21 days to change a habit

For my birthday this year my dear friend sent me a little book of habit record sheets.  Working on the popular principle that it takes 21 days to change a habit, the tear-out pages of habit record sheets provide a pre-printed (take the excuses out of it) format to record a list of 13 (don't ask me why its 13) "good habits" and then a tick-off space for each day of the week... with a space for a reward at the end of the week.
Earlier this year, a few procrastination months after my birthday, I gave it a go.  And lo... I actually found that, in some ways and in some areas, it worked.  I opted to blu-tac the sheets to my bathroom mirror, I made a list of 13 new habits I wanted to introduce to my life, and each day I checked off the ones I had done in the day.  It worked for a few different reasons.  Firstly I included things on the list that I knew were relatively quick and easy to achieve eg make my bed each day.  This meant that there was almost always at least a couple of things that I could tick, saving me from the demoralisation of complete failure.  Secondly, putting it on my bathroom mirror worked a treat because I looked at it for motivation every morning, and for reckoning every night - it was unavoidable.  The rewards section I found didn't really work so well for me - sadly, I am really quite undisciplined when it comes to rewards - and either I don't want the reward enough to work for it, or if I really do want it - I give it to myself anyway.... What did work however - was the reward of the tick itself... I found myself craving the ticks, wanting the ticks, working for the ticks... rather than currency to gain an external treat - they became reinforcement in and of themselves.  And some habits changed for good - months after the paper faded, some of my new behaviours remain changed...
And then... technology stepped in.
I got my iphone.  I love my iphone... it has enhanced my life in many ways... I can stay on top of work emails from my couch, I can keep up with my friends on facebook while feeding the baby, I can search for recipes while in the supermarket... I love my iphone.  My iphone did however undermine my 21 days routine.  I found an App you see... that did the job of my bits of paper on the bathroom mirror... and did it with a month in review function, with colours and lights... buuuuut....
no longer was my list of habits in front of me morning and evening... I had to go and open the App... and so... slowly, inexorably... it faded from my life.
So - today I resurrect one of the "simple is best" things in my life... and bring back the habits score sheets.  I now need to put them a lot higher up on my mirror or the child will eat them while cleaning her teeth... but I am excited about bringing back this old friend.