your pre-work rituals should be there to allow more creativity into your life and enhance the way you work.  They are, after all, one of the perks of web working.  In a traditional office setup, most employees probably don’t get to customize their schedules and activities the way web workers can.  Take advantage of your ability to do this.

What is your pre-work routine?  How does it affect your work?

Image by Luis Alves from sxc.hu

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks