Introduction

In this article, I will talk about habits and a simple tool that allows you to manage them.

As we know, habits are very important. Habits in many ways determine who we are and what our lives are.

If you ask, “do you see yourself being healthy or not,” you will answer “yes, I see myself healthy and in good physical shape.” If you ask, “do you see yourself spiritually developed,” you will most likely answer “yes” again. It is known that if a person is engaged in physical exercises enough every day, then his body will be in good physical shape. If a person has the habit of brushing his teeth in the morning and in the evening, then his teeth are likely to be healthy, which positively affects breathing, and less expenditure on the dentist, and on an attractive smile.

Over the past few years, I have been using Pluses to manage my habits.

What does it mean?

I have compiled a list of positive habits that I consider important for myself and which I consider necessary to consolidate in my daily life. Every day I mark with “pluses” those of these habits that I have successfully followed today. Basically, briefly, that's all: it's all very simple.

An example of my reference "pluses"

At first I noted habits in a spreadsheet in Google. The short name of the habits was in the columns, and each column was a day. An example of such a table: Plus, maintaining the "pluses" in the spreadsheet - you can automatically calculate their number every day (to measure progress); You can also share the table with loved ones. Minus - you need access to a computer. After I realized that I needed to “relax” from the computer, I switched to keeping a diary in a paper notebook (instead of using Asana ), where I also began to write “pluses”. Now every day in a paper diary looks something like this: On the right are the “pluses” for this day. To set them, I use a simple stencil:















On top I put (or do not put :)) the three most important “pluses” at the moment. These are the three habits that are most important to me and which I consider important to consolidate (at the moment, this is morning meditation, exercise, and healthy and moderate eating).

Below, in statistics, under the column / + / I record the number of “pluses” for the current day (there were 24 on that day). From the point of view of motivation, it helps to know that the day was useful.

Habits in my case include both very simple habits (such as brushing your teeth in the morning and evening, or recording expenses for the day), and more intricate ones, such as reading spiritual literature, refraining from viewing erotic materials, or the number of ejaculations per day (the only column that is marked not with a plus sign, but with a number).

Conclusion

In my case, the pluses help a lot. I managed to consolidate many important habits for me at the moment (including physical exercises, managing expenses, tracking posture or a small number of unread emails).

Since I consider this tool important for myself, I decided to share information about it with you. Even a year ago I created a site for conducting “pluses”, but then I realized that it’s more convenient for me to keep “pluses” on paper, and not on any site. So I decided to just share this information about this tool with other people.

Of course, this is not a new tool. One notable example is Benjamin Franklin's Journal of the 13 Virtues .

***

I thank the sponsor of my site, created a year ago and now defunct, for a donation of 100 rubles. I am grateful to the good person who introduced me to this very format of habits. I also thank my relatives for maintaining my motivation in managing habits.