Hilary Martin

Procedures -VS- Habits: Whatever Works

Read time: 3.5 minutes

tl;dr –> check the links

Why do I talk about procedures?

Why not habits?

Here’s why. 

  1. There’s what it takes to do the thing.
  2. There’s what it takes to form the habit around doing the thing.

These are entirely different kinds of work. 

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, this checks out.

Procedures:

  • A particular way of accomplishing something or acting
  • A series of steps followed in a regular definite order

Habits:

  • A settled tendency or usual manner of behaviour
  • An acquired mode of behaviour that has become nearly or completely involuntary

In my world, it’s fair play to stick to the first part.

I like procedures. I’m not anti-habit.

Procedures are micro-projects. 

Procedures have a beginning, a middle, and an end. 

That’s it. 

What People Need In Their Situation

There are reasons to focus on running procedures rather than forming habits.

  • Maybe you have ADHD and habits are hard if not impossible-feeling. 
  • Maybe you are tired of being told to form a habit. You want some options.
  • Maybe missing your habit *even once* creates fresh anxiety.

Maybe habit language is not the thing that you need.

For six months during pandemic, I co-facilitated a monthly online support group for women with ADHD. h/t Louise at WAM.

As a woman with ADHD, facilitating that kind of meeting with up to 20 ADHDers taught me a lot about online facilitation and the value of procedures. 

It also taught me that many neurodivergent people are tired of hearing that they have to form habits of a certain kind, in a certain way, in order to be successful in a world built for neurotypical folks.

I looked up a few things on this topic, beyond a casual google search. What I found is: Directly focusing on habit formation is only going to work for some people, some of the time. 

The rest of us need a detour.

I believe that procedures are one detour.

A Detour Through Procedures

Procedures are valuable b/c they are there when you need them. You can be deliberate.

You look it up and follow the steps.

You set yourself up to do the thing.

You don’t need to make a procedure into a habit. 

Sometimes you don’t have to transform into what I call a habitful person.  

You follow a sequence. You already know how to do that.

If you forget it and come back to it, you haven’t failed. 

That’s because not doing it all the time is built in. Use it when it’s useful. 

Whatever works.

Habits Add Extra Commitments

Habits add commitments. There is a huge productivity / self-help industry to help habit-formation customers with the work involved in these commitments.

Sometimes this added layer of commitment is exactly what I need, and sometimes *absolutely not.*

For example: Say I am in a situation that is going sideways. This may not be immediately a great time for me to make a brand new commitment. 

–> Including a new commitment to building a new habit that is supposed to get me out of that jam.

I can increase my risk of not doing either one. The thing or the habit-formation.

Often following a procedure doesn’t require a person to make a new commitment.

Procedures First

It’s easier to carry out a procedure in a particular situation when you generally know the steps ahead of time.

–> This is why I share so much about my own process up front.

If you learn a procedure that works for you, maybe you will develop a habit.

It’s not required. And it’s possible.

You’re the one who is going to find out what you need.

And you can. 

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