I know that we all have positive habits, negative habits, habits we want to start and habits we want to stop. One of my daily habits is to spend time in mindfulness meditation. I am proud say that I am approaching 1000 days in a row spending some quiet time each day. Part of my morning routine is to sit quietly and listen to a daily meditation. I use the Calm app and quite often listen to Jay Shetty’s Daily Jay.

This week one of the meditations was centred around habits and what Jay Shetty refers to as “decreasing friction”. For me, a way to decrease friction for mindfulness meditation is to use the Calm app which provides me with multiple meditations queued up and ready to go. Another example of decreasing friction is my goal of having a healthy breakfast. Making a batch of overnight oats or overnight chia that lasts two or three mornings makes it simple – get up, the food is ready and all I need to do is scoop it into a bowl and eat it – no thought required and no friction.

The opposite is also true. If there is a habit you want to stop, consider adding friction. Snacking after meals, add some friction by removing the snacks from the cupboards. Worried about too many calories, use an app like MyFitnessPal to track your calorie intake.

Remove friction or add friction, and focus on where you want to improve.