We ain’t the little ones anymore

As we enter grade 10, we are approaching the halfway mark in our high school careers. Which always sort of breaks my mind whenever I think about it; by February, we’ll be closer to the end of high school than to the beginning of high school.

Me, in January of 2023 (Grade 8).

The realization really makes me think about how I’m spending my time here—am I doing it effectively? Am I enjoying myself? Will I be ready for life as soon as I exit the doors of this building and go into the world?

This project centred around the book Atomic Habits by James Clear; as we read through it, we were introduced to a variety of concepts that focused on building and maintaining positive habits.

We particularly focused on Intentions, the habit loop, systems, and identity based habits. Learning these concepts were a key method to thriving and successfully complete in this project.

This was a rather large project, along with reading Atomic Habits and doing work related to it. This project was also connected to PrePOLs, which are an opportunity to publicly communicate and commit to the learning goals and intentions you have set for yourself for this school year (excerpt from the explanation provided to us).

To prepare for our PrePOL (post coming soon), we had to create a VMV—”Vision, Mission, Values” document. With the goal of this being to outline our vision of where we’d like to be on graduation day, our mission for this year, and our values, which will help us meet our vision and mission.

There was also a precursor to our VMVs, which was our intention pop art. The focus of our intention pop art was to symbolize and voice our intentions for the year in a more visual medium. As much of a dislike I have for Apple Markup, this was fun. As it allowed me to speak about and develop my intentions in a fun medium.

Additionally, we had to create an artifact to represent our learnings from Atomic Habits. Which I was initially very excited about, as ever since Grade 8, I’ve wanted to create “original” work that reflects and builds on my interests, and this was a perfect opportunity to do it.

After a period of merely drafting and revising my ideas, I landed on the creation of an NFC keychain to communicate with my devices to establish a “shutdown” for my devices. My idea behind this was to create a physical aspect to my pursuit of productivity and create more friction when doing unproductive things on my devices, so it can be easier for me to strap in and work.

The keychain works through a combination of apps and Apple automations that I’ve set up. This way, when I tap the keychain, it activates specific automations across my devices that trigger ‘shutdown’ mode, limiting my access to distracting content. This physical action adds friction to unproductive habits, making it easier for me to stay focused and get into my work mindset.

Since one of my largest struggles when working is actually starting, it can be extremely difficult to break out of the loop of just watching random content or doing literally anything else. It can take a lot of strength and willpower to actually get started on the tasks that I need to do. Hence the creation of the keychain, with the purpose of limiting the things I can do other than working.

Throughout this project, we were frequently asked the question, How can small changes in my habits shape my success this year and beyond?

Small habits are great; they’re subtle but powerful. Instead of trying to overhaul our lives overnight, building on small changes consistently allows progress to accumulate naturally over time. Many people overlook this, but by starting young, we’re setting ourselves up with tools that make intentional growth part of who we are. By adulthood, the lessons from Atomic Habits could empower us to steer our lives in a better direction that we truly want. If we carry these habits forward, we’re not just succeeding this year—we’re setting the stage for lifelong growth.