How to Build Discipline?

[Marko]

This question would be useless on any other forum. But here we have people that have become successful or are very close to do that.

Discipline is the thing that rich people understand better than anybody else. It's the most important thing for achieving success.

Question is what was helped you for creating self discipline?

For me one thing that helped the most was a twist on the Seinfeld method where I was making a calendar for the coming month with a daily routine. It was a combination of reminders + habit building. Something like 'Make bed' and 'Wash teeth' was the reminder and 'Gym' or 'Walk/Run' was the habit building. It worked very well, now I'm finding myself falling apart a bit, mostly because chronic lack of sleep and I'm going back to total discipline and structure.

Another thing that helped was waking up very early. There's something special when there's zero noise and distraction, you're recovered and fresh after sleeping and you can focus more easily. Then you roll with that momentum for the whole day.

Let's hear yours!

 

[Michael]

Discipline doesn't come overnight so building a routine like you've mentioned works.

I did something similar. I wrote a daily routine which included when I would eat, meditate, exercise, scratch my balls etc.

If you have it set in stone you know what's coming next so there's no pissing around.

Also writing down why you're doing something and the benefits of it help. Like I will go to sleep at 10.30pm because I will be awake early and use the day more productively. Then you can go back and review the benefits of your goal and actually want to follow through with it.

Having rewards is handy to keep motivated too.

 

[Dariush]

My big improvements in self-discipline came when I figured out how my brain worked which allowed me to consistently set myself up for success.

I'm all about momentum and little wins, that's why I'm process focused.

Rather than having a task of "Write 1 new post for blog" which I might put off, especially when in a low energy mood, I've set a process up designed to build momentum and help me get into that deep work mode.

1. Look at keyword list sheet and pick an unused keyword (seo tools)
2. Write out a list based title that contains keyword (7 best seo tools for 2017)
3. Write out headings (SERPWoo, SEMRush, Majestic, Buzzstream, Buzzsumo, AHREFS, Grammarly)
4. Write out what's good about #1
5. Include any additional information about #1 such as links to website and prices
6. Rinse and repeat for #2-#7
7. Write intro and conclusion
8. Paste into Grammarly and edit
9. Paste to original Google doc and into a Wordpress new post
10. Add all additional media - images and video
11. Publish
12. Update master spreadsheet marking the keyword as used and add a live link
13. Mark task as complete in Todoist
14. Create follow-up task for content promotion

While some people can take a task and run with it, I find I need to see each step of the process in front of me to allow me to execute well.

Those tasks in green are the easy steps to get you leveling up while orange are slightly more intensive and red require deep focus.

By the time I've gone to the trouble of writing out points 2 through 7 I think "I might as well add an intro and conclusion" and paste it into Grammarly to edit.

After that the tasks all fall like dominoes - I can even take a break here and come back to the last 5 steps when I'm in a really low energy mood (normally in the afternoon).

The end result is significantly less half finished tasks in my todo list.

If I can't be bothered to work out I'll follow a similar process.

1. Pull on gym kit from gym kit draw
2. This leads to me saying "I might as well pull on my trainers"
3. Well now I might as well head to the gym since I'm ready to go
4. At the gym "I might as well start the warm up routine"
5. Well, I'm ready to lift so lets do this
6. Work out complete.

 

[turbin3]

My biggest was in learning to say NO. It is amazing how it can transform one's life and productivity. There's always temptation to try and do-all-the-things, or entertain-all-the-time-wasters in life.

Learning to say NO is a critical step in beginning to develop the habits of exercising good discrimination in your delegation of time and resources.

 

[Rosca]

Alarms.

We live in the timeline where it's okay to stay distracted. While you can browse on Facebook all day, it's not a great way to get a lot done.

To get the most discipline, you need alarms to tell you when to stop slacking. Understanding the importance of time is helps you realize that it can't be wasted if you want results.

I set two simple alarms throughout the day, one at 3 PM and one at 9 AM. This helps me stay focused and get ready to get back on the grind.

TL;DR: Use alarm clocks to help you get your day started in a productive manner. It really helps with building discipline and time management!

 

[Samwise89]

I saw a video last night about Kaizen ("Change" + "Wisdom"). It says that the western world wants change to come as a giant event with a large energy cost, while the Japanese say it's not an event but a process. Anyone can summon up motivation once or twice for a few huge splashes, but then you run out.

But by forming an actual habit the motivation comes from within because its a desire created out of the reward and growing interest of slow and patient involvement. It said, start for even one minute a day and when you break down that "starting barrier" you'll naturally feel inclined to go to 2 or 5 minutes. Before you know it, you feel good about conquering what used to be a mighty problem and now you're going for 30 minutes. The entire problem of habit forming doesn't really exist in this light, more so a matter of how we stop our minds from rewarding us. Instead of going with the natural flow and letting the gates rise we try to bash the castle walls down.