The 3rd Law of Behavior Change: Make It Easy
Follow-up to last week. The first part contains mostly quotes/advice from the book with some limited commentary. Second part contains some reflection and updates on progress.
The most effective form of learning is practice, not planning. We are so focused on figuring out the best approach that we never get around to taking action.
FACT: Planning, strategizing, and learning makes it feel like you’re making progress real when you’re not.
Habit formation is the process by which a behavior becomes progressively more automatic through repetition. The amount of time you have been performing a habit is not as important as the number of times you have performed it.
OK… So we gotta actually do the habits. Planning feels good at the moment but doesn’t really get you anywhere.
This is what I tried with my last round and yet still failed. Where did I go wrong?
Make your habits convenient
Human behavior follows the Law of Least Effort. We will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work.
The less energy a habit requires, the more likely it is to occur. Create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible.
ADVICE: Use the two minutes rule
The Two-Minute Rule states, “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.”
“Read before bed each night” becomes “Read one page.”
“Do thirty minutes of yoga” becomes “Take out my yoga mat.”
“Run three miles” becomes “Tie my running shoes.”
The more you ritualize the beginning of a process, the more likely it becomes that you can slip into the state of deep focus that is required to do great things.
Instead of trying to engineer a perfect habit from the start, do the easy thing on a more consistent basis.
So perhaps my mistake was trying to engineer a perfact habit/routine. I created one that almost became a ritual, but it was hard to start back up once it got distrupted. Perhaps that is the wrong lesson… I created one that could be disrupted, in the first place. I din’t make it easy enough.
We can’t think only of the good habits. We must also curb bad baits.
Make doing bad habits difficult
Use a comitment device: a choice you make in the present that locks in better behaviour in the future.
Buy food in individual packages rather than bulk size to prevent overeating.
Ask to be added to the ban list at casinos to prevent gambling sprees.
Buy a device that shuts internet off at 10pm to sleep
Find ways to automate your habits whenever possible. Using technology to automate your habits is the most reliable and effective way to guarantee the right behaviour.
This follows a principle that I’ve tried to maintain for myself. If I don’t want to eat/drink something then I don’t bring it into the house. Will power only lasts so long.
Getting back to the roots of this project (self-improvement) has helped calm some of the negative thinking that often pops up. I don’t need to feel bad about my recent failure because it was one step in figuring out where I’m going.
I tried adapting some previous lessons to create a new system and it didn’t work. So what? I doubt I’ll ever be done improving, so I can’t ever fail as long as I don’t give up. Plus, I took that failure and start doing something. (Handwritten note cards for marketing.)
This 3rd law also helped me realize that this most recent habit is not actually a habit. It is more like a longterm task. I could already feel this as a reality, but the 3rd law just drove the point home. Handwriting cards was always something that I would eventually hire out.
So rather than a new habit, I’ve created the building block for a repeatable business. This goes back to my 1 year reflection. I’m done hunting for every meal. It’s time to start farming.
Honestly, this feels like a solid way to actualize the sprint/rest routine that I mentioned in my update last week. I’m sprinting at a new and important task. (Marketing) Once I’ve got a system that works I can delegate and rest. From there I can prepare for the next sprint, whatever that may be.
So maybe this is it. Maybe this is how I make consistent progress in one direction while also giving myself variety. Lo and behold it’s probably the age old way that businesses are built. Guess I just had to flail around a bit before figuring it out.
I’ll be back next week with Law #4 and another update as I start setting up my habits. Until then ✌️