Gems by Aliraza

B r ea ki ng a habit can be as hard as staying awake in an 8:00 A.M. geology lecture. It is, nevertheless, possible. (Or so they say; I could never stay awake in that class.) Perhaps it would have been easier had I followed the doctors' orders below. 1. Recognize your triggers . Our habits are often prompted. Dr. Wendy Wood, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, put it this way: "If you regularly eat chips while sitting on the couch, after a while, seeing the couch will automatically prompt you to reach for the Doritos." The couch becomes a trigger. With this knowledge in hand, the shame-filled snack lover has a new weapon of attack. Instead of relying on willpower to resist the chips, he or she can stop the urge before it strikes by sitting in a different spot--or selling the couch. 2. Snap yourself. Whether it's biting nails or drinking soda, we do bad things for a reason. Though it might be hidden, there's a reward milling around the...

The Spanish have a proverb: Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week. Clever wordsmiths, those Spaniards. We all procrastinate. We dawdle and delay, dally and defer. My office floor is still home to a pile of papers that needed filing two months ago; I'm waiting for them to stop dallying and file themselves. Whatever the task, whatever the excuse, the tips below will help you do today what most people put off to next month. 1. Ask yourself, What's the holdup? People procrastinate for many reasons. Some fear failure. Some avoid boring jobs. Others shy away from getting tangled in a complicated mess (i.e., my pile of papers). Knowing the cause of the problem may open your eyes to an obvious solution. 2. Do you need to do it? Simple question, but it's a good one. Sometimes we put something off because it's not important. If you don't really need to do it, free yourself of the mental burden and drop the task from your to-do list. 3. Ask for help. I have an anci...