In yesterday’s Authors’ Breakfast with Boris Thomas, we talked about how important it is to stay focused.
Routines serve as anchor points and help with that. Especially at the start of the year, many people set new resolutions, but often only a few get implemented, which is why it’s worth taking a closer look at the relevant connections:
If you want to develop a new skill and permanently integrate it into your everyday life, you just need to repeat certain routines often enough and regularly. After a while, they become a routine.
How long that takes varies individually and depends on context. There’s no 21-, 33-, or 66-day rule, even if various people on the internet or elsewhere suggest that to you. The reasoning for this is quite simple and easy to follow: it has to do with how learning works. Here are a few examples to illustrate:
Someone who already speaks 5 languages will be able to learn a 6th much faster, because their brain is already trained for acquiring new vocabulary etc. Their synapses in the area of language formation are well connected and strongly developed. Accordingly, they need significantly fewer repetitions before new terms and the construction of grammatically correct sentence structures are learned and turned into a routine.
The same person, however, needs significantly more repetitions and more time to learn to play a new instrument, provided they don’t already have sufficient knowledge in the area of music, reading notes, or playing other instruments.
One exception arises from the learning speed of children: up until around age 6, the synapses in the brain grow and connect so quickly that, for example, learning a new language or a new instrument succeeds with ease, even without any prior experience in that area.
Rituals support this process: these can be fixed times and days on which a certain event is repeated. But it can also always be the same place where the event takes place. Or the event is always practiced with the same person, and so on. Recurring rituals in the context of the event also become part of the routine after a while.
If the event and the learning experience are additionally linked with positive emotions on top, our brain interprets it as a reward, and the behavior gets reinforced.
Conclusion: Get clarity on what focus you want to set. Then think about which rituals are suitable for linking positive emotions with the event. Repeat the routines and the behavior so that a routine develops that serves as an anchor point for the focus you want.
Have fun trying it out, and gathering new insights and experiences!
P.S.: Missed the Authors’ Breakfast? Follow our Deep Talk Club company page to find out when the new episode of the Deep Talk Club podcast comes out: https://www.linkedin.com/company/deep-talk-club/
© Image: thodonal – stock.adobe.com
Recent Comments