How to build a new habit: the buddy system for accountability

It’s the final week of my tips on habit-(re)building series!

What is it?✨

Having an accountability person (or group), or “the buddy system”!

This is super useful when building up a new habit, as it’s so easy to fall into the trap of putting it off when you’re only accountable to yourself. I am guilty of this😅

Tell people what you’re doing and trying to make stick, and check in with them, or maybe they’ll check in with and encourage you.

When I’m working with a student (moreso with my younger or newer folk, but everyone’s welcome), and they’re having a hard time establishing an initial practicing habit, together we’ll come up with a plan for the week with them - and I’ll do it too. I’ll set up a practice log to track with reflection questions which we can both access, and have one for myself.

Even not going that deep and just doing something like posting on social media your intentions helps kick that into gear because it’s “out there” and people know about it.

I hope this 5 week series on how I build habits has given you something to work with. Writing this, for me, was a task in rebuilding the habit of posting regularly on social media, with the hopes that I keep the habit, and expand to more of my platforms. If this has helped in any way, or if you’re looking for some extra accountability, let me know in the comments.

A shoutout that I’ve been using that’s actually helped is that I’ve been using a planner/habit tracker for the last month that has helped keep me on task, break everything down into the bite-sized achievable goals, with the added bonus of the boost of checking off boxes and seeing a little gif of a cartoon frog dance when I’m done - it’s a lot more useful to me than my wall of post-it notes (when everything morphs into a giant post-it note.)

If you’re looking for flute lessons with a focus on nurturing creativity, sparking curiosity, finding what works for you, AND with accountability and support along the way, drop me a line on my contact page and we can chat. They’re online, so they can happen anywhere!