There is a tremendous amount
of power when one develops good habits.
Whether those habits involve
practicing a musical instrument (like the banjo), developing effective business-related habits, or
building good health habits, positive results follow from making positive behaviors
a matter of automatic routine.
It was in this spirit that I recently participated
in the Tiny Habits program. created by BJ Fogg, PhD, Director,
Persuasive Tech Lab at Stanford
University,
The innovative (and free) one-week program helps
people practice the process of building good habits.
According to Dr. Fogg:
my goal is to help you practice the skill of creating new habits. I believe you can get
better at creating new habits. Much like a pianist who practices scales, or a
chef who practices knife skills, people can practice the skills of creating
habits.
A
Single Atom of Behavior
Dr. Fogg has reduced habit building to a fundamental unit or “atom” of easily managed behavior change. The key is to make it simple and easy - to leverage the power in simplicity. Fogg defines a Tiny Habit as
a behavior that…
- Is undertaken at least once a day
- takes less than 30 seconds
- requires little effort
Anchors
Aweigh
Dr. Fogg believes in “habit anchors” – linking
a new (tiny) habit to a daily anchor behavior one does everyday (like morning
coffee, or brushing teeth...)
So
What Happened?
In late Summer, I took Dr. Fog’s suggestions and chose three simple, tiny behaviors to practice
over the course of a week. He warned against trying for a bigger behaviors
because if it was cumbersome or difficult in any way, the habit won't form. He was right!
Here’s what I practiced:
- After I brush my teeth, I
will floss 1 tooth (flossing all my teeth is too big a behavior to practice,
according to Dr. Fogg)
- After I pour AM coffee, I
will play 3 banjo chord changes (in less than 30 seconds…)
- After I go to bathroom, I will fill my
water glass (note, I didn’t say DRINK the water, just fill the glass – but of
course I then went ahead and drank!)
At the beginning of the
week, I got everything ready – that means I got out the floss and put it right
next to my toothbrush, carried around a water glass all day, and put the banjo
out of its case in my living room.
In general, it was a
successful week, except in one area – habit #2.
It was a bit
counterintuitive to remember to do chord changes on the banjo after
coffee. Why?
- I didn’t keep the banjo
right next to the coffee pot, so didn’t have an immediate “cue”
- It never became “automatic”
to tie the coffee anchor to the banjo habit
- The teeth habit, and
drinking water habit, were intuitively linked to the anchors – both behaviors
now so automated I still do them! But the coffee/banjo link was tenuous at
best
A Not So Tiny Truth
My experience proved this to be true: one needs to match the new desired behavior (new tiny habit) with the best anchor
to trigger the new behavior.
After all, the goal is to make desired behaviors automatic.
The bottom line is to shoot for what Fogg calls “training
automaticity” -- in the case of practicing banjo, I’m going to try a new
approach and identify a more relevant anchor. Fun!
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