One Habit Every Semester

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” - Will Durant [1]

Starting in 2018, I thought it would be a good idea to leverage the semester system at Waterloo—where we alternate between school and an internship every 4 months—where I’d focus on implementing one habit a semester. On average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic [2], thus 4 months should be plenty of time. And once I implement it now, it becomes a habit that stays with me forever.

Overall, this has been an incredible practice. I’ve done this the past few terms to great success.

• Spring 2018 - Meditation
• Fall 2018 - Meal Prepping/Cooking
• Winter 2019 - Intermittent Fasting
• Spring 2019 - Calorie Tracking
• Fall 2019 - Waking up Early

For Winter 2020, I’m writing everyday, and so far it’s been awesome. Hopefully it’s a habit that I can keep up for a long time.

Notes

[1] This quote is commonly misattributed to Aristotle.

[2] How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world