Habits & Self-improvement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNeXuCYiE0U
Framework of habits
- Noticing
- Wanting
- Doing
- Liking
Noticing
Implementation Intention
„During the next week, I will partake in at least 20 minutes of vigorous exercise on DAY at TIME OF DAY at/in PLACE.“
Failure Pre-mortem
A quick exercise to notice what is holding you back: „It is sixth months from now. Imagine you have failed to achieve your most important goal. Write the story of how it happened. What caused it to fail?“
From these potential failures, derive alternative if-then actions: „If I cannot work out on Monday, because I have to pick up my child from school, then I will work out on Tuesday morning 7am instead.“
Wanting
Environment
Be the architect: Design your environment to make your good behaviors easier and your bad behaviors harder. Make fewer steps between you and the good behaviors and more steps between you and the bad behaviors. Don’t rely on willpower and self-control to change your habits.
- On your home-screen, hide the apps that take away your attention. Show the apps you WANT and NEED to use.
- Log out of social media to make it harder to access your account.
Doing
Quality vs. Quantity
Quantity leads to quality by experimenting, trying, failing and learning from it.
- easy goal = few repetitions
- moderate goal = average repetitions
- difficult goal = many repetitions
The two minute rule
If it takes two minutes, do it right away (from David Allen, Getting things done).
Put all your energy in the starting line, not the finish line. As long as you start, you can be sure to finish it.
Liking
Only if we enjoy a behavior, will we want to repeat the action.
Good behavior has a delayed reward: if we work out now, we will be healthier later. Bad behavior has instant effect: eat a donut now, feel great now.
The easiest way to change long-term behavior is to get short-term feedback.
The Seinfeld Tactic: Never miss twice!
Put a calendar on the wall. For any day that you stick with your routine, put an X on it. Even with some false starts, you will eventually get a chain going. Your only goal: don’t break the chain!
Never miss twice! Get back on track.
True change is identity change
- The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader.
- The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner.
- The goal is not to write a book, the goal is to become a writer.