In today's fast-paced world, it is important to be able to adapt and learn new behaviors quickly and flexibly, both personally and professionally.
But we all know: Change is difficult!
This is also true when it comes to my specialty of "optimizing productivity". Here, too, it is ultimately a matter of changing existing behaviors. It is easy to convince participants of the benefits of new productivity strategies, processes and tools in my trainings/coaching. More difficult – and more important – is the subsequent practical transfer and the successful application in everyday life.
Good habits are the key to success!
You are what you do! And more than 50% of what you do is habit.
Behavioral changes are also mostly changes in habits. This is true u.a. also in optimizing productivity – e.g. – how I plan, organize myself, what software I use etc.
"Good habits make time your friend and bad habits your enemy.
Or as James Clear, a leading expert on behavior change puts it in his inspiring book, The 1% Method, "Success is the result of consistent, daily implementation of good habits."
So to become more successful/happy/productive, all we really need to do is encourage good habits and avoid bad ones.
But why is it so difficult? And what can be done better? To answer this, you first need to better understand habits.
What are habits and how do they work?
Habits are automated, reliable solutions to recurring tasks. They determine to a large extent what we do all day long. Yet they can be good or bad for us.
We like to use habits regularly because we know from our own experience and multiple uses that they work for us. And because they are mostly automatic, they help us save energy for more important tasks.
Habits always run the same way and go through four steps in what is called the habit loop:
- Trigger stimulus : A habit always starts with a trigger stimulus. This is usually – but not only – visual in nature (e.g. I see my cell phone on the desk). Sounds, smells etc. can also be triggers. Important: Without a trigger, the habit will not be executed!
- Desire: The trigger stimulus creates a craving ("I want to look at my social media accounts."). Desire is an emotion that we have because we know from experience the reward that awaits us at the end of the habit (ex.B. stress reduction, distraction etc.). This is what we want and this is why the habit is performed.
- Reaction/action: this is the actual habit. In our example, I stop my work, take my phone and check my accounts.
- Reward: The action leads to the reward, which is the real reason for habit. Important: Without a reward at the end of the habit loop that feels positive to me, I will not repeat the habit.
What makes change so difficult?
There are a variety of reasons, here are the most important ones:
- Habits are deep inside us
Our habits – good or bad – we have learned ourselves, implemented thousands of times and we usually value them. Even when we know there are better behaviors for specific situations, we shy away from change because we know the effort it takes to change automated habits. - We underestimate the benefits of habit change
What's particularly difficult is that if you want to learn a new habit, the considerable effort must be put in immediately, but the benefits don't come until much later. e.g. when learning a new working method, when training for sports, when dieting, etc. As a consequence, we capitulate over time to the daily effort that change would require because, from our point of view, progress is too slow and because the future benefits no longer motivate or convince us sufficiently. Unfortunately, when it comes to bad habits, it's usually the other way around. Here, the "benefit" is immediate (e.g. Eating candy bars equals pleasure, stress reduction, etc.), the effort is often small (buying, eating) and the negative consequences occur much later (obesity, illness, etc).). The same is true for smoking, lounging, internet browsing, etc. This is why we often remain loyal to bad habits. In summary, we underestimate both the potential benefits of good, new habits and the harms of existing, bad habits. And change less than would be good for us. - Habit changes are costly
Humans are evolutionarily wired to conserve energy and like to be lazy! So the effortful habit changes are actually contrary to our nature.
Sure, we all want to progress and develop. But when we have to decide whether or not to make an effort now for a vague future benefit, the lazy "today me" often gets the upper hand, which e.g. would rather continue to lie down and watch social media. The loser is our "future self" who actually wants to be smarter, more productive and fitter. This effect is exacerbated by the fact that people give greater weight to today's benefits than to future benefits.
- Our identity resists
We are, respectively our identity is, what we do. Thus, if we want to change behaviors that are important to us, this can create an identity conflict. e.g. a person who says he/she needs disorder to perform will subconsciously resist any changes that create more order. Even if the person is actually striving for this change. Because it is in the subconscious that people protect their identity. Even if you really want something and it makes a lot of sense, if the new habit is not consistent with your identity, we will fail, unless we have the rare gift of being able to flexibly evolve our identity. We now know how behavior change works and why it's difficult. Here are my top 7 tips on how to do it better!
Tip 1: Focus on behavioral changes that bring success!
Because habit changes are demanding, one has to focus on a few important behaviors at a time. And in doing so, think carefully about what to undertake.
The important thing is to be honest with yourself and not learn a behavior that is neither comfortable nor consistent with your identity. These behavioral changes are often doomed to failure in advance and the effort is fundamentally not worth it.
Good criteria for choosing are e.g. How important the behavior is to you or even how often you would benefit from an improved behavior. So have e.g. Behavioral changes in the area of work productivity have a high "return on investment" because they are used frequently and because they are important for personal and professional success.
Tip 2: Set modest goals for yourself!
Many habit changes fail because one sets oneself too high goals, then regularly misses them and gives up demotivated. Therefore, it is better to set modest, realistic goals. James Clear even suggests that the effort for a new habit change should not take more than 2 minutes per day in the beginning, so that you can have success in the long run.
Tip 3: Focus on the process, not the goal!
In general, it is true that too much importance is attached to goals.
Winners and losers often have the same goal. Both tennis players want to win the match. Or everyone wants to become more productive. Thus, it cannot be the goal that determines success.
Of course you have to set goals for habit changes. But more important is the process, the regular doing.
We all have good and bad days. When I focus on the process, d.h. If I focus on the regular execution of the new behavior and not on my daily goal, then it is also OK if on one day I e.g. do only 15 push-ups instead of the targeted 100. After all, I still implemented my good habit and exercised regularly. Tomorrow then hopefully again 100.
You can also skip a new behavioral change once. But never 2x in a row. Otherwise "doing nothing" becomes the new habit. In other words, focus specifically on the day after you drop the good habit and pick it up again!
Tip 4: Optimize your environment!
With regard to behavioral changes, motivation and will are generally overestimated as success factors, and the effect of the environment is underestimated. It is said that the environment is the invisible hand that determines our actions. Kurt Lewin, the famous social psychologist, expressed it this way in his seminal behavioral formula: V = f (P/U). A person's behavior is a function of his or her personality traits and environment.
The implication is: behavior change can either be encouraged or discouraged depending on the design of the immediate environment. We know: every habit is started by a trigger stimulus. For good habits, make the triggers visible and the execution as easy as possible. e.g. put water and fruit on your desk in the morning, put your cell phone away from the office, find a gym that is as easy to get to as possible, etc.
The reverse is true for bad habits: Make the triggers invisible and the implementation as difficult as possible!
Tip 5: Know your existing habits and couple something new to them!
One very simple, promising way change can work is by tying a good, new habit to existing habits.
As an example: We go e.g. Everyone to the kitchen first thing in the morning (existing habit). The pairing could e.g. be like this: "Whenever I go to the kitchen for the first time in the morning, I first drink 2 glasses of water.". And then attached to it: "Whenever I have drunk 2 glasses of water, I take a fruit from the refrigerator.".
To become more aware of your existing habits, you can observe yourself for some time during the day and write them down.
Tip 6: Track your progress!
People are motivated when they make progress. Measuring this and keeping it in mind regularly is one of the most important ways to feel a sense of accomplishment even with difficult behavioral changes where the big benefit comes much later.
There are many ways to do this depending on your preference. Z.B using one of the many smart apps that not only provide progress tracking, but often send reminders throughout the day for good habits (e.g. drink water! Stretch! Finish the job! etc.). Examples include Daliy Planner, Habit Tracker, or Streaks.
Some like it "offline" and very visibly post a tally sheet in the office. Personally, one task in Microsoft To Do is enough. However and wherever: people like to make progress and visualizing it motivates them to do more!
Tip 7: Move forward throughout your life via small steps!
Clear's approach is that it does more good to improve 100 things 1% than to learn one thing completely from scratch. This is also the basic idea of Kaizen. Kaizen means "change for the better". The Japanese philosophy of life wants you to optimize yourself professionally and privately throughout your life by improving small steps.
Often such small, positive changes are not immediately noticeable in life. But if you keep at it and make small progress over and over again, the positive effect will multiply and change your life for the better.
Summary
A more fulfilling life and more success can be u.a. by encouraging good habits and avoiding bad ones. This is not easy and takes time. With the selection of a few, significant habits that you want to change at once, a modest goal setting and the focus on the way and not the 100% goal achievement, it can work out.
By analogy with James Clear, the best way to encourage good habits is by making them visible, easy, and attractive/rewarding. Bad habits can be gotten rid of by making them invisible, difficult, and unattractive/punishing. Particularly promising in Change is active shaping of the environment, habit tagging, and success tracking.
When you tweak your behavior/habits in small increments over time, you develop into the person you want to be.
These insights apply to all behavioral changes – especially when optimizing personal productivity.