Never skip a day

It’s hard to keep a habit going. It could take you years of effort to develop a habit, but just a few days to break it forever.

In early 2019, I realized that I was wasting too much time on Youtube. So I decided to just stop using it completely. I spent more than 100 days, without watching Youtube at all. Then I went through some stressful days and thought that I should give myself a break. I made the mistake of thinking that after 100 days, I would have gotten rid of my addiction. And sure enough, I started off slowly. But fast forward to today, my average daily usage of Youtube is back to over 6 hours.

I have however figured out the pattern. It all starts with a single missed day. One day that you think of not meditating, or skipping your exercise, or missing your morning run. Just a single day seems harmless. You can surely make up for it easily.

But the reason why you shouldn't fall for that temptation is this — It gives you an option. What it means is that even later on, if you are not 100% motivated to do the task, you will always have the option to just skip that day. It will feel like it is OK.

But soon the skipped days will become more frequent, skipped days will turn into skipped weeks, and before you know it, you would have already given up on your habit.

This is why it is important to never give yourself an option to skip a day.