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The good news is that most of us only run three or four of these. A short list is something you can genuinely keep an eye on.
Notice your distortions is far too big an instruction to follow. Three named sentences in your own words is not. Write them on a card, keep it where you work, and read it for ten seconds at the start of the day. You are not trying to argue with them. You are just making them audible, and half of them go quiet once they are.
Qur’an and Sunnah
If anyone desires the life to come and strives after it as he should, his striving will be thanked (Quran 17:19). It is the steady, ordinary sort of striving that is spoken of, which is what a small daily check amounts to.
وَمَنۡ أَرَادَ ٱلۡأٓخِرَةَ وَسَعَىٰ لَهَا سَعۡيَهَا وَهُوَ مُؤۡمِنࣱ فَأُوْلَٰٓئِكَ كَانَ سَعۡيُهُم مَّشۡكُورࣰ ا
But if anyone desires the life to come and strives after it as he should, as a true believer, his striving will be thanked
Qur’an 17:19read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
Research validating a habit measure found that the defining feature of a habit is automaticity, acting without deciding, rather than how often you do something or how much you value it. These sentences run in the same automatic way, which is why naming a small set gives you something to catch. It is a measurement study, so it explains the mechanism rather than testing a card on your desk.
Gardner B, Abraham C, Lally P, de Bruijn GJ. (2012). Towards parsimony in habit measurement: testing the convergent and predictive validity of an automaticity subscale of the Self-Report Habit Index.. The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Watching for a few specific things is possible, while watching for everything is not.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
If some of your appointments make it into the calendar and some do not, that is still better than none of them. Half a system is not a failed system.
When you finish the dull task, give yourself something you actually like. A reward you do not really want does no work at all.
Everybody finds unrewarding tasks harder to start. If yours seem to cost several times what other people pay, that is a real difference in how your brain handles reward, not a flaw in your character.