Habits: Make the cue obvious or invisible
Every habit is activated by noticing the relevant cue.
Increase the chance of successfully building a new habit by making the cue obvious, and of breaking an existing habit by making the cue invisible.
Every habit is activated by noticing the relevant cue, the thing that triggers the habit. For example, when you receive a notification on your phone (cue), you check your messages (response). When your alarm goes off (cue), you get out of bed immediately (response). Or when you are thirsty (cue), you drink a glass of water (response).
Cues that stand out are more likely to be noticed. You can create obvious cues for desired habits by using techniques such as designing your physical environment, implementation intentions and habit stacking. One of the most practical ways to break an unwanted habit is to remove the cues from your environment that activate this habit.
⚒️ Build and break habits: Design your physical environment
Make cues for desired habits obvious and cues for unwanted habits invisible.
The environment shapes human behaviour. In a library people tend to be quiet. Traffic signals influence driving behaviour. The smell of food stimulates appetite. Features like endless scrolling and notifications make users spend more time on social media. Music played in shopping malls influences shoppers to spend more time in stores.
Vision is the most dominant human sense. A small change in what you see can lead to a big change in what you do. For example, people are more likely to choose products that are visibly more obvious. You may habitually eat several cookies from the glass jar on your desk even though you are not hungry and would not have eaten them if they had not been visible. You may find yourself buying expensive items at the supermarket because they are displayed at eye level rather than at floor level where the cheaper alternatives are.
Build new habits
If you want to build a new habit, ask yourself:
🤔 How can I make the cues for the new habit obvious?
Our environment often does not contain obvious cues to activate desired habits, making these habits easy to ignore. Be the designer of your environment: make the cues for your desired habits obvious. For example, if you place fruit in a clearly visible bowl on your kitchen counter instead of in the back of a cupboard, you increase the chance that you will build the habit of eating enough fruit. By putting your e-reader on your desk instead of in a drawer that you hardly ever look at, you might read more. By placing full water bottles in places where you spend the most time during the day, you might drink enough water.
Break habits
If you want to break a habit, ask yourself:
🤔 How can I make the cues for the habit invisible?
Our environment often contains obvious cues that trigger unwanted habits. One of the most practical ways to break a bad habit is to remove the cues that trigger it from your environment. Be the designer of your environment: make the cues for your unwanted habits invisible. By putting your smartphone in another room instead of in your line of sight, you can avoid compulsively checking your smartphone multiple times an hour. By placing unhealthy snacks in a cupboard on the bottom shelf instead of on the kitchen counter, you will eat fewer unhealthy snacks.
Structure your environment in such a way that you need less willpower and self-control to break bad habits. Eliminating the cue will often completely eliminate the associated bad habit.
Brainstorm or search online for suitable changes in your environment and implement those changes. If the changes don't have the desired effect, ask yourself what could be causing this and try something else. Trial and error.
⚒️ Build and break habits: Change location
It's sometimes easier to build or break habits in a new location because you don't have to fight the cues from the old location.
Shopping at a different supermarket with a different layout can disrupt habits of buying unhealthy snacks on autopilot. By taking a new route to work, you can break the habit of stopping at a fast food restaurant along the way. Meeting friends in places where alcohol is not readily available can break existing patterns of unhealthy drinking.
You can intentionally change the locations of key elements in your home. Creating a workspace in a designated room can improve focus and productivity by tying work to a specific area. Setting up a new reading corner with comfortable chairs and good lighting can ensure that you regularly read a book. Moving the TV to another room can break the habit of excessive TV watching.
If your living space is limited, make sure each habit is associated with one location, for example a chair for reading, a desk for working and a table for eating. When you then sit at your desk, you automatically concentrate on your work. And you will fall asleep quickly if your bed is only associated with sleep. A stable environment leads to stable habits.
⚒️ Build habits: Use implementation intentions
An implementation intention is a simple plan you make in advance about when and where you intend to implement a new habit. The general structure of an implementation intention is:
When situation X occurs, I will perform response Y.
For example:
When it's 7am on Monday, Wednesday or Friday, I will go for a 30-minute jog in the local park.
When it’s the 1st of the month, I will transfer 10% of my monthly income to my savings account.
A more specific form of an implementation intention has the structure:
I will <execute new habit> at <time> in <location>.
For example:
I will write three things in my gratitude journal every day at 10pm in my kitchen.
I will call a friend to catch up for 20 minutes every Sunday at 4pm in my home office.
Formulating and writing down an implementation intention increases the chance that you will perform your new habit. It gives you a clear, specific, time-bound and actionable plan. No decision is required when the moment of action arrives, just follow the implementation intention. When you are clear about what you need to do, you can say no to things that would steer you off course. The goal is to make the time and location an obvious cue through repetition, so that you automatically perform the habit at the designated time and place.
🛠️ Build habits: Use habit stacking
Habit stacking is stacking a new habit on top of a habit you already have. It is a specific form (coined by BJ Fogg) of an implementation intention with the structure:
After <current habit>, I will <new habit>.
For example:
After sitting down at my desk, I will set a timer for 25 minutes of focused work (Pomodoro technique).
After doing my daily ten push ups, I will eat one piece of fruit in the kitchen.
It is important to choose a suitable habit as the cue for your new habit. The current habit should occur at a time and place where you are most likely to be successful in performing the new habit, for example a place where you will not be disturbed or a time when you don't have to do anything else. The frequency of the current habit, for example daily or every Monday, should match the frequency of the new habit. Use your habits scorecard to find a suitable habit to stack your new habit on top of, or use brainstorming to find a suitable habit.
Don’t choose a vague cue, be very specific and clear about when and where to act. The more specific the cue, the more likely you are to notice it: After I brush my teeth in the bathroom. When I get home from work. When I leave the house. When I pick up my phone.
Write down the chosen current habit and the habit you want to build in the structure: After <current habit>, I will <new habit>. Then perform the new habit every time after you perform the current habit.
There are many variations on this powerful theme:
👉 You can stack multiple habits on top of each other to create a chain of habits, where each habit activates the next habit in the chain.
👉 You can insert new habits into the middle of two current habits instead of at the end.
👉 You can stack habits on events that happen to you every day, such as, ‘After the sun rises, I will meditate in my bedroom for ten minutes.’ As an aid you could make a list of such events, such as the rising and setting of the sun, receiving a text message, and so on.
👉 You can develop general habit stacks using simple ‘When…, then…’ rules: When I buy something new, then I get rid of something old. When I receive an email from my manager, then I will respond within thirty minutes.
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Making cues obvious or invisible is a powerful tool for building and breaking habits. It is based on the first step of James Clear’s four-step habit model: cue, craving, response, and reward. Always keep your ultimate goal in mind: becoming the type of person you want to be.
References
Atomic Habits, by James Clear
My blogposts about habits are available here:
https://www.a3lifedesign.com/blog-english/category/Habits
