Fine Tuning your Habits

“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement”

With New Year’s resolutions still fresh in our minds, phrases like “I want to start reading more,” and “I want to start eating healthier” are thrown out nonchalantly. Few people continue that sentence with a solution to their new habits. They rarely go “I want to X by doing Y.” It’s also important to start the phrase with “I will” rather than “I want.”

In a pursuit to edit her own habits moving into the new year, eGuide project manager, Lauren Biolsi, decided to read James Clear’s Atomic Habits and give you the cliff notes so you don’t have to, unless reading more is part of your new year’s resolutions. 

Before we get into the secret formula of cracking bad habits and initiating new ones, Clear makes it clear (hah) that an important way to make good habits stick is to associate them with your identity. Rather than telling yourself, or others, “I want to write more this year” say, “I am a writer.” When a habit becomes a trait of who we are, we are more likely to hold ourselves accountable to living up to that identity. 

Clear identifies four Laws of Behavior Change: Make it Obvious, Make it Attractive, Make it Easy, and Make it Satisfying. Put these laws into practice when trying to start a new “good” habit. Conversely, if your goal is to break a bad habit invert the Laws of Behavior Change: Make it Invisible, Make it Unattractive, Make it Difficult, and Make it Unsatisfying.

Make it Obvious

One of the main reasons resolutions, or better habits, fail is because many try to do too much too soon. Think of your mental endurance when forming new habits just like you would your physical endurance. You wouldn’t run a full marathon starting tomorrow if you are not a regular runner. Nor would you write an entire book within the first month of the year if your resolution is to journal more. 

Start unreasonably small. Take the resolution “I want to journal more.” The first action item in that habit is laying out your pen and notebook in a visible place where you cannot miss it. The more top of mind a habit is, the easier it will be for you to remember to do it. Conversely, to break an unwanted habit, say, watching too much Netflix, hiding the remote or even the TV would make the motion of turning on the TV that much less obvious. 

For Lauren, reading more and writing more are both good habits she is looking to develop this year. To start, this meant just writing one paragraph and stopping, even if she felt like she had more to write. Next, progressing to one full page, and now, nearly a month into starting this habit, Lauren writes and stops when she feels like it. But most importantly, she makes a conscious effort to write everyday, even if it’s just a sentence or two.

Make it Attractive

While the act of running a mile may not seem appealing for someone who hasn’t run in over a year, rewarding yourself with an episode of your favorite Netflix binge while you run on the treadmill can make that task a bit less daunting, and eventually enjoyable. 

When trying to develop foreign, possibly difficult, behaviors one way to make them more appealing is to pair them with something you want to be doing, for instance watching your favorite show while you run. 

This law can also tie into the identity factor. Sometimes telling yourself “an avid reader would sit down with a book right now instead of watching another episode of Bridgerton, and I am an avid reader” is all you need to make that task seem more attractive. This may also be a direct quote from Lauren’s internal monologue...

Make it Easy

“Instead of trying to engineer the perfect habit from the start, do the easy thing on a more consistent basis. You have to standardize before you can optimize” (164).

As stated with the journaling exercise, you don’t want to start too much too soon. We are much more likely to continue practicing a habit so long as it is relatively easy. Starting small is key. 

Another habit Lauren wanted to start putting into practice is keeping up consistent communication with clients on ongoing projects. Especially in this remote world we are living in, our primary method of communication is email. Lauren was finding herself stressing out with a sort of social anxiety about sending emails to clients (yes, this may sound silly but it was a major source of procrastination and anxiety). Sometimes the only thing needed to move a project forward was a simple “Hey, how is this coming along” or a “Here is what I need from you to start moving forward on my tasks.” 

To start tackling this habit, Lauren started by making a list of whom she needed to email that day in order to keep projects on the right track. Once this list was made, drafting each email was step two. Some emails were short, while others needed to list out specific next steps and deliverables for clients and herself. What’s the next best step? Start with the short and sweet emails to get the ball rolling and then move on to tackling the larger more in-depth project updates. 

Once you’ve accomplished the easy tasks, you’ll feel more capable of tackling the harder ones, even if it is just sending emails.

Make it Satisfying

“Stepping up when it’s annoying or painful or draining to do so, that’s what makes the difference between a professional and an ameatur.” (236)

Nothing feels better than a sense of accomplishment on finishing a difficult or lengthy task or receiving praise from a large feat at work. But often, finishing a task is not the motivation we need to start. The fourth law of behavior change, make it satisfying, is what Clear describes as the cardinal rule of behavior change. 

Maybe you want to get in the habit of waking up earlier. Everytime you wake up an hour before you normally do, you reward yourself with a latte from the local coffee shop. Now, not only do you have an extra hour before work to leisurely walk the dog or organize your day, but now you can do so with a delicious caffeinated beverage in-hand.

Conversely, if trying to rid yourself of a bad habit making it unsatisfying is the key. Clear uses the example of a man who wanted to start working out more. He signed an accountability contract (basically an informal agreement that brings a third-party of accountability into shaping your habits) with his wife and personal trainer. Each time he skipped a workout, he had to pay them $500. Losing $500 seems a lot more unsatisfying than lifting weights for half an hour...

Habits for the Long-Haul

Whether it’s small habits like doing dishes before you go to bed (another habit on Lauren’s list this year), or larger habits like exercising for at least 30 minutes a day, taking minute steps in a forward direction is an excellent way to achieve them. As Clear says, “It’s better to do less than you hoped than to do nothing at all” (165). Eventually the accumulation of all of these tiny adjustments will lead to extraordinary results, so long as you put in the work consistently. 

While this just scratches the surface of Clear’s research and practices these are the key points that Lauren has been working on to develop better, more productive habits for 2021.

Check out some of the resources mentioned in Clear’s book including his habit tracker, habit scorecard for classifying “good” and “bad” habits, and so many other useful tools and articles.