Looking after the health of your skin is similar to exercise for your body or meditation for your mind. In an ideal world we would exercise and meditate every day without fail, but life isn’t that simple and building new habits can be hard. If we don’t stick to our skincare routine, then we won’t be able to experience the benefits of softer, healthier skin.
At Prano we want to make skincare simple. That’s why I wanted to list a few techniques for building habits that I have found helpful that can hopefully make building your new skin care routine easy.
Mindset
Having the right mindset can make building a new habit easier. If you think about skincare holistically you will realize that it is a long-term goal. Imagine if you stuck to your new habit for just 4 days a week how healthy your skin will be in 20 years.
Thinking long term helps you handle the short-term ups and downs of your new habit. From this perspective, break-outs due to hormone changes or feeling bad for not sticking to your habit seem less important since you are in it for the long haul.
The impact of consistency is greater over longer time periods. Wearing sunscreen daily only makes a small difference after a week, but a massive difference over 5, 10 or even 20 years, especially in New Zealand where our UV exposure is so high. So, when you are thinking about your skin routine, try to think about doing yourself in 20 years a favour.
Try not overcomplicate your new habit as this can make it feel overwhelming and hard to do. Skincare doesn’t have to be complicated. Our Simplest Skin Care Routine Blog outlines a very simple routine that takes just a few minutes each day which will achieve 80-90% of the results of more complicated routines.
Your routine doesn’t have to be perfect, do what you can, when you can and keep going.
Habit Reflection
This technique has been scientifically proven to improve habit formation. Reflect on a habit you have already built in the past, think about how you built this habit and what worked for you. Figure out why you were successful before then apply it to your new skin care routine.
This method sounds simple, but it is super effective because it is made by you for you. You know it will work because it has already worked for you in the past.
Habit Chaining
Tie your new skincare habit to an existing routine in your life. Find a habit you already have like brushing your teeth, showering or even having a coffee. Put your skin care products next to your bed, mirror, toothbrush or coffee machine so that you remember to do it every day. Whatever works best for you and your lifestyle.
Make sure to plan out your routine in your mind ahead of time so that you know what you are doing when. This takes thinking out of the equation and allows for the action to flow.
A good way to tie these habits together is to think about them as one action that isn’t complete until all steps are finished. For example, my shower isn’t finished until I have completed my skincare routine.
If you want to take this even further, having skincare products scattered throughout your life can make it easier to implement. For example, have a moisturizer in your bathroom, handbag, car, at your workplace. This way you will have regular reminders and a lower energy cost to doing the routine. Given that this approach costs more money it won’t suit everyone, but it can be a very effective way of maintaining a habit.
Habit Motivation Maximisation
One of the best indicators that a new habit is going to stick is how motivated you are at the beginning. Habit Motivation Maximisation is an exercise you can go through to help maximize your motivation at the start of your new habit and can be repeated any time you find your motivation waning.
Go through the following thought experiment: Imagine a future where you implement your new routine. Imagine how you would look and feel in 5, 10 or 20 years, imagine how your partner, kids, parents, friends or whoever is important to you would think about you. Imagine the nice things they would say to you about your skin. Now go through the same process but in reverse, imagine a world where you don’t implement the new routine and how you and the people most important to you would think about you.
Habit Tracking
Keeping track of your routine by marking it complete each day on a calendar or habit app can have a very strong positive impact on your ability to build your new routine.
Watching the number of consecutive days grow can give a sense of progress and not wanting to break the chain can motivate you to keep going on days where you just aren’t feeling it. There are many different apps and methods for tracking this. Make sure that you track it in a place that is highly visible in your life to help remind you to keep going.
These techniques are useful for more than just skincare so feel free to try them out with any new habit you are trying to build.
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