4 Things I Learned Using LEGO To Create Healthy Habits

It’s been a month since I decided to start building better habits using LEGO as a way to track my progress.

It’s not an over-exaggeration to say that it’s the first month of my life where I’ve been able to consistently spend my time in ways that are good for me.

So I’m sharing my reflections here for those of you interested in trying it out for yourself. And as a way for me to keep the momentum going!

Before getting into the rest of this article, you might like to read my first one that sets the scene for why I’m doing this and how.

The habits I’m trying to build this year are: meditation, walking, exercise, reading, writing and chores.

What we’ll cover in this article:

• What one month of habits looks like in LEGO

• Four things I’ve learned tracking habits with LEGO so far

• My reflections on what I’ll do differently next month

One month of habit tracking using LEGO

I tracked 6 habits over the 30 days of June, with each 4x4 LEGO brick representing roughly 25 minutes of time. I chose 25 minutes as I often use the Pomodoro Method for productivity and it helps keep you focused on that habit.

The results are in! Here are the stats…

• Walking - 18 hours

• Chores - 5 hours

• Reading - 4.5 hours

• Writing - 4.5 hours

• Exercise - 2.2 hours

• Meditation - 0.5 hours

So what have I learned so far? And what will I be changing for July?

Four things I learned building habits using LEGO

1. It encourages you to complete at least one habit each day

   The desire to not have any gaps in my LEGO ‘calendar’ made sure that I did at least one of my habits everyday. There were 3 days were I didn’t complete a habit. These were during a 2 day work trip and my surprise birthday party, so I let myself off for those. There’s something so satisfying about putting a small plastic block down to represent a positive action you’ve taken in the day, which encourages you to keep going.

2. It incentivises you to do your habits for longer

“Placing a brick gives a sense of short term gratification that can’t be easily found when working on long term gains.”

Because each brick represents roughly 25 minutes, I found it encouraged me to go for longer. For example, when swimming I’d start getting bored after 15 minutes but then think “Well I can’t place a brick down if I don’t reach 25” so I’d continue on. Same applies to walking, reading and doing chores.

It seems silly that it takes a small coloured brick to incentivise a person to complete tasks that are positive for wellbeing and achieving long term goals. But as I’m sure many of you will relate to, trying to see a long term gain (e.g. better physical and mental well-being from walking everyday) when there is no immediate gratification makes habits really hard to build. Placing a brick gives a sense of short term satisfaction to incentivise you to do more habits, for longer.

3. It helps you see ‘trends’ across the month

I tracked my habits with daily LEGO towers in a LEGO ‘calendar’

My energy levels and motivation fluctuate massively over the month (thank you to the female hormonal cycle for that joy!) and it’s taken me many years to see that, and accept it.

Tracking my habits with LEGO gave me a knew perspective on this though. It showed me that during the two weeks when I am feeling most energetic, I can actually do a lot! Seeing the different colours and size of the towers helped me see what I am capable of.

Similarly, it’s helped me visually track my less energetic times. It isn’t unusual for me during pre-menstrual days to not leave the house for 2 or 3 days so noticing this trend and tracking habits in this way, has encouraged me to go out and do what’s good for me when I really can’t be bothered.

4. It makes it easier to celebrate your wins

Habit tracking can be difficult when we feel like we’re never doing ‘enough’ and give ourselves a hard time if we miss a day. When your inner critic comes knocking, having a clear and objective view of what you’ve accomplished can help put things into perspective.

You can’t get caught in a thought cycle of “Oh I’ve been so rubbish with my habits this month” when you have a physical representation in LEGO of everything you’ve achieved.

You could argue that tracking using tick-boxes or marking on a calendar has the same effect but I don’t think that’s as visually pleasing, and therefore not as encouraging as seeing it as a real built tower.

Reflections: What I’m changing for July LEGO Habit Building

You may have noticed that the meditation habit was rather neglected in the towers above. I only meditated for 3 x 15min sessions. However, I’m not being hard on myself about that because 6 habits to build at once is a lot and my main focus this month was movement (walking or exercising). Tracking all of the habits though has helped me identify which of them I find easier to build into my routine, and what I need to change.

Here’s what I’m changing for July…

I want to see 2 pink bricks each week

Build a more regular exercise routine. E.g. rather than exercise 4 days in a row on an energetic week and then not exercise for 2 weeks, exercise twice a week, every week.

I want to see a small blue block every day

I’m going to decide on the smallest meditation habit and do it every day. At this point I need to build the habit of sitting down to meditate before I even start meditating, so I’ll focus on that.

I want to see at least one brick every day of the month

I will anticipate times in the month where I will find it harder to do my habits (e.g. events, times I’m away, energy levels) and plan ways to overcome these obstacles in advance.

What will July bring? I’ll be back next month to share more of my LEGO habit building journey!

June - A month well spent!