Controlling Habits with Environment - A Simple Invisible Habit Formation Method - TechNode#
Highlights#
Show clear and specific behavioral methods: I will do something at a certain time and place ⤴️ ^7d3a8c97
I think this is debatable. In today's society, fixed time is quite rare.
Make it specific ⤴️ ^6671ec61
This is useful and can be combined with the minimal effort model, gradually.
Stack habits, once "A" happens, do "B" ⤴️ ^1046591c
I am currently using this. Shave and take a good shower on the same day. It's useful, and this can be further extended.
It is not consciousness that changes us, but the environment that changes us ⤴️ ^44787445
Success does not come from strong willpower and the ability to overcome resistance, but from the ability of the work environment to avoid resistance in advance ⤴️ ^9b6b3da3
Don't test yourself. People cannot resist temptation and tests. Don't create difficulties for yourself.
Placing oneself in an environment with fewer temptations can fundamentally resist these temptations. ⤴️ ^01165990
Habits shape character, and character determines destiny.
We have heard many famous sayings about habits, and we all know that good habits help us achieve life goals.
However, it is easier said than done. Developing a habit is not an easy task. Is there any way to truly help us cultivate lasting habits and benefit from them for a lifetime? The answer is yes, in the book "Controlling Habits," the author provides his answer.
How habits are formed#
To know how to cultivate habits, we first need to know what elements make up a habit.
In the book, the author summarizes it with 4 steps: cue-craving-response-reward. The formation of any habit goes through these 4 stages in order. To avoid obscure scientific explanations, let's use daily life as an example to help you better understand this process.
The 4 stages of habit formation
When we pass by a street food stall, the aroma is a cue; smelling the aroma and feeling hungry is the craving; eating the street food is the response; the satisfaction we get from eating the street food is the reward. In this way, we find that every time we smell the aroma, it means there is delicious food nearby, and eating it can satisfy our hunger and give us a sense of satisfaction. Over time, we develop a behavior pattern of wanting to eat something when we smell the aroma, which is also called a habit.
In the behavior pattern of a habit, the cue triggers the brain to initiate a certain behavior, the craving is the core motivation of the habit, the response is the action we take in response to the craving, and the reward is the ultimate goal of our action, such as satisfaction and achievement.
The formation of any habit includes this set of steps. By influencing any of these stages, we can establish good habits or overcome bad habits.
In our daily lives, more than 90% of our behaviors are habit-driven. We wake up, brush our teeth, wash our face, go out, work, and all of these are already internalized in the behavior process of habits, without requiring any conscious thinking. This helps us save a lot of time and energy that would otherwise be spent on thinking about what to do today.
At the same time, because of the existence of habits, we have a feeling of "every day is the same as the previous day," which may be a side effect of habits, especially when this side effect is associated with bad habits or boring things, we always feel uncomfortable and uneasy.
On the contrary, good habits enable us to establish an orderly, fulfilling, and enjoyable life. So, how can we achieve this freedom? In other words, how can we establish excellent habits?
How to cultivate an excellent habit#
1. Record existing habits#
Prepare a piece of paper and record your daily behaviors; during the recording process, do not judge any habit or behavior, just record them truthfully. For example: waking up, brushing teeth, reading, using the phone, memorizing words, having breakfast, etc.
If you want more detailed recording results, you can also record the time, frequency, and proportion of each habit in a day. This will help you understand your habits, judge their goodness or badness, and see the extent of their impact on you.
After truthfully recording your daily habits, mark each behavior with a symbol indicating whether it is a good habit or a bad habit. For example, use a "+" sign for good habits and a "-" sign for bad habits. Neutral habits (such as brushing teeth, having breakfast, etc.) do not need a symbol.
Based on your own goals, judge which habits are good and which habits are not good. This step helps you discover your habits, judge their goodness or badness, and see the extent of their impact on you.
2. ==Show clear and specific behavioral methods: I will do something at a certain time and place==#
If you want to develop the habit of exercising, try to make the task ==specific== and strictly follow a fixed time.
The best way is to write it down on paper and say it out loud. This may be a bit embarrassing, so if you feel uncomfortable, you can say it quietly in a place where no one is around: "I will do 12 push-ups at home at 8 PM."
This way of associating behavior with a fixed time is an important pattern for habit formation. Each time the fixed time comes, it serves as a cue for the behavior. Not doing it will make us feel uncomfortable until we take action.
3. ==Stack habits, once "A" happens, do "B"==#
When you follow the above steps and make a plan for yourself, such as memorizing words or reading at a fixed time, you will find that planned activities are easily interrupted by other factors: whether it's a sudden task from your boss, a last-minute invitation from a friend, or a spontaneous desire for entertainment, they can all disrupt your early habit.
Especially in today's fragmented time, the lack of long periods of time makes it difficult for us to find time to do what we want. We can use the pattern of triggering new habits with old habits to help us develop new routines.
For example, when situation A happens, do B. For example, after brushing my teeth, I read for 10 minutes. This way, the reading behavior is linked to the fixed habit of brushing teeth.
Personally, I prefer to read or memorize words while sitting on the subway or bus. Over time, I have been able to read in noisy environments and become more focused, no longer paying attention to the gaze of others. This stacking habit method is very suitable for habits that do not have a fixed time. Even if it's just 10 minutes of reading or word memorization, our persistence will likely be much higher than before.
4. Make cues clear and visible, avoid disruptive environments#
At the beginning of this article, we mentioned that a habit is formed under the influence of cues. If we can change these cues, we can easily change our behavior.
Let's take a look at examples in life. If our home is always filled with various snacks, we will subconsciously grab a bag every time we pass by.
If we rest on a recliner and there happens to be a phone next to it, we will fiddle with the phone; if we replace the phone with any other object, the result is that we will still pick up that object, even if we never had the thought before. We often think that the decisions we make are the result of our free will, but in reality, it's just because it's more convenient.
During the energy crisis in the 1970s, researchers closely observed energy consumption in the Netherlands. In a suburban area, they found that some homeowners consumed more than 30% less energy than their neighbors, even though their houses had the same size and electricity price.
After investigation, they found that those who consumed less energy placed their electricity meters in a visible corridor, while their neighbors placed them in the basement. The secret is obvious: when people can frequently see their energy consumption, they can better control their behavior.
The environment influences our decisions#
From the examples above, we can see that ==it is not consciousness that changes us, but the environment that changes us==. To a large extent, what kind of person we become depends on what we encounter. If we wake up every morning and a book is within reach instead of a phone, we are more likely to develop a habit of reading; if we see fruits and vegetables more easily every day, we are more likely to have a healthy diet and body; if we stay away from game notifications, we are more likely to focus on meaningful things.
In the book "The Bullet Journal Method," there is a description of success:
==Success does not come from strong willpower and the ability to overcome resistance, but from the ability of the work environment to avoid resistance in advance==
Applying this principle to our lives, when we want to work seriously, we can set our phones to "do not disturb" mode or place them in hard-to-reach places; when we need to focus, we can play some relaxing music. This kind of "ritual-like" behavior can help us establish good order and subconscious work habits.
Over time, we will establish this connection in our subconscious mind, and when it's time to work, we will automatically remove the phone, play the music, and quickly enter the state of flow. Since we are influenced by the environment, we should be the designers of our own lives and arrange the trajectory of future actions in advance.
This kind of case where cues and the environment are closely integrated not only appears in work but also in the cultivation of any life or habit.
Some criminals who frequently use drugs at home, after years of drug rehabilitation in labor camps, often experience strong drug cravings when they return home because the home environment is strongly associated with drug use. As soon as they return home, the familiar environment becomes a cue that triggers their desire.
People who often lie in bed playing with their phones are more likely to suffer from insomnia because the bed becomes associated with the desire to play with the phone when they lie down to sleep. Our lives are full of tempting cues, and they are difficult to eliminate because this association is almost everywhere. The environment becomes a cue for negative habits, leading us to repeat the behavior patterns of bad habits.
Changing the environment influences decision-making#
We do have the ability to overcome, but we are not aware of the problem. To overcome bad habits, we should cut off this association as much as possible. If we are often disturbed by the desire to play with our phones while trying to sleep, we should strictly require ourselves not to touch the phone when going to bed. If we have difficulty concentrating at our desk, we can go to a nearby library or coffee shop, or even sit on a bench in the park. Changing the triggering cues in the environment is a reverse utilization of this phenomenon.
In the past, we believed that a disciplined person should have strong willpower and the ability to overcome distractions and temptations. We attributed a person's merits and faults to their own strong resistance. However, in reality, "disciplined" people are less likely to place themselves in environments full of temptations. They make friends with good influences and avoid noisy and unproductive social situations. Instead of enduring temptations, they are more keenly aware that ==placing oneself in an environment with fewer temptations can fundamentally resist these temptations.==
You cannot rely on willpower every time to resist temptation. Even if you can succeed once or twice, in the long run, as long as the stimulus from the environment still exists, we will inevitably repeat past behaviors.
Think about your past and you will know to what extent you have repeated your mistakes. You will realize that relying solely on our willpower is far from enough. Only by avoiding the corresponding cues in advance do we have the possibility of making behaviors that are beneficial to ourselves.
Finally, some may say that establishing a habit and living according to a fixed pattern stifles our freedom and creativity. In fact, without establishing good habits, we waste more time every day thinking about what to do.
In the book, the author mentions:
Habits do not limit freedom, they create freedom. In fact, those who have not established habits often have the least freedom.
I hope you can also have this freedom.