PRIME THE ENVIRONMENT FOR FUTURE USE
Oswald Nuckols is an IT developer from Natchez, Mississippi. He is also
someone who understands the power of priming his environment.
Nuckols dialed in his cleaning habits by following a strategy he refers to
as “resetting the room.” For instance, when he finishes watching television,
he places the remote back on the TV stand, arranges the pillows on the
couch, and folds the blanket. When he leaves his car, he throws any trash
away. Whenever he takes a shower, he wipes down the toilet while the
shower is warming up. (As he notes, the “perfect time to clean the toilet is
right before you wash yourself in the shower anyway.”) The purpose of
resetting each room is not simply to clean up after the last action, but to
prepare for the next action.
“When I walk into a room everything is in its right place,” Nuckols
wrote. “Because I do this every day in every room, stuff always stays in
good shape. . . . People think I work hard but I’m actually really lazy. I’m
just proactively lazy. It gives you so much time back.”
Whenever you organize a space for its intended purpose, you are
priming it to make the next action easy. For instance, my wife keeps a box
of greeting cards that are presorted by occasion—birthday, sympathy,
wedding, graduation, and more. Whenever necessary, she grabs an
appropriate card and sends it off. She is incredibly good at remembering to
send cards because she has reduced the friction of doing so. For years, I was
the opposite. Someone would have a baby and I would think, “I should send
a card.” But then weeks would pass and by the time I remembered to pick
one up at the store, it was too late. The habit wasn’t easy.
There are many ways to prime your environment so it’s ready for
immediate use. If you want to cook a healthy breakfast, place the skillet on
the stove, set the cooking spray on the counter, and lay out any plates and
utensils you’ll need the night before. When you wake up, making breakfast
will be easy.
Want to draw more? Put your pencils, pens, notebooks, and drawing
tools on top of your desk, within easy reach.
Want to exercise? Set out your workout clothes, shoes, gym bag, and
water bottle ahead of time.
Want to improve your diet? Chop up a ton of fruits and vegetables on
weekends and pack them in containers, so you have easy access to
healthy, ready-to-eat options during the week.
These are simple ways to make the good habit the path of least
resistance.
You can also invert this principle and prime the environment to make
bad behaviors difficult. If you find yourself watching too much television,
for example, then unplug it after each use. Only plug it back in if you can
say out loud the name of the show you want to watch. This setup creates
just enough friction to prevent mindless viewing.
If that doesn’t do it, you can take it a step further. Unplug the television
and take the batteries out of the remote after each use, so it takes an extra
ten seconds to turn it back on. And if you’re really hard-core, move the
television out of the living room and into a closet after each use. You can be
sure you’ll only take it out when you really want to watch something. The
greater the friction, the less likely the habit.
Whenever possible, I leave my phone in a different room until lunch.
When it’s right next to me, I’ll check it all morning for no reason at all. But
when it is in another room, I rarely think about it. And the friction is high
enough that I won’t go get it without a reason. As a result, I get three to four
hours each morning when I can work without interruption.
If sticking your phone in another room doesn’t seem like enough, tell a
friend or family member to hide it from you for a few hours. Ask a
coworker to keep it at their desk in the morning and give it back to you at
lunch.
It is remarkable how little friction is required to prevent unwanted
behavior. When I hide beer in the back of the fridge where I can’t see it, I
drink less. When I delete social media apps from my phone, it can be weeks
before I download them again and log in. These tricks are unlikely to curb a
true addiction, but for many of us, a little bit of friction can be the
difference between sticking with a good habit or sliding into a bad one.
Imagine the cumulative impact of making dozens of these changes and
living in an environment designed to make the good behaviors easier and
the bad behaviors harder.
Whether we are approaching behavior change as an individual, a parent,
a coach, or a leader, we should ask ourselves the same question: “How can
we design a world where it’s easy to do what’s right?” Redesign your life so
the actions that matter most are also the actions that are easiest to do.
Chapter Summary
Human behavior follows the Law of Least Effort. We will naturally
gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work.
Create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as
possible.
Reduce the friction associated with good behaviors. When friction is
low, habits are easy.
Increase the friction associated with bad behaviors. When friction is
high, habits are difficult.
Prime your environment to make future actions easier.
T
13
How to Stop Procrastinating by Using the
Two-Minute Rule
WYLA
T
HARP
IS
widely regarded as one of the greatest dancers and
choreographers of the modern era. In 1992, she was awarded a
MacArthur Fellowship, often referred to as the Genius Grant, and she has
spent the bulk of her career touring the globe to perform her original works.
She also credits much of her success to simple daily habits.
“I begin each day of my life with a ritual,” she writes. “I wake up at 5:30
A.M., put on my workout clothes, my leg warmers, my sweat shirt, and my
hat. I walk outside my Manhattan home, hail a taxi, and tell the driver to
take me to the Pumping Iron gym at 91st Street and First Avenue, where I
work out for two hours.
“The ritual is not the stretching and weight training I put my body
through each morning at the gym; the ritual is the cab. The moment I tell
the driver where to go I have completed the ritual.
“It’s a simple act, but doing it the same way each morning habitualizes it
—makes it repeatable, easy to do. It reduces the chance that I would skip it
or do it differently. It is one more item in my arsenal of routines, and one
less thing to think about.”
Hailing a cab each morning may be a tiny action, but it is a splendid
example of the 3rd Law of Behavior Change.
Researchers estimate that 40 to 50 percent of our actions on any given
day are done out of habit. This is already a substantial percentage, but the
true influence of your habits is even greater than these numbers suggest.
Habits are automatic choices that influence the conscious decisions that
follow. Yes, a habit can be completed in just a few seconds, but it can also
shape the actions that you take for minutes or hours afterward.
Habits are like the entrance ramp to a highway. They lead you down a
path and, before you know it, you’re speeding toward the next behavior. It
seems to be easier to continue what you are already doing than to start
doing something different. You sit through a bad movie for two hours. You
keep snacking even when you’re already full. You check your phone for
“just a second” and soon you have spent twenty minutes staring at the
screen. In this way, the habits you follow without thinking often determine
the choices you make when you are thinking.
Each evening, there is a tiny moment—usually around 5:15 p.m.—that
shapes the rest of my night. My wife walks in the door from work and
either we change into our workout clothes and head to the gym or we crash
onto the couch, order Indian food, and watch The Office.
*
Similar to Twyla
Tharp hailing the cab, the ritual is changing into my workout clothes. If I
change clothes, I know the workout will happen. Everything that follows—
driving to the gym, deciding which exercises to do, stepping under the bar
—is easy once I’ve taken the first step.
Every day, there are a handful of moments that deliver an outsized
impact. I refer to these little choices as decisive moments. The moment you
decide between ordering takeout or cooking dinner. The moment you
choose between driving your car or riding your bike. The moment you
decide between starting your homework or grabbing the video game
controller. These choices are a fork in the road.
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