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2020 has been the year in which I learnt the concept of habit slave. Don't know what I mean? Never heard it? Read on 
Context: I have always been extremely chaotic, so I decided to change this when I co-founded @MarsBased seven years ago. Such an anarchic person person can't function in a company.
Slowly, I began forcing myself into being regular&constant with certain tasks. For instance, I forced myself to report to others on Fridays to make sure I did all my work by then, and to work on the actionable items on my reports.
Another example: I define my workweek with themed days. Monday is for sales, Tuesday is for Startup Grind, Wednesday is for mktg, Thursday is for strategy and Friday for hiring, company culture and chores.
Gradually, I've become a constant person at work, so the next step was to apply this to my personal life. It follows, but I might have done it the wrong way.
About six years ago, I started building a habit of exercising every day, thanks to @8fit. Since August 2014, I have exercised pretty much every single day. Go, me! 
Between 2014 and last year, I have acquired a couple of other habits, but they don't take up too much mental bandwidth, time or anything like that. I read every day and I get rid of an object every day (it's harder than it seems).
My resolutions for 2020 were to focus more on myself and to stop travelling so much (I used to travel 40-50% of my time). Joke's on me: the pandemic helped me with that, but I digress...
... Since I was not going to travel so much, I defined a few extra things I could do every day to build new habits. I explained them in this blog post: https://www.alexrodba.com/2020/01/01/tracking-my-goals-become-person-habit/
Needless to say, @everydayapp has been fundamental to my goal tracking and my general improvement as a person. Happy user here, no sponsored content.
However, I think I've overcomplicated things, this year, and it's taken a toll on me.
When I'm all alone, I find it easy to check all those habits every day, but not when I'm around people.
When I'm all alone, I find it easy to check all those habits every day, but not when I'm around people.
In fact, a big chunk of this year I've been in a couple of relationships, and I wasn't able to complete my daily habits by a big stretch. Of course, I had better things to do and I wanted to enjoy my time with others.
Same when I was travelling with friends for holidays. Maybe I should've taken a month off in the habits space, but I didn't. Result: frustration because I didn't check my habits.
Some days I've been extra busy with other things, and guess what, I haven't checked my habits either, so tension started to accumulate as I knew I was doing poorer than in 2019.
Some days, I would feel the urge of just playing guitar for 10 mins to be able to tick the box of "play guitar" or I would do the easiest lesson on @Duolingo in a language I know well just to avoid breaking the 200+ days streak I had going on.
And then, it dawned on me: I am just cheating the system. Sometimes, I am looking for the minimum effort I can put in to tick a certain box.
So... what's the point?
So... what's the point?
I've reached the conclusion than when you're not enjoying - or worse, when you're actually suffering - your habits tracking, then it's time to quit. I became a slave of my habits and I lost all purpose, enjoyment and general direction.
Most books/courses teach you how to build habits, but they won't tell you when to stop.
Why? Because most likely you're consuming their content, paying for their courses/app and whatnot.
Why? Because most likely you're consuming their content, paying for their courses/app and whatnot.
Science has it that it takes between 66 days and 254 days to build a habit, but I have to add: if you don't really want to do it, you won't build it, no matter how long you practise.
To wrap it up, here's what I'm doing from 2021 onwards: I'll keep tracking stuff but I will take some habits off the list. Some are already built into my system, so they don't need to be in the app, like doing sport or practising languages.
By having fewer items, there'll be less pressure. Also, I will define rules of when can I allow myself to skip one day. For instance, if one day I decide to play guitar for four hours, most likely I won't have time for anything else, so I can skip other habits.
So, in order to avoid habit burnout:
Fewer but better items
Listen to yourself
Allow yourself to recharge
Build rules to "skip" days
Take days off (weekends? holidays?)
Fewer but better items Listen to yourself Allow yourself to recharge Build rules to "skip" days Take days off (weekends? holidays?)
Kudos to @mezood for building @everydayapp and not falling into the evil ways of gamification or sucking everyone in. The app is fantastic and doesn't create addiction because there aren't marketers behind it, just a genuine enthusiast trying to help. Gràcies, Joan!
