Establish New Habits With 30-day Trial Method

The 30-day trial is a powerful concept used to develop a habit. If used properly, you should be able to get into every daily routine. For example, you want to do yoga, but you always give up after a few days. That's a natural thing and there is nothing to be ashamed of. Have you ever wondered if there is anything that could help you to get used to everyday routine? Of course, you could hire a personal coach to keep an eye on you, but that would be quite expensive, wouldn't it? And as a side effect, you could experience the unpleasant feeling of being pushed around. Once you get into a situation like this, into a situation where you really want to develop a habit, but you can‘t overcome procrastination, it's time to give 30-day trial method a shot. Not only it's absolutely free, it's also working relly efficiently.

The name is derived from shareware software selling method. You are allowed use the product for a limited amout of time and then you can either give it up or buy it. The 30-day trial method can be described like this, but you don't buy anything, you just keep the habit.

Why and how does it work? You choose your habit and claim yourself you will maintain it for a month. I am sure psychologists would come up with a sophisticated explanation of the phenomenon, but in my eyes it seems really simple. You want to change something. You have to make sacrifices. Let's take the previous example, practise of yoga. It's obvious yoga would be good for your both physical and mental health, but it isn't that easy to switch off the TV, unfold the matress and start. The feeling of making a permanent change in your life is just way too overwhelming. But if you think of the change as a temporary matter? Of course, it still requires discipline, but it's much easier to persuade yourself this way. "It's thirty days, I can keep it on for a month!" – far less depressing then "I will do this for the rest of my life, oh Lord, oh my..."

The most amazing thing happens afther the month you've been forcing youself to maintain the new habit. The old habit's regularity is broken, you feel more confident about continuing with the new one. You actually miss your daily hour of yoga – that's the way our brains work. Once you get used to it, you will feel the need to continue.

There are many possibilities with this method. You can use 30-day trial to quit smoking, to exercise everyday, read the news, play a musical instrument... whatever you can think of.

Swift To-do List can be really helpful with it's "recurrent tasks" feature. You just add a task and set the options, so you will be reminded everyday. As you can see in the screenshot, Swift To-Do List will remind you everyday at 4 PM for thirty days in a row to do the task.