Automate Habits
We are essentially the sum of our daily habits.
Today, let’s focus on making good habits automatic!
Last blog post I had you focus on making the habit “obvi” (obvious). Creating an environment that made the cue for your new habit/ behavior OBVIOUS helps you get reps in that move you closer to your vision. This is also known as “reducing friction”. The more you can improve your environment, the less friction you must overcome to achieve your goal/behavior or the new habit. This reduces the amount of energy used and allows you to feel accomplished! Getting the reps in gives you a sense of accomplishment and the feeling of success.
If you set a clear intention the WHERE and the WHEN you do the habit, you have created a plan and thought about overcoming obstacles. You have thought about the best time to bring the habit into your life using the OBVIOUS cue as a reminder. Showing up builds the habit, putting in the reps brings you a step closer to the vision and identity you have for yourself.
Your new habit will be easier to achieve when you put it in your regular path. I put my vitamins in the path of brushing my hair. They are right there so it is convenient, attractive, and OBVIOUS. That small environmental change created better odds for completing my good habit. I see the travel pill box when I sit down to brush my hair after breakfast and automatically take them.
Another way to look at it is that habits are easier to build when they fit into the flow of your life.
Making a habit obvious is part of the habit loop. Your vision of your future self makes it attractive; you have set up the 2-minute version of the habit, so it is easy, you are putting in the reps and the reward is success! You are showing up and putting in the effort to build the new habit.
If you want to get into the habit of going to the gym, you have packed your gym bag, (2-minute rule) and set the intention (I will put my gym bag in the car so I can work out on my way home from work). This all sounds great, but if the gym is not on your regular route home, you can still forget to go. You need to set up a path of least resistance or reduce the friction to go past and cue yourself to stop at the gym. The reason you brought the gym bag was that once you are home, you do not have the ambition to pack a bag and go back out. You say, “tomorrow” every day and it never happens. You feel like a failure and give up. You need to change the environment by changing the route home every day. Create a route that goes past the gym, so you are cued/forced to stop in. Set a reminder on your calendar at work or phone to take the new route with less friction. Once you get to the car, the bag is there, another obvious cue, and you are on your way past the gym. You stop and walk in. ACCOMPLISHMENT and success flood your brain. You have showed up!
Here are a few more examples:
· Put the gym bag on the front seat of the car (2-minute easy habit) and set a reminder on your calendar at work to take the alternate route home that goes past the gym (cue).
If healthy meals are an issue, and you failed to grocery shop or prep the food; Get healthy meal kits delivered to your door with a service like Green Chef or Hello Fresh. This eliminates several obstacles because the healthy meal and recipe is on your doorstep.
· If you are having a hard time remembering to use your breathing exercises to relax when a stressful work situation occurs, put an app on your phone that walks you through one, like square breathing. Practice it each day before stress arises, so that when you are stressed, you can get to the app in less than 2 minutes and be walked through the exercise of breathing to elicit the relaxation response.
The ultimate way to reduce friction is to use technology and automation. This is exactly what many popular businesses are designed to do. For example, we bought a new blender that sits on our kitchen island. It makes making smoothies easy. The fridge is loaded up and I just need to get the ingredients in the blender and press the smoothie button. Zero/minimal thinking. No need to set a timer or select a speed setting – it has a smoothie feature on the blender. It is also designed to have as few moving parts as possible, which makes it easy to clean. There are only two pieces. Rinse both off and you’re ready to use it again. The automation helps reduce the mental friction I had before when I needed to dig my Nutra bullet out of a high cupboard where I didn’t see it.
Chew on this thought: You don’t need more motivation. You need a supportive environment, obvious cues, and automation. A question to ask yourself and an action step to take is:
Q: How can you automate the habit to reduce friction (the energy you need to expend) to make the 2-minute habit happen?