The Easiest Way to Change Your Habits

How I Manipulated Ex-Coworkers’ Behavior

One of the most important lessons I learned in life was when I was working in a brewery. At the time, I had failed at my first attempt at university. I didn’t know what to do with my life at the moment, so I took whatever job I could get.

I was on the factory floor operating one of the machines.

It’s where I learned the importance of changing circumstances.

Picture this situation:

For the production runs, we used many pallets of packaging materials. After the production of a single product ends, usually some materials remain. The general rule is that we had to start with those leftover pallets in the next production run.

But almost nobody followed this rule…

The start of any production run is the most work. Starting with a leftover pallet means there’s even more work at the beginning. Trust me, words alone can’t describe how annoying they were.

The problem was that I was among the few people who followed the protocol.

So, these leftover pallets were usually my problem…

During every shift, one person was responsible for preparing all the packaging materials. Since we’d rotate this job, there were times when I was the one doing this work.

This is where I created my “devious” social experiment.

Here’s what I did:

Every time there were leftover pallets, I put them at the very front.

I made sure that all the full pallets were inaccessible unless you moved the leftover pallet(s) first. This way it would be more work to skip the protocol and start with a full pallet.

Here’s the difference it made:

In the initial situation, you could simply take a full pallet with the pallet jack and move it to wherever.

In the second situation:

You’d first have to move the leftover pallet out of the way. Then you can grab the full pallet and put it to the side. You’d have to take the leftover pallet again and move it back to where it was. Only then could you grab the full pallet and move it to the designated area.

As you can read, there were quite a few steps added.

The result?

Because I changed the environment, literally everyone would take the leftover pallets first! I managed to change their behavior by changing their environment. 

It’s incredibly powerful for changing behavior!

How to Apply This Concept

So, why am I telling you this story?

Because you can apply it to any area of your life!

One of the examples I often use it that of a cookie jar. If you’ve got one on your desk, chances are that you’re going to eat a ton of cookies. After all, they’re easily available and they’re constantly in your sight.

Bad situation if your goal is to lose weight.

But what if:

• The jar wasn’t on your desk, but instead in a cupboard?

• The cupboard had a padlock on it?

• You needed 3 people to open the jar?

• There weren’t any cookies in the house to begin with?

• The cookie jar was replaced with a fruit bowl?

Problem solved!

You don’t need discipline to change your habits!

There’s a common misbelief about successful people:

People often think that extremely successful people have godlike amounts of discipline and willpower. This usually isn’t the case. While they are more disciplined than most, they generally avoid temptations in the first place!

They have created an environment and life that allows them to succeed.

It’s easy to “resist” a distraction if there are none!

You can apply this to almost all areas of your life.

An Environment of Focus

The other day, I read an interesting story from a CEO.

He gave every employee a lamp and a squirt gun.

The lamp had two different colors, red and green. Red meant that the employee was not to be disturbed. They’d use this while doing deep work. If someone did interrupt them anyway… well that’s what the squirt gun is for!

Quite different from most offices, isn’t it?

Imagine how much more you’d get done without interruptions every 5 minutes!

But there are a lot of things that you CAN do, even if your boss won’t allow you to have a squirt gun on your desk. (So sad most bosses aren’t fun…)

For example:

• Get rid of things on your desk that distract you

• Leave your phone out of reach and sight

• Block certain websites or programs if they’re a problem

• Use “do not disturb” mode during your focused work

• Consider headphones if you’re in a noisy environment

And that’s just a few of the things you could do at your job.

However, how can you use this in your personal life?

One of the best things you could do is to take out a pen and piece of paper to brainstorm ideas. In fact, that’s exactly what we’re going to do in the exercise section of this newsletter.

Audio Lesson: The 2-Way Street of Mindset

It’s incredibly easy to take action consistently when you feel like you’re on top of the world. However, it’s much harder when you feel down and out.

So, most people try to improve their mood and beliefs in order to change their lives for the better.

But what if there was a better approach?

Turns out, there is!

Why Do We Have Bad Habits Anyway?

Have you ever wondered why you can’t seem to break any of your bad habits? Why do they keep getting back into your life time and time again?

Stop looking for the answers, because it’s right here in front of you:

Changing Your Environment

The quickest way to change your habits is to change your environment.

But what changes can you make today?

In order to figure that out, these are the action steps for today.

Let’s rock!

1. Before doing anything, you’d need to decide on your focus and goal. What area of your life are you looking to change? Are you trying to eliminate a bad habit (go to step 2) or build a new habit (go to step 4)?
   

2. If you’re trying to change a bad habit, it’s important to understand your triggers. When do you engage in the habit? Is it when you see something? When you visit a certain location, app or website? Around certain people? Is there a certain feeling that comes before the habit?
   
   The more clearly you can identify why you have the habit, the easier it is going to be to change it. When in doubt, watch the video above.
   

3. Now that you have identified at least some of the triggers, it’s time to see what you can do about it. Perhaps you can use app/website blockers. Maybe you hide distractions or temptations or not have them in the house to begin with.
   
   Perhaps you go grocery shopping with someone else (on a full stomach) so that you don’t bring tons of junk food. Unfortunately, I don’t know what the solution would be for your habits and life, but this is what to think about.
   
   The more triggers you can eliminate, the more you set yourself up for success.
   

4. Whether you want to break a bad habit or create one from scratch, you need a new trigger. You don’t eliminate a bad habit, but you replace it with something else.
   
   Brainstorm a few ideas that you could to get started with your new habit. Then look to make the cues for this habit as visible as possible. Make it as easy for yourself to go and do this thing.
   
   I find both Post-Its and phone alarms to work as decent reminders too.
   

5. Now that you have done all the groundwork, it’s time to actually make the required changes in your environment! Note that this might include talking to the people around you. Perhaps to tell them not to disturb you in a certain circumstance.
   
   The more temptations and distractions you can remove, the better!

If you follow these steps and change your environment, you’re going to find it much easier to stay on track with your goals! However, a word of warning: You need to pay attention to keep on manipulating your environment, at least at first.

Otherwise, you might end up changing things back without realizing it.

For the next few weeks, be rigorous about your environment in the area you’re trying to change. Remember that your mind needs some time to get more adjusted to your new habits and environment, reinforce them thoroughly!