The Key to Making Habits Stick
Photo by Clay Banks
Regardless of what you wish to do more of in life, integrating it into your life using systems ensures that they stick to your routine. I came across this concept when I first listened to Atomic Habits. Ever since then, I have aimed to build systems rather than chase goals to build a lasting habit.
My Story
I was in the habit of snoozing my alarms for thirty minutes every day. This is what I was doing on a typical day, I would wake up to the sound of my alarm. On the alarm there were two options, one to stop the alarm and another that snoozed the alarm.
I had got into this habit of clicking that snooze button up to 3 times meaning that I would wake up 30 minutes after I scheduled to do so with my alarm. I noticed that I had unknowingly created a system as shown below.
This is a system that I had unknowingly created in my life. For those who are wondering what I mean by a system, it’s a collection of habits that you tend to do in quick succession. In my case, that’s snooze - snooze - snooze - leave bed.
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In the book Atomic Habits, author James Clear mentions that there are four components to every habit: cue, craving, response and reward. When I thought back to my system, it looked a little bit like this:
Cue: alarm
Craving: more sleep
Response: Snooze (habit)
Reward: more sleep
For long time readers, you probably know how much I like my sleep. In fact, I wrote an article all about its importance and why you should prioritise it.
I used James Clear’s framework (described below) to change my wake up system. The first change I made was to make the cue less obvious. I did this by removing the snooze button. If I truly wanted to sleep in, I would have to set up a new alarm or risk being late to my morning appointments.
I woke up to find no option to snooze my alarm. Therefore I stopped the alarm and left the bed as I was not willing to miss any of my morning appointments. Over time, this became a habit of its own.
Your move
Is there a habit in your life that you would like to break? If so you can attempt to do so by using the following framework:
Identify the habit you would like to break
Break it down in terms of the four components
Use James Clear’s framework by making:
The cue less obvious
The craving less desirable
The response more difficult
The reward less satisfying.
Try your new approach
Tweak and repeat.
Over time you might one day recognise a new system has replaced your old one just as I woke up without snoozing three times today.
The beautiful thing about habit substitution is that you can build a good habit and break a bad one at the same time.
-James Clear
Hope you enjoyed this post, I know it’s been a while since the last one. Thanks for taking the time to read what I’ve created! I’ll catch you in the next one.
Until next time,
Tony
Additional Resources
Article: Four Stages of a Habit
Book: Atomic Habits
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