Episode 91: Habit Tracking Hacks: How to Level Up Your Leadership in 2022
Are you looking to level up your leadership skills and create the best version of you?
Do you need a step by step guide to creating, tracking and stacking habits?
Self-care is not selfish. Forming habits will not only benefit you – but those around you, especially the people you lead.
In today’s episode, Erin will guide you through a full proof step by step plan for creating, and maintaining habits. Have a pen, paper and water bottle handy – this is a mental workout!
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Connect with Erin Diehl:
Erin Diehl is the founder and Chief “Yes, And” officer of improve it! and host of the improve it! Podcast. She’s a performer, facilitator and professional risk-taker who lives by the mantra, “get comfortable with the uncomfortable.” Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin has created improve it!, a unique professional development company that pushes others to laugh, learn and grow. Her work with clients such as United Airlines, PepsiCo, Groupon, Deloitte, Motorola, Walgreens, and The Obama Foundation earned her the 2014 Chicago RedEye Big Idea Award and has nominated her for the 2015-2019 Chicago Innovations Award.
This graduate from Clemson University is a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional as well as a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater, and The Annoyance Theatre.
When she is not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys running and beach dates with her husband and son, and their eight-pound toy poodle, BIGG Diehl.
You can follow the failed it! podcast on Instagram @learntoimproveit and facebook, and you can follow Erin personally on Instagram @keepinitrealdiehl here. You can also check out improve it! and how we can help your organization at www.learntoimproveit.com. We can’t wait to connect with you online!
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Episode 91 Transcription
Erin (00:01):
Improve it! Fam it's me, Erin. If you have little ones running around, grab some earbuds, we use a little adult language in this one. Let's do this. Are you a leader or change maker inside of your business organization or corporation? Are you looking for new, innovative ways to drive morale through the roof? Are you looking for fun and exciting icebreakers team building exercises and activities that will foster team growth, friendships, loyalty, and completely transform your organization from the inside out? Have you been searching for a fun and unique way to create change instead of the same old, dry, boring leadership books and nice breakers that aren't actually working? Hi, I'm Erin Diehl, business improv, entertainer, failfluencer, and professional zoomie who is ready to help you improve it. My mission in life is to help you develop teams and leaders through play improv and experiential learning. In this podcast, we will deep dive into professional development team building effective communication, networking, presentation, skills, leadership training, how to think more quickly on your feet and everything in between. We have helped everyone from fortune 500 companies to small mom and pop shops transform their business, their leadership, and their people through play. So grab your chicken hat. We are about to have some fun, welcome to improve it, the podcast
Erin (01:48):
Improve it family. Oh my gosh. First of all, thanks for putting up with all of my singing still coming in hot in 2022 and welcome again to the improve it pod. First time listeners, you are in for a treat long time listeners. Hello, and I am giving you a big old warm hug. That's right. A hug lived in Charleston for over a year and now I have a Southern accent again. So I wanna start off by talking about the beginning of this year, 2022 has thrown us some curve balls. We've had some school closures across the United States here. We've had a lot of people not returning back to work because of Omnichron who was the Grinch that stole the holidays from us. We've had people continuing to work from home, not going into the office. We've had temperatures that were below zero in some parts of the country.
Erin (02:50):
But let me say this after all of those things, it sounds like a lot. And it is, but after 2020, this is the trilogy. We're like, okay, we can handle multiple things being thrown at us at multiple times. So the one consistent thing in all of this improve it fam is that you are, you, you can still level up with all of these things happening in the world because you are going to manifest greatness into your life this year, even when it looks like the world itself is on fire. And I will say that actually in some parts of the world, it was on fire already in 2022. So I want you to think about this. All right. I want you to think about ways you can track habits to help you level up your leadership this year. And I know most of you are thinking Erin, you're an improviser.
Erin (03:44):
You are go with the flow Willy nilly. Woo girl, who? Yes. Anne's the last thing that was said and flies by the seat of her pants. NA you girl has taken compounded efforts over time to set goals. That was set me up for success. Now there's a book that I swear by. I read this years ago, it's called the compound effect by Darren Hardy. We'll put that in the show notes, but here's what I want you to know. Improv does not have a script, but there are games and there are forms and structures to improv that allow the magic. You see on stage, come to life. There are structures and habits that we've placed into our training on improvisation that allow the scenes and the people within those scenes to create the magic that you see on stage. Very same notion goes for goals and making things habits in our very own lives.
Erin (04:49):
So let me just take a step back really quick and let you know what inspired me to record this episode. So actually I didn't even have this episode on our radar. I gonna talk about habits, but our very own Jenna McDonald, our director of client experience here at improve it. We were on a call a couple days ago and I told her about a new habit that I was tracking for my morning and evening routines. And I will say this, if you've listened to the show long enough, no, that I've always had a very solid morning routine. And this, this was a habit that I established in 2017 during my infertility days when improve it had an office and I wanted to work out before work and put myself in a better mental state before I went to set office. So that habit created in 2017, set me up for so much success as I became a parent as our team grew.
Erin (05:50):
So I want you to know that I've always had a morning routine, but I've just started tracking my evening routines. And I'm gonna tell you more about this. So I, I told Jenna this idea that I've been tracking when I go to bed at night. And so the idea is with my evening routine, I put my phone down at nine and I'm getting ready for bed by 10:00 PM. And I put my phone across the room away from my nightstand, which is where I usually keep up. So I keep it scroll, which is my go-to. And then I read a physical book until I fall asleep. That is what I've been tracking. And so I told her about this on a meeting we were having and her response was, oh my gosh, you're so disciplined. And let me say this. I don't usually take compliments, but in this instance, I, I said, you know what?
Erin (06:40):
I am disciplined. And we both laugh because she's like, you know, you never take compliments. I usually go right into some sort of self deprecating humor. And for me, I was like, wait, I, I disciplined you're right. And so we had to go laugh about that because I normally would be like, oh yeah. Oh, okay, move on to the next thing. So that kind of popped in my brain. And she said, I would listen to a podcast episode about that. And I thought, okay, well, if she will, who else? And then I did a poll on LinkedIn and unanimously, everyone on LinkedIn wanted to hear about habit tracking. And, and I also got a sign from a good friend of mine who is starting to run. So I have, by let me say when I'm a runner, I'm gonna say that I'm basically a waddler who like runs up and down streets and it does not look pretty.
Erin (07:36):
I'm gonna tell you straight up, I peed my pants running on Sunday. Like it's not glorious or glamorous, but I run. Okay. And my friend came to me, it's getting real in 20, 22, but she came to me and she asked me for some advice on running. And when I asked or when I got the text from her for advice, I thought why my first, you know, thought was like, let me just tell her, get it inhaler, pray, you know? But then I realized she really did want some advice on how to create this habit in her life. How could she, who has never run distance before start tracking and creating a habit that would help her live a healthier lifestyle? So this all led me to where we are to do, which is to give you three habit tracking hacks that have worked for me.
Erin (08:25):
This is my method. This is what has allowed me to leave a full-time job to build and scale a business, to hire a team, to run a marathon and many half marathon. I am trading for one right now. Granny's got a bad knee, but I digress. It's also allowed me to track my fertility, which as an infertility warrior, I learned a lot in this space. It's allowed me to lose 30 pounds in a year. This was years ago, but I did. It allowed me to meditate daily, eat healthier on the regular. It has also allowed me to spend time with those. I love create proper boundaries in my work and my personal life. Give myself time off, which is crazy. And here's a real shocker. It's also helped me drink less. Okay.
Erin (09:22):
Everything that I just mentioned, literally, when I say all of these things out loud, I feel like an. And I normally don't swear on this show, but I, again, everything's like leading me to these convers. I just had a conversation with somebody and I'm like, I swear in real life, why don't I swear on the podcast? So I'm gonna drop some swear words here and there. It's not like my go-to language, but I'm gonna do that moving forward, because this is 2022. And we're all about bringing our truest selves to work. So back to the thing, I've just said it again, all of those things I just mentioned. If I were to list them off, they make me feel like one of those people, those influencers on Instagram, which as you know, I'm a fail influencer who you look at and you just automatically despise because you're like, how do those people have their life?
Erin (10:13):
So in order, what did they do that I'm not doing all of the things that I just rattled off are true. That is me. Now the Erin 10 years ago was flailing. I mean, hot mess. Just like actually not even like stinky mess grow. Like I was crazy in the morning. I had no routine. My alarm clock would go off. I would fly out of bed like a bat out of hell. I would race around my apartment. I would throw clothes on. I would brush my hair in a panic to get out the door. If I brushed my hair at all, I was filled with Gus, which is the name for my anxiety. I have a whole episode about anxiety. If you go back and just scroll or search anxiety and iTunes on our show, you'll find a whole episode about anxiety. And I was filled. What I called with GU, which is the name I game set, anxiety that air in 10 years ago was self deprecating. I didn't love my, my body. I drank a lot more than I should. That Erin knew she had a purpose and she had no idea how to achieve or get that purpose across to anyone, even herself.
Erin (11:36):
So when I list the things that I list said before that these habits have helped me create into my life. Now I feel arrogant. I feel like, oh my gosh, I'm telling you all these things that I've done, but you know what? I'm not gonna sit here and feel that way today. I have worked so hard for those goals so hard and I was not born with a brain for science. I, I could never be a doctor. I had zero clue, 10 years ago, how to build and scale a business. How in the world to run a marathon with my Stuy legs, how to go through rounds and rounds of, of IVF, and basically be a science experiment, how to create and birth human life. I didn't know what foods made me feel like a giant stack of potatoes or the foods that actually gave me the fuel that I needed to consume to be more creative.
Erin (12:28):
I didn't know that boundaries would and should be a priority to protect our and the relationships that were near and dear to me. So all of the things that I told you, my habits helped me create were built over time. And I repeat time, I started tracking habits in 2012, and this happened again from that book, the compound on effect. Now the habits are second nature to me, the habits I tracked became a part of my day today. And I literally now cannot imagine some of those habits, not in my life. If I didn't have these habits, I could not show up for my team, my client, the participants in our workshops, the people we serve and my family and my friends, the way I want to just kind of jumping forward. I have created these habits so much so that when they are not in, in a part of my day or my life, people around me who know me really well can can see it.
Erin (13:34):
So I was the 4th of July with some of my very best friends in Alabama. And there was 11 of us, three families, lots of kids. There was six kids, five adults. And we had some really fun nights with dinners and wine and champagne. And I did not have my usual morning routine habit in place at all. I did not work out. I had no meditation. I didn't even have any time for just myself for four days. And one of my very best friends, Helen was like, girl, your anxiety is high. And she was at absolutely right. I was higher than Snoop dog with Martha Stewart. I mean, I was literally insane because I did not take that time to fulfill the habits that make me set up for the giving. I give to other people and the day that I wanna have. So the things that make me sing, AKA, the habits I form were not in place at all during that trip.
Erin (14:39):
And I realized that I normally don't go that long without doing these habits. So four days of not doing these habits really set me off balance. And it showed me that that's not the life I wanna have anymore. That I, I wanna maintain these habits so that I can be the best version of myself for the people I love. So without further ado, now that you've known my backstory with habits, you're like, get to the mate air. I'm coming, I'm coming, you needed the appetizer. Let's start with three hacks. All right, these are the three hacks that you're gonna need to level up your leadership in 2022. Now I know who listens to this show. We've got amazing leaders on this line. We have people who care about their teams, their families. I'm talking to you today because I want you to you, these three hacks, and I promise you, you are going to see results.
Erin (15:35):
You're gonna feel different. So here's habit one. It is the habit of one hack. One I should say, not habit. One hack. One is the habit of one. So start with one habit. What is one thing that you want to change to add into your life? Because a habit is generally adding or removing something. So what's, let's start with one thing you want to bring into your life. Maybe that thing for you is exercise. This is a very common habit that you wanna exercise more, right? So let's do just start with this one habit. Now with this habit of one, you're gonna decide how many days a week you want to do that habit. So let's say you wanna exercise four times a week. I want you to multiply four times a week by the number of weeks let left in the year. So if we were starting at the beginning of 2022, you would say four by 52 weeks.
Erin (16:40):
Right? But if you're listening to this later, which you probably are, you would just add up the normal the number of weeks in the year left and multiply that by the number of times of week, you want to do your habits. So let's say we're start. And it's four times a week by 52 weeks. So 208 days that you wanna exercise over the course of 20, 22, or if we break it down monthly 17.3 days per month. All right. So really 17, if you wanna get crazy, you could say 18 with that one habit. You've now broken it down into a weekly, monthly and annual goal. We are going to track it annually as well as monthly. So I want you to write down your goal somewhere. So let's say you have a planner or for me, I really love a physical planner. So I write in the back of my planner exercise.
Erin (17:39):
And then I write January, February, March, April, may all the way to December. So I'm tracking my number of times. I've exercised each month in the back of that planer. All right. So it's January. Let's say we started this January one, and now you wanna work out 17.3 days the month of January. All right. You will then write this goal down before you do anything else. You wanna sure. You have it written in a space that you can come back to and you see it and you see it almost daily. So for me, that's my planner, perhaps for you, you have some type of spreadsheet on your desktop, or maybe it's a very physical one of those big desk calendars, or maybe it's a marker board, wherever it is that you're gonna see this habit every single day to remind you that you need to work out four times or whatever your habit is.
Erin (18:33):
But for this example, four times hack number two is track it. All right? So I gave you that example of where I want you to put your goal. So for me again, it's the back of my planner by the back. I mean, it has extra pages left in the planner. I want you to find a place for you to track it. So I wrote down my goal in the back of my planner, but what I actually wanna do is track the number of times I'm doing it for me. I use the calendar of my month and every time I work out it, and for me, if working out is 30 minutes of exercise, either cardio or strength, I would give a symbol on that day. So for me, if let's say I exercise Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, on my monthly view of my calendar, I'm gonna, I put a star on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, or whatever I just said.
Erin (19:36):
So you keep this tracker somewhere visible somewhere. You can see it often. And every time you work out, you get to give yourself a star. Okay? So, and it doesn't have to be working out again, example this is very funny because actually potty training our two year old now. So every time he goes to the bathroom, he gets a sticker, same thing. It happens to adults. We're creating a habit by giving ourself a little reward. And so that reward is looking at your calendar and seeing stars on your calendar because you've worked out on those days. Here's the third hack. All right. So you've started with one habit, your habit of one, you've tracked it every time that you've done this habit, hack three is tally it up. So at the end of January, I'm gonna look at my monthly planner and I'm gonna count all of the times that I worked out.
Erin (20:33):
And so you're, I will count all the stars that I see. Then I add this to the back of my planner, where I have a tally sheet. So under January where I had my goal of 200, eight days, I'm going to put the number of days that I actually worked out in January. Now, remember I wanted to work out 17.3 days that month, let's say I worked out 18, cuz I'm an overachiever. All right. So I'll put down 18 under the month of January. So we've, we've started with one habit. Okay. We've claimed it. We've defined it. Then number two, we've tracked it. So we've tracked the fact that we've exercised over the course of the month in our, in our calendar view of our planner. And then we're keeping a tally at the end of the month. So they say it takes three weeks to form a habit.
Erin (21:27):
So 30 days if you're looking at a month, most months are anywhere. February is 28 days, but most, most months are 38 or 38, 30 days. So 30 days is definitely enough time to create a habit. So when you're tallying this up, I want you to make this really fun. Say it's January 31st or let's say it's February 1st, whatever you wanna do on either of those two days, I want you to tally it by doing it into a fun ritual, spend 20 minutes, counting those habits. We'll talk about habits, the plural of that in just a moment. And I want you to sit down with stickers, fun and tally up the number and reflect on that. I also like to make sure I'm ready with my goals for the next month. So it's a reflection of the month before and a planning of the month ahead. And I want you to make this fun.
Erin (22:26):
So have your favorite cup of coffee. You, your favorite playlist playing a candle, catch a vibe, make this fun for you. So here comes the really fun part. After you've spent 30 days with your one habit, let's say again, for this ex or for this exercise, the habit is exercise for this example, the habit is exercise. You're gonna start a second habit. Okay? So now you're gonna continue that habit into February of exercising four times a week, cuz you're trying to get to your annual goal of how many times you wanna exercise that year. Once you've mastered one goal, that habit of one you're gonna add in another habit to start trying to do for the next 30 days, but do not add in another habit until you have mastered the first. So let's say end of January, you tally up your goal and you didn't hit your goal of 17 days a month.
Erin (23:28):
You only hit 13. We're gonna take the month of February to continue to master that habit. So you wanna create tangible goals that you can reach. So maybe you realize, you know what, four days is too much. I've got too much going on. Let me go to three days in February, you kind of shift your goal. And so now you've lowered that goal, but it's attainable and you've reached it. And now when you're, you're allying it up and you're tracking in February and you're allying it up at the end of February, you realize this is attainable. I can do this. This is my habit. I now am exercising three days a week, but let's say at the end of January, you mastered it. You got your 18 days and you have spent that time with exercising. You're feeling great about yourself. You're ready to add in a second habit.
Erin (24:18):
You start again at the very beginning. So let's say a new habit that you want to form is 30 minutes a day of researching something that you're interested in. All right, let's say you're, you're wanting to spend time researching team building initiatives for your team, win wink, or you wanna research new jobs cuz you're looking for a new job this year or you wanna become more skilled at your current. So you're researching certifications that you could get. And then you're doing that. So 30 minutes a day for research or reading about something that you are interested in. So you'll start it back at hack number one, which is a habit of one, you'll figure out what our, how many days a week you wanna do this, supply it by the number of weeks left in the year and then figure out how many days per month you are going to track this habit.
Erin (25:14):
Then you track it. You give that a symbol as well. You'll go into your however, you're gonna do this again for me, it's a physical calendar and give it a symbol. So let's say you wanna research the for 30 minutes, three times a week, every time you research, you give yourself a smiley face on your calendar. You now can look back at that calendar at the end of the month and tally it up and see how many times you did this actual habit that you're trying to bring into your life. So January February, you've got your goal mastered from January and February. You're now adding in a second goal in February and then let's say you've mastered both of those. You can add in a third habit, but you need to give yourself those 30 days to actually make one habit happen. You can only go into a new habit once you've mastered the one or the two, if you've gotten through February.
Erin (26:14):
So once you've, you've mastered a habit, you can add in another habit over the next 30 days, too many habits happening at once and not focusing just on the one means that you are not going to actually focus on anything. You're gonna have things all over the place, right? So I've done these habits and I've created these habits personally in my own life. So with exercise, I now exercise about six days a week, five to six days a week. And I do this, not for vanity, but for mental health reasons, I meditate five days a week because it helps set me up for success. And when I'm able to calm my mind and I'm able to just channel a different part of my brain, you can believe the output that I'm able to put out for you. I track the days that I take off, I call them rest days.
Erin (27:07):
I track the days that I don't drink. I track the days that I eat healthy. And for me it's I try to live an 80% good, 20% live your best life, healthy habit, eating rule. I track time spent with my husband. I now am tracking getting my but bed at night so I can wake up in the morning and not be a zombie on zoom or a zoomie. So I try apply these things to my personal life, but I also apply them professionally. So I'd improve it. We track the number of calls. We have the newsletters that are opened. The workshops that we do, the laugh breaks we track, we track we track. And what I'm talking about here is a practice for you to use. Not only personally, but professionally, but let me say this. The personal side is going to spill over into the professional self care for you is not selfish.
Erin (28:08):
You cannot lead your team unless you feel good. So Erin from 10 years ago, did not have any habits in place. It was a fly. It was the improviser version of fly by the seat of your pants. When a problem came up at work, I was less equipped to handle it because I wasn't in the habit of feeling good. When you attract good things into your life through habits, more good is going to come your way when you're vibrating at a lower frequency and you're not taking care of you, you are already doing a disservice to yourself. Maybe you're listening today. And you're like, Aaron, this feels like toxic positivity. I don't do these things. I'm not gonna live a life of unicorns and fart rainbows. How do you know if rainbows can come out of your? Here? I am swearing again. If you don't try improve it, fam I want you to try one habit, try one habit.
Erin (29:17):
The habit of one for the next 30 days start fresh and February. Okay. Or start right where you're at and start thinking out this habit now. So that in February, you're ready to do it. I want you to do the habit of one, define what it is and track how many times annually and monthly you wanna do it, want you to then track it somewhere. You'll see it every single day. And then I want you to tally it up at the end of the month and then tally it up again at the end of the year, then I want you to tell me how you feel. You may not fart rainbows, but you will be on your way to one color of that rainbow OG B. Okay. So maybe you're your orange. Now once we stack habits on habits and you've mastered one for 30 days, and then you move to the next, we will have the entire rainbow coming out of your butt. We will tell Skittles that we've created our own rainbow and we will ask them to sponsor our habit tracking planner.
Erin (30:22):
What I'm saying is I believe in you and I know you can do this. And I'm telling you this from, from experience, it's so much easier to do this when you're investment and the accountability partner is yourself. If you're relying on other people to give you accountability, they're never gonna give you the accountability that you'll give yourself. When you start to see these habits, track, and these habits tally up over time, I know you can do it. I want you to do it. And I know that not only you will reap the benefits, but so will your teams, your families, the people in your lives, you've got one life let's form the habits that make it the best one that you could possibly have. So improve it, family. You know what I'm about to say, keep failing. And if you fail, that's okay. That's okay.
Erin (31:23):
Keep improving and keep just shining that light. That is yours because the world needs that special. It that only you can bring, and these are the habits they're gonna help that it shine even brighter. I'll see you next week, case friends, thanks for tuning in to improve it. I am so happy you were along for the ride. If you enjoyed this show, head on over to iTunes to leave us a five star review and subscribe to this show. So you never miss an episode. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Now, if you're really feeling today's show and you've improved it even just little bit, please take a screenshot and tag me at keeping it real deal on Instagram and share it in your stories. I'll see you next week, but I wanna leave you with this thought, what did you improve today and how will that help your future successful self? Think about it. I am rooting for you and the world needs that special. It that only you can bring see you next time.