David W. Zierk, PsyD

Analyze your behavior across time.

In behavioral psychology, a popular expression is “What gets measured gets managed.”

While not all things are measurable—for instance, think about how your parents influenced your upbringing—the idea of measuring what you do is spot on when trying to understand your habits better. When you track your behaviors, you gain perspective.

One thing all elite athletes have in common is the habit of tracking. They monitor everything, from the food they consume to the miles they run. Not a bite or step goes by without being logged. Okay, so most of us aren’t training for the Olympics or Mount Everest-bound, but we’re all interested in setting personal records of some kind.

Perhaps you’re interested in losing weight, knocking a few strokes off your golf score, or running a half-marathon. There are others motivated to write the next great American novel, hike the Appalachian Trail (hold steady, it’s over 2,000 miles long), read the Bible front to back, or take their marriage to the next level.

All of these goals are prizeworthy.

Time to Achieve

Achieving goals is trickier than making them. Why is this? Just like finishing a marathon requires keeping one foot in front of the other, every goal worth reaching demands self-discipline, resilience, and tenacity. What makes staying faithful to stated goals is time blindness.

It’s easy to lose track of time. We all have at one time or another. The concept of time blindness reflects the challenge of keeping time in mind. When this happens, time flies or gets away from us. The former happens when we’re enraptured by what we’re doing, what’s called being “in the zone,” and we lose all track of time. That’s a good thing. But when time gets away from us, that’s another matter. This experience happens when we get distracted from what we need to be doing and, instead, put energy into what’s preferred.

For those with ADHD, time blindness is a diagnostic indicator. When a person has a reputation for not sensing how much time is needed to get something done, such as saying, “I’ll be done in ten minutes,” but two hours later, they’re still working hard, it’s neurodevelopmental. Knowing that the brain shifts between directed and automatic attention, the ADHD brain struggles with the former and has a love affair with the latter. Do you?

What people with ADHD have in common with the rest of us goal-pursuing addicts is our relationship with time becomes altered. The key to reversing this trend involves accessing your inner speech and what you tell yourself. In your busy life, now and again, ask yourself, “Is time on my side?” “What am I doing with my time?” and “Am I in control of time, or is time controlling me?”

Now that we’re working to make time work for us rather than against us, let’s talk about habits.

Analyze Habits, Reach Goals, Live Happily Ever After

Time is a graph's “X” axis and horizontal or side-to-side plane in statistics. Measuring things across time lets you analyze trends, which gives you the big picture. While important, something else is needed to create a dynamic picture. Oh, yeah, we need the “Y” axis, too. This axis is a graph’s vertical or up-and-down plane that reflects what we’ll measure over time. You may recall from middle school math that when graphing, the X-axis always comes first, followed by the Y-axis. Without getting into arithmetic weeds, the equation looks like (x,y). Look familiar?

The point of this brief trip down memory lane is to emphasize that time always comes first. Heads up, this is just as true in your life as it is in math. That’s why you were asked earlier, “What are you doing with your time?”

Now that we’ve stressed the importance of time, let’s ask, “What needs to be tracked?” In line with this blog's focus, the time has come to track something important, such as your habits.

It’s well-known and often cited that habits are hard to break. This reality comes with both good and bad news.

First, the good news.

If your habit involves waking up early and going for a run, the good news is that you’re vitalizing your cardiovascular system, which optimizes your brain functioning. Also, by the time you get to work, chances are you're in a good mood, your focus is sharp, and you’re pleasant to be around. If your habit is dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, chances are your attention to detail is greatly appreciated by your highly critical boss. Also, when you plan a vacation, your husband is deeply grateful because things go as planned. The habit of exercising and focusing on details are healthy habits, as long as you don’t take them to the extreme.

Now for the bad news.

If your habit is to have one too many drinks when you get together with people, your reputation is at risk. Drinking beyond your limit is likely causing others to be concerned about yourself, your health, and your safety. If this sounds like you, take a hint from your friends and be concerned. If your habit is to complain and blame everyone for everything, chances are people see you as playing the victim card. Also, your negativity is socially undesirable and likely costing you in more ways than you know. Drinking and victim-signaling are difficult for others to tolerate. It’s time for you to change your habits and learn the lesson of moderation.

Now, let’s get to the heart of this blog. Knowing the importance of remaining aware of time as you track a particular behavior puts you in charge of your future. How is this so? When you track your habits, the data collected allows you to analyze where you are going. Are you heading in a direction that improves your happiness and strengthens your self-esteem? If so, keep tracking. If your data tells a different story, reach out for help and get some ideas about how to do things differently. Then, track some more and see what your data tells you.

Summing Up and Moving On

Remember, when you track your habits, you collect information about them, which puts you in the driver's seat of your life. Now that you know who’s driving, keep your eye on the road as you head toward the horizon of living happily ever after.

The chart below reflects the habit analysis process.

Here’s another important tip about how your mind deals with habits. The mind prefers repetition. Because of your preference for doing the same thing over and over, your mind guides you down the same path, even when the path isn’t the best choice. So, this is where your challenge begins and ends. Ask yourself, “Who’s in control – you or your mind?”

Press the button below to learn more about how your mind works as described in Dr. Zierk’s book, Mind Rules: Who’s in Control, You or Your Mind?