What might be the habit system of someone who makes a million dollars? What keystone habits would this person have? 

What keystone habits and habit systems do I need in order to get to $1mil?

After lots of visioning, big picture planning, goal-setting, and ethical deliberation, it’s time to get real and tangible. I need specific, practical tactics to get there. Atomic Habits was something that got me really inspired recently. I see that the habit framework has real-world applications in this new season of entrepreneurship and indie hacking. I also wanted to combine another idea of keystone habits, from the book The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg. He talks about how success “…doesn’t depend on getting every single thing right, but instead relies on identifying a few key priorities and fashioning them into powerful levers.” One such keystone habit is exercise, which has a spillover effect and makes it easier to develop other smaller good habits: 

“When people start habitually exercising, even as infrequently as once a week, they start changing other, unrelated patterns in their lives, often unknowingly. Typically, people who exercise start eating better and becoming more productive at work… exercise is a keystone habit that triggers widespread change.”

So, what keystone habits are needed to get to towards one million? Here’s some I tried and still trying:

Sleep:

Sleep enough - 7.5 hours of restful sleep every day. No compromises. I’m experimenting with the 90min sleep cycles theory, so 7.5h would be 5 cycles, just right for adults. On Sundays I sleep in 1 cycle more. Sleep by 11.30pm, wake by 7am. Sometimes I sleep in a bit more if I don’t feel fresh upon waking. I struggled initially, because I’m used to going to bed at 1am. But backtracking the small choices that led up to a 1am bedtime, I discovered the decisive habit-forming moment - showering by 10.30pm. I realised, once I shower, I go into a ritual preparing for sleep. Mastering that decisive moment had an outsized impact in creating this sleep habit. So now I set a 10.30pm alarm as reminder.   

Meditate:

10-20min meditation first thing in the morning after washing up. I’d been doing this for 10+ years, so it’s habitual by now. This sets me up with a clear, calm frame of mind at the start of the day. I feel centered and grounded. Then everything else follows well. Some days I just sit while following my breath. Other days, I use a guided abundance-manifesting, creative visualisation meditation called 6 Phase Meditation. Before sleep, I sit for 5-10min to let the monkey mind settle down from a hectic day, so that I can get more restful sleep.

Health and fitness:

Daily morning workouts - alternate between running and the 7-minute workout. Rest on Sundays. This energises me and gives me more energy, alertness and productivity through the day. I already run 3 times a week for the past few years, so adding on the 7-minute workout on other days wasn’t so hard. What I really had difficulty with was enjoying the process. It’s feels like a chore that I don’t want to do but have to because of long term health benefits. But habits stick better and get more enjoyable when there’s an immediate reward. So I’d been trying to have some small rewards - like taking a moment to breath in and enjoy the peace and quiet in the park after a run, and saying an identity-based affirmation like “A healthy, fit person is someone who would enjoy working out everyday. I want to be that person.” Need to experiment more with making it immediately rewarding.

Downtime for deloading, reviews and reflection:

Having a regular daily, quarterly and annual review/reflection practice helps me calibrate my course, my goals and my habits systems as I go. Being intentional is key to habit formation. My daily review is often through writing here on 200wad, or on my notebook. Quarterly reviews are good also as for deloading and rest, as I cannot keep pushing myself forward. This is also the time to read more, experience new things, and get inspiration. I’m planning to set aside 1 week for every 12 weeks of work (making up the 13-week quarter). This could be for travel, or just chilling and reading. I enjoy doing reflection so this comes naturally to me. But I tend to unknowingly push out these periods of downtime when I get busy, so to counter that I blocked out the required days on the calendar upfront to set aside time to do such reviews. 

Deliberate practice of deep work:

4-5h of deep work is usually my limit. So I try to plan a window in the earlier part of the day to do just that. Set up the environment so that I get my breaks, natural movement even while doing deep work. I start off with my goal affirmation to remind why I’m working: 

“I will earn $1mil ARR by 1st Jan 2021. In return, I will work on my indie products diligently, adhere to a habit system, and earn at least $83,333/month (or $83/month for 12 months from 1000 customers).

Then I do a quick task review of the top 3 tasks I need to do for the day - coding, writing, or learning And as part of being deliberate, I try to find ways to improve what I’m doing by 1%, be it in product features, monetization opportunities, or my own processes. The 1% improvement rule is a mindset as much as a habit.

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Looking at the list, it’s hard to see how any of those habits contribute tangibly to a financial target of $1mil. But keystone habits are like the background conditions needed to generate the specific outcomes. Like the pillars in a house - everyone looks at the interior decor but nobody notices the pillars that hold up the entire house. 

Or I certainly hope so. 

I’ll report back if I discover I need specific keystone habits that’s financial or revenue-related.