The Science of Habits
The new year is filled with potential. Maybe you are dedicated to a new exercise regime or you have decided that you are going to try and eat out less. Whatever it is you wish to change,understanding the science behind habits both good and bad can help you achieve your goals!
According to the book Atomic Habits, there is a habit loop that guides our behaviors big and small. We get a cue from our environment which triggers a craving. This craving motivates a response which then provides a reward. When we get a desired result or reward from a response over and over again an automatic behavior or habit is formed. For example, when we go into a dark room we flip on a light. That is an automatic behavior that follows this habit loop. The cue is a dark room followed by a craving to see better. The response is to flip on the light and the reward is that we can see the room we are about to enter.
There are four laws of behavior change that address each stage of this habit loop and can be used to create good habits and rid ourselves of bad ones.
The first law is to make it obvious. This law is associated with the first stage in the habit loop, the cue. For example, if we want to create the habit of eating more fruit we need to place the fruit on the counter where it is obvious rather than in the refrigerator where we can’t see it.
The second law is to make it attractive. We need to make the desired response very enticing. The more attractive it is the more likely we will repeat the behavior again and again.
The third law is to make it easy. The more difficult the response the less likely we are to repeat the behavior. For example, if you want to exercise more and the gym you go to is 30 minutes across town then you are unlikely to succeed. Changing your gym to one that is on the way home from work increases the likelihood that you will go to it because it is easier.
The fourth law is to make it satisfying. The reward has to be something that is desirable to you. For example, if you are trying to cook at home more instead of eating out then you may want to start a fund for something you really want like a vacation. Each night you cook at home you put money into a fund for your vacation. This way the act of cooking at home becomes more attractive. Eventually the act of cooking itself becomes the reward but in the beginning of creating this new habit a more immediate reward is useful.
Knowing these four laws is important to understanding how we can change our less than desirable behaviors and create new behaviors that are more beneficial. When trying to create a new desirable behavior there are two techniques that are very effective: habit stacking and temptation bundling. Habit stacking is simply placing a desired behavior with one that already exists. For example, if you want to improve your upper body strength by doing push-ups everyday then you might want to use your existing routine to achieve this goal and create this habit. If every morning when you get up your routine is to go into the kitchen and brew coffee then you could create this new habit by deciding that you will do your daily push-ups while your coffee is brewing. This ensures that you actually perform the behavior because you are stacking it with a habit you already have. The second technique is temptation bundling. This technique capitalizes on the second law of behavior, make it attractive. Temptation bundling is when you make a reward dependent on doing the desired behavior. You pair an action you want to do with one you need to do. For example, if I exercise then I can watch that show on Netflix or if I return those work emails then I can read my book. Both of these techniques are easy ways to create new behaviors in your life that are aligned with health and wellness. They don’t simply rely on willpower to create new and effective behaviors.
Creating good behaviors can be challenging but ridding ourselves of bad habits is even harder. We can use the four laws of behavior to do this as well. The secret is to simply invert the four laws:
Make it invisible. If you want to start eating better then don’t buy the foods that are unhealthy. You won’t eat what you don’t see. If you eat well at home but have trouble when you go out to eat then don’t go to restaurants that serve food that will be difficult to resist but rather find restaurants that offer mostly healthy options.
Make is unattractive. Highlight the negative aspects of the behavior you are trying to avoid. For example, if you are trying to eat better then read a book that explains why certain foods have a negative impact on your health or watch a documentary that discusses the negative health impacts of certain diets.
Make it difficult. For example, if you are trying to quit smoking you could decide that you can only buy cigarettes from the store across town that is 45 minutes from your house.
Make is unsatisfying. You can use this law in the opposite way from the cooking at home example we used earlier. You may be trying to rid yourself of the habit of eating out by cooking at home more often. You could achieve this goal by making eating out unattractive. You could put your vacation money in an account and every time you eat out you use the money from that account to pay for the meal thus depleting your savings and delaying the reward of the vacation.
Using these simple strategies can allow you create habits that will improve your life and rid yourself of undesirable behaviors. I highly recomend reading the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. I have only scratched the surface of what is possible! This book is filled with nuggets of information that are both fascinating and life changing!