After reading these books I am now able to successfully create new habits. Last year I tried to get into a habit of reading good books and was able to read around 40 good books ( twice of what I had planned)
Having said that, you still have to make choices and stick to them. For this, you need to look at the science of habit change, which a good book is The Power of Habit [2]
[1] http://www.amazon.com/First-Things-Understand-Often-Arent/dp...
[2] http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Habit-What-Business/dp/08129...
Important - you can't start with 25 habits you want to change. You will fail if you do. Start with 2 - 3 really tiny ones.
You might want to try tiny habit exercise: http://tinyhabits.com/join/
And you alsow might find this book helpful understanding how habits work: http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Habit-What-Business/dp/14000...
1: http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Habit-What-Business/dp/14000...
The upshot is that you can't stop this part of yourself. You can only redirect it. You have a rich set of impulse-reward cycles triggered by the thought of beginning something difficult. You can't help responding to the triggers, but you can change the routines and the rewards.
In other words, you can't win by fighting. Don't swim against the current. Use your existing bad habits as a frame for new better ones.
Somebody else mentioned that you might be bored. Perhaps you are unchallenged. You could be lacking perspective and proper role models. I would encourage you to take yourself out of the startup scene (which is largely vapid nonsense) and try something more viscerally challenging, intellectually engaging, or just out of the ordinary. Find a research job, work in the theater, go to sea, volunteer in the third world, backpack around the world, teach classes to your friends or kids, pick up a craft like glassblowing or carpentry, build a house, WWOOF, etc.
Did you go to college? If so, what was your degree?
(Shoot me an email if you want to chat – I'm a few years older, but was in a similar position not too long ago – skiptracer at gmail.)
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living - http://www.amazon.com/How-Stop-Worrying-Start-Living/dp/0671...
How to Win Friends & Influence People - http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/06...
Systematic, definitely. Scientific? Not really sure, but I find it extremely effective. If I could boil it down to "what works" for me, it'd be:
- Pick a task or thing that you want to accomplish. Let's say running (mine is running/lifting).
- Pick a "cue," or something that signals when you perform said task. The more apparent the cue the better. Mine is waking up. Working out is the first thing I do.
- Follow this routine religiously for about 21 days. That's the magic number according to people who are into this kind of thing, and I agree. At this point you kind of forget what your old habit was when you woke up, and you naturally go to perform your new task.
And lastly, there will be some days when you don't want to perform the task. Do it anyway. A streak of not performing that task is really just the (re)formation of a bad habit.