According to Wendy Wood, Provost Professor of Psychology and Business at the University of Southern California, “Forty percent of the time we're not thinking about what we're doing."
We automatically repeat behaviors that were frequently rewarded in the past in a given context. This repetition becomes an unconscious habit or series of habits. This makes sense will existing habits but how do you introduce new behaviors?
There are many approaches but two things that stand out to add new daily actions are to make them conscious and to reduce the friction to make them happen.
Adding new habits begins with creating an environment that supports them. Research shows that leveraging the cues that trigger habits in the first place can be incredibly effective.
This Summer, I decided to use a 100-day Gong, combined with habit stacking (with my already established meditation practice) to integrate the following habits daily:
Movement of any kind
Drinking water with a goal of 60 ounces
Eating 3-cups of greens
The conscious for me is to make it visual but I have also used reminders on my phone in the past. Reducing friction is about making all items as easy as possible.
I have made it conscious by posting a tracker on the kitchen cabinet that I can see daily. I have reduced friction by making it easy to engage in, i.e. leaving my yoga mat and headphones by the sliding door to outside (one of the first things I see in the AM); getting my measured greens out in the AM to place on “my spot” at the table (and sometimes munching them plain like a snack); and drinking the first third of my water as soon as I wake up, refilling my bottle once empty.
I’ll admit I normally would not focus on adding 5 things at once. I chose this approach because I could add sunlight, grounding, and sometimes movement to my existing habit of meditation via habit stacking by moving it outside.
What are working on this Summer? How can you make it conscious? How can you reduce friction and make it easy? Click here to download a tracker to make your progress visual.
