Tangible Habits and Rhythms
Click the above picture to link to my habits spreadsheet
I wouldn’t consider myself an overly disciplined person; in fact, I often beat myself up about how undisciplined I feel. I tend to look back at the day and think about all of the time I’ve wasted. Certainly, I want to be more productive at work, and am always looking at ways to do that. I’ve found that “Timeboxing” has been helpful for work. But, I’ve also been thinking about discipline in terms of the sort of person I am (or who I’m still becoming).
One of my recurring prayers is that I long for God’s Spirit to shape my desires. I want to want what I’m supposed to want :) … kinda sounds like the Apostle Paul in Romans 7. I want to find joy in the sorts of things I should. I realize that I’m asking God to change me – a change at the core, heart level. Changing my hopes, and desires, affections and longings.
All of the stuff I’ve been reading over the last few years about Spiritual Formation by people like James K.A. Smith, Augustine, John Mark Comer, and Tish Harrison Warren all suggest that our desires are shaped by habits, rhythms, rituals and liturgies. I want this post to be highly practical, so I won’t focus on the many reasons why this is true. But, if I want to see real change in my life (and once again, believing that true change has to happen at the heart level), then I need to look at my habits. Actually, we probably all need to look at our habits more, because these same authors would say that our habits, rhythms, and daily liturgies not only shape our desires, but they reveal what our desires are … what’s most important to us.
So, while I wouldn’t consider myself to be a highly organized person, I do admit that I’m pretty competitive. I’ve also found some success with spreadsheets, married to my competitiveness. Several years ago, I realized that I needed to do a better job of reading through the Bible every year, but I got a bit bored of just reading straight through. The competitor (and former track coach) in me also constantly wondered what my average pace needed to be in order to read through the Bible in a year, and how far ahead or behind I was of that pace. So, I created a spreadsheet with every chapter in the Bible listed within each book, and I created a few formulas at the bottom of the page. When I checked off a chapter and kept track of what day I was in the year, my spreadsheet was able to tell me how I was doing. Once again, the track coach in me became pretty addicted to seeing that my average chapters I had to read per day in order to read the Bible in a year was going down. It started the year at 3.27 chapters a day in order to finish it by the end of the year. So, it was under three chapters a day because my daily average was above five chapters a day. Things like averages and paces seem to motivate me. After I had some success with that spreadsheet, I then started to see if I could get through the Bible twice in a year. By the way, if it would help on your Bible reading, I’m glad to send you that spreadsheet template I designed. I’m not using it this year, because I’m trying to memorize the book of Hebrews rather than read through the Bible. But, you can be sure that I know how many verses are in Hebrews and where I currently am in regard to the pace I need to be on!
Noticing the trend, this year I’m trying to take the same spreadsheet model toward general life discipline. I’ve tried New Year’s Resolutions, and like nearly everyone else, they haven’t really worked for me. They assume that there’s something magical about the start of the new year. Newsflash: there isn’t. After giving it a good fight, the first failure causes a person to eventually give up. Been there before.
But, if I want to see my desires change, then the work to create habits is going to take intentionality. I’ve loved the book Atomic Habits, and realize what it’s going to take to see these changes … but also the great benefit and joys of these changes. I also realize that Spiritual Formation takes time and space. And, if I look at the way I spend my time, I’d rather that it shows the things I ought to value and prioritize. That’s why I built a spreadsheet.
You can click the picture at the top to see the Google Sheet I built. I’ve chosen Google sheets for my Bible reading and habits spreadsheets because I can do the bulk of the work on them on my laptop, but I can also update them on my phone, as it’s a dynamic spreadsheet.
Some of the things on my sheet are health related and self explanatory. I want to walk 8,000 steps every day, drink 100 ounces of water, stretch and do both some kind of core/abdominal exercise (to help my back) and some kind of strength training. I was already doing most of those, but I wanted to nudge them to become more habitual. I also wasn’t doing a good job of eating breakfast every day, so I put that on my list. I’ve never had a cavity, but my hygienist visits aren’t too pleasant, so I want to do a better job of flossing every day. Go for a walk outside every day.
There’s also a whole bunch of mental/spiritual/contemplative stuff that I was doing, but not with the level of commitment I’d like. For the past few years, I’ve tried to read 100 books a year, but it was pretty sporadic in my reading: some days I’d not read at all; others I’d read for hours. So, I wanted to commit to reading a bit of fiction every day, some from a non-fiction book, an article (mostly found online) every day, and from a devotional reading. Spend time in dedicated prayer, where I consciously set aside time to pause and pray and work on my memorization every day. Hopefully I also pray small prayers throughout the entire day. I hate that I spent so many hours as a kid learning to play the piano, but don’t do it hardly at all. Well, that takes daily practice - even if it’s brief. So that went on the list. I’m still working on learning a language on Duolingo. That went on the spreadsheet too. I want to become a more thankful person, so I want to make sure to consciously thank someone every day.
Some of it’s work related, too. I’ve got several book projects I’m working on, and I want to spend some time every single day with at least one of them. I also want to work on some kind of blog post - even if I don’t finish it that day. That routine is important as I’m trying to help build RenewEd and provide resources for educators and families. I also realize that building that presence requires that I think more intentionally about what I post online. Even though I’m not a huge fan of social media, I realize that I need to be more consistent with posting useful things online via the different platforms I’m using to promote RenewEd.
Several weeks in, my wife asked me if any of these initiatives are directed toward my roles as a dad and husband; she was right by her question. So, I added in that I’m trying to write and leave a small note for someone in the family every day. And, you’ll see that in my spreadsheet; some items started later in the year … which I think is part of the benefit of the spreadsheet.
You’ll also notice that I don’t have too many days where I’ve gotten 100% of them done. Some days, I even did less than half (you have to allow for sick days). I think that one of the failures of many New Year’s Resolutions is that they tend to fall apart at the first sign of failure. There needs to be allowance for grace; otherwise there won’t be joy in the growth. With my spreadsheet, I’ve got a lot of things that I’m trying to get better at. I would love to hit them all, but more often than not, I don’t. However, I hope that the final number at the bottom right is in the 90+% range. Currently it is, but if it falls behind, that’s ok. But, when I fill them out at the end of the day or for the previous day, I see the previous day’s “performance” and am also reminded of those things for the upcoming day. It serves as a tangible reminder. But I also pray - in my daily, spreadsheet prayer :) - that God’s Spirit will help me find joy in these things. I’ve I just keep slaving away, then it becomes duty only and not delight. At the same time, I realize that without the right tools, I’m not naturally going to find delight. That’s why the structure has helped.
So, I wake up each day and enter a zero in for each category, and throughout the day I add one’s if I completed it. I imagine that I fill out the sheet most every day. There have been some days where I have to fill it out for the previous day because I forgot. Yes, my spreadsheet does allow forgetting. That’s basically why I built it.
At the end of the day, though, it was designed to help me answer the question “what sort of person do I want to become?” What do I want to prioritize? And, I can either continue to merely hope, or I could start putting things into action and start moving toward it in a tangible way. Let me know if it helps.
Practically speaking, you can make a copy of this spreadsheet as your own Google Spreadsheet. Obviously, you can make your columns your own. Maybe it’s best to start with 10-15, rather than 20+. But, it has been helpful to me, and I’d be glad to help you set up your own if that would increase your confidence toward that journey. And, if you have a different system that works for nurturing your own habits, productivity, or consistency, I’d love to hear from you.
Now, this blog is typically focussed on Christian education, and at times parenting. But, some of these things can be helpful for the children in our lives. Spiritual Formation requires (the right sort of) habit formation. So, we need to think about the sort of practices we are putting in front of our kids and realize that those practices could be habit forming. And, those habits are shaping the sorts of persons our kids become. The big question, then, is how we go about our practices so that the habits we create will help our children long for and desire the sorts of things they should.
