When I get obsessed with something, it takes approximately 1-3 days to take hold.

I’ve realized over time that I get very interested in something, either a topic, idea, regimen, hobby, etc for short bursts of time. This interest is usually pretty intense, but then fades out rather quickly.

Evidence

One of these for example was growing succulents. I binged on dozens of YouTube videos talking about succulents, propagating them, caring for them, and growing them. Within the week, I bought some and tried a lot of the things I learned. I was fairly diligent about caring for them and gardening in general for what felt like a few weeks, but then the care I provided fizzled out.

I want to start tracking exact details for these intense interests. From a recent interest in writing, I tracked that my interest waned or died off within 1 week. I know this because I started tracking (in a journal) days in which I write at least 500 words. After about 1 week, it was hard to maintain and a few nights I was too tired to commit to writing. After 2 days of not writing, the momentum had died.

Checking my own browser history, I see that I bookmarked a Hacker News post about this Dec 31. Then by Jan 1, I had committed. That’s a single day!

Fortunately that interest reignited when I started setting up a blog using GitHub Pages. This reignition of interest took approximately 2 days. I Started setting up GitHub Pages last Saturday. Sunday I continued the setup. And then by Monday I was churning out content. It’s Tuesday now. If history is any indicator, I’d expect for this to fizzle out by next Monday.

Crux of Habit Formation

But that could just be the crux of developing a habit. Can I actually last longer than one week? If I’m able to continue this interest for, let’s say 2 weeks, is it something that’ll stick?

I think one of the key problems to solve is: what do you do when there’s an obstacle? Do I have a workaround?

For example, one of the reasons my recent initial bout of writing 500 words waned was due to prioritization of sleep. I was (and still am) trying to make a concerted effort to sleep earlier. When 10PM rolls around, I’d like to be in bed. Listen to Tim Ferriss’s recent interview with Dr. Matthew Walker if you need reasons why (TL;DR there’s a correlation that chronic lack of sleep may lead to Alzheimer’s).

If I were more serious about 500 words a day, I would have created better defenses from other priorities. Like carving out time earlier in the day. Or perhaps prioritizing writing something before I start vegging out on TV.

Next week I know I’m going to be traveling. I honestly haven’t thought about how travel and being in a new location with a new routine will affect my writing.

My current hypothesis is that I’m able to maintain an interest for 2 weeks and at least one obstacle, the likelihood of it sticking for months will be dramatically higher (let’s say >80% to be more specific).

Sample Size (N=1)

If I were to truly test this out, I would need to identify a few other interests and try to track those too.

There is a slight risk in trying to form multiple habits at once since you’re relying on too much determination and willpower all at once. Habits are formed by incremental changes until activity is automatic. Unfortunately, I’m already trying to develop multiple habits at once. I can certainly test a few others out too.