EPISODE 019 - Mindset: How can I integrate new habits into everyday IT?

Michael Seidl: Welcome to a new episode of the Get Sh*t done in IT podcast. My name is Michael Seidl and today we talk about how to integrate new habits into everyday IT. So, IT guys or people working in IT might have a better chance, a not so good chance to integrate new habits because working in IT means that your day is not so good, planable like maybe others from eight, nine to five or something. Cause if you work in consultancy, you have customers asking for things you can't Or generally, if you work in IT, you have problems coming up. don't, you're not able to plan. So IT people might have some, or see difficult to plan their, day ahead because things occur you cannot plan before. So I found three points to integrate new habits into everyday IT and those I want to talk about today. So the first thing is find a time slot what suits you best. And that means not only suits you best, also don't affect your family, your kids, whatever you live with or your relationship is. So in my example, I decided to do more sports, so mainly go to the gym and do some cycling on two days and three days going to the gym. our biggest son was born six or nearly seven years ago. Now I needed to find the right time slot when I go to the gym or when I do my sports. So the first idea is right after work. this was for Corona. So I drove to the customer and at five around drove back home. And the first option was I do it after work and then come home. that brought me to, I will not see any of my kids.

Michael Seidl: on that day because in the morning I left early and they sleep. I arrive back home after they go back to bed so I don't see my kids on the whole week maybe. So that was not a good idea. The second one was that I do it after the kids go to bed but that means that I lose time with my girlfriend every day because my idea was I want to do at least 45 minutes each day during the week. So when I do this after lunch, after kids are going to bed, I will lose time with my girlfriend during the week. That was also not a very good option. it was supposed to fail because the circumstances are not good in that case. And the third option, and that's the one I am doing since six years right now, seven years, is to take the time before everyone else is standing up. So I will stand up at 4 .40, 4 .45 in the morning, go to the gym, go back, go to shower. So I have around one hour and five or one hour and 10 minutes every day before everyone else. start the day before everyone else stand up, before everyone else wakes up and those affect the people around me, what means my two kids and my girlfriend nearly zero. So it's time what I have, it's time what I can choose. And of course that makes it really easier in one hand, really easier to Integrate those habits. Of course, it is challenging to stand up at 445, but that's different topic. The second one is when it gets hard. In my case, I don't want to stand up. I want to stay in the warm bed and maybe sleep one more hour. Just remember the feeling what I have when I do the sports, when I go to the gym after I finish my session and the feeling during the day.

Michael Seidl: And it might sound a little bit cheesy, but the feeling is better when you start with sports in the morning. You're more relaxed, you're more focused or you then can focus on your work day. And I always try to remember that feeling, that things when it's hard to stand up. Maybe I already know it in the evening before that maybe I go late to bed. And I know it will get hard in the morning to stand up. I already start when I go to bed the day before to think about when I stand up, when I get that thing done, that I will have a good feeling, I will have a good mood and everything. So that helps a lot to overcome those barriers when I want to go out of bed. You have to go out of battle for 45. And the third thing is, and that might help at the beginning, that you at least try it 30, 40, 50 days, maybe one or two months that you really go through and try to integrate this new habit. Because scientists says that if you want to integrate a new habit, you have to do it. a certain amount of time or days. I heard something about 30 days, heard something about 40 days, I heard something about two months. So at least give it a try two months to integrate this new habit. Then you should see the benefit that you can integrate it much easier. You can bring yourself to the mood much easier. So at least try it one or two months and to see the effect of the new habit. In my case, the sport, I saw my body feeling better and everything. So this is not done after one day or one week. So try it at least one or two months and see the results or feel the results of your new habits. Also, make yourself realistic goals. In my case, it wouldn't be very realistic.

Michael Seidl: When I wanted to do two hours of sports every day, I have a company, I have to do my work, I have two kids, we have a big house. So there is a lot of stuff to do all around. So it isn't very, very, it is not possible to do two hours of sports every single day. And it's also not what I wanted to do. because it was good, the 45 minutes doing sports, that's fine for me, that's what I wanted. Everything else would be unrealistic. if it's not realistic, it is much harder to achieve. So you can increase your habits, you can increase your goals, whatever, later, but start with small steps, start with realistic goals, and that makes it much easier. So that's my three things that helped me to integrate this new habit into everyday IT. And I also do it for other things I want to change. If I want to do other things, of course the podcast right now. Trust me, like everyone else, I have enough things to do. so it wasn't because I was boring and tried to start a podcast. it was a... ago since a few years to start a podcast. I tried to make it possible to integrate. I really did it just a 10 -50 minute podcast. I, of course, automated a lot of the production phase and published it. Most of the things are automated, of course. Why not? This helps me to integrate this new habit as well. But also the three things I talked before helped me to integrate also the podcast, besides the sports and everything. that's the reason I wanted to make this episode to make you see that it works also when you're working at IT. There is a way if you want. these are my three points helped me to integrate new habits.

Michael Seidl: That's it for this week. hope you enjoyed the episode. If you have any questions, please send me a message or a voice message, text message, voice message on LinkedIn. I would be happy to answer one of your questions in one of the next episodes. So for this week, I wanted to say thanks for listening. Wish you a happy week. Stay productive and bye bye.