Holiday Read: Atomic Habits... Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results
Read on to discover easy and proven ways to build good habits and break bad ones as we head into a new year
Houzz AU
31 December 2021
In this book extract, habit expert and author James Clear outlines the compound effect of hundreds of small decisions and how they can lead to life-altering outcomes. Here we extract chapter six – ‘Motivation is Overrated; Environment Often Matters More’ – of this surprising book, Atomic Habits.
We have illustrated this story with images from the Houzz image library.
We have illustrated this story with images from the Houzz image library.
Anne Thorndike, a primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, USA, had a crazy idea. She believed she could improve the eating habits of thousands of hospital staff and visitors without changing their willpower or motivation in the slightest way. In fact, she didn’t plan on talking to them at all.
Thorndike and her colleagues designed a six-month study to alter the ‘choice architecture’ of the hospital cafeteria. They started by changing how drinks were arranged in the room. Originally, the refrigerators located next to the cash registers in the cafeteria were filled with only soda. The researchers added water as an option to each one. Additionally, they placed baskets of bottled water next to the food stations throughout the room. Soda was still in the primary refrigerators, but water was now available at all drink locations.
Over the next three months, the number of soda sales at the hospital dropped by 11.4 percent. Meanwhile, sales of bottled water increased by 25.8 percent. They made similar adjustments – and saw similar results – with the food in the cafeteria. Nobody had said a word to anyone eating there.
Redesigning your kitchen? Chat with a specialised kitchen designer near you for custom ideas that will boost your lifestyle as well as your home
Thorndike and her colleagues designed a six-month study to alter the ‘choice architecture’ of the hospital cafeteria. They started by changing how drinks were arranged in the room. Originally, the refrigerators located next to the cash registers in the cafeteria were filled with only soda. The researchers added water as an option to each one. Additionally, they placed baskets of bottled water next to the food stations throughout the room. Soda was still in the primary refrigerators, but water was now available at all drink locations.
Over the next three months, the number of soda sales at the hospital dropped by 11.4 percent. Meanwhile, sales of bottled water increased by 25.8 percent. They made similar adjustments – and saw similar results – with the food in the cafeteria. Nobody had said a word to anyone eating there.
Redesigning your kitchen? Chat with a specialised kitchen designer near you for custom ideas that will boost your lifestyle as well as your home
People often choose products not because of what they are, but because of where they are. If I walk into the kitchen and see a plate of cookies on the counter, I’ll pick up half a dozen and start eating, even if I hadn’t been thinking about them beforehand and didn’t necessarily feel hungry. If the communal table at the office is always filled with doughnuts and bagels, it’s going to be hard not to grab one every now and then. Your habits change depending on the room you are in and the cues in front of you. Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behaviour.
Despite our unique personalities, certain behaviours tend to arise again and again under certain environmental conditions. In church, people tend to talk in whispers. On a dark street, people act wary and guarded. In this way, the most common form of change is not internal, but external: we are changed by the world around us. Every habit is context dependent.
In 1936, psychologist Kurt Lewin wrote a simple equation that makes a powerful statement: Behaviour is a function of the Person in their Environment, or B = f (P,E). It didn’t take long for Lewin’s Equation to be tested in business. In 1952, the economist Hawkins Stern described a phenomenon he called ‘Suggestion Impulse Buying’, which “is triggered when a shopper sees a product for the first time and visualises a need for it”. In other words, customers will occasionally buy products not because they want them but because of how they are presented to them.
Despite our unique personalities, certain behaviours tend to arise again and again under certain environmental conditions. In church, people tend to talk in whispers. On a dark street, people act wary and guarded. In this way, the most common form of change is not internal, but external: we are changed by the world around us. Every habit is context dependent.
In 1936, psychologist Kurt Lewin wrote a simple equation that makes a powerful statement: Behaviour is a function of the Person in their Environment, or B = f (P,E). It didn’t take long for Lewin’s Equation to be tested in business. In 1952, the economist Hawkins Stern described a phenomenon he called ‘Suggestion Impulse Buying’, which “is triggered when a shopper sees a product for the first time and visualises a need for it”. In other words, customers will occasionally buy products not because they want them but because of how they are presented to them.
For example, items at eye level tend to be purchased more than those down near the floor. For this reason, you’ll find expensive brand names featured in easy-to-reach locations on store shelves because they drive the most profit, while cheaper alternatives are tucked away in harder-to-reach spots. The same goes for end caps, which are the units at the end of aisles. End caps are moneymaking machines for retailers because they are obvious locations that encounter a lot of foot traffic. For example, 45 percent of Coca-Cola sales come specifically from end-of-the-aisle racks.
The more obviously available a product or service is, the more likely you are to try it. People drink Bud Light [beer] because it is in every bar and visit Starbucks because it is on every corner [in the US].
We like to think that we are in control. If we choose water over soda, we assume it is because we wanted to do so. The truth, however, is that many of the actions we take each day are shaped not by purposeful drive and choice but by the most obvious option.
Every living being has its own methods for sensing and understanding the world. Eagles have remarkable long-distance vision. Snakes can smell by ‘tasting the air’ with their highly sensitive tongues. Sharks can detect small amounts of electricity and vibrations in the water caused by nearby fish. Even bacteria have chemoreceptors – tiny sensory cells that allow them to detect toxic chemicals in their environment.
The more obviously available a product or service is, the more likely you are to try it. People drink Bud Light [beer] because it is in every bar and visit Starbucks because it is on every corner [in the US].
We like to think that we are in control. If we choose water over soda, we assume it is because we wanted to do so. The truth, however, is that many of the actions we take each day are shaped not by purposeful drive and choice but by the most obvious option.
Every living being has its own methods for sensing and understanding the world. Eagles have remarkable long-distance vision. Snakes can smell by ‘tasting the air’ with their highly sensitive tongues. Sharks can detect small amounts of electricity and vibrations in the water caused by nearby fish. Even bacteria have chemoreceptors – tiny sensory cells that allow them to detect toxic chemicals in their environment.
In humans, perception is directed by the sensory nervous system. We perceive the world through sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. But we also have other ways of sensing stimuli. Some are conscious, but many are non-conscious. For instance, you can ‘notice’ when the temperature drops before a storm, or when the pain in your gut rises during a stomach ache, or when you fall off balance while walking on rocky ground. Receptors in your body pick up on a wide range of internal stimuli, such as the amount of salt in your blood or the need to drink when thirsty.
The most powerful of all human sensory abilities, however, is vision. The human body has about eleven million sensory receptors. Approximately ten million of those are dedicated to sight. Some experts estimate that half of the brain’s resources are used on vision. Given that we are more dependent on vision than on any other sense, it should come as no surprise that visual cues are the greatest catalyst of our behaviour. For this reason, a small change in what you see can lead to a big shift in what you do. As a result, you can imagine how important it is to live and work in environments that are filled with productive cues and devoid of unproductive ones.
Thankfully, there is good news in this respect. You don’t have to be the victim of your environment. You can also be the architect of it.
The most powerful of all human sensory abilities, however, is vision. The human body has about eleven million sensory receptors. Approximately ten million of those are dedicated to sight. Some experts estimate that half of the brain’s resources are used on vision. Given that we are more dependent on vision than on any other sense, it should come as no surprise that visual cues are the greatest catalyst of our behaviour. For this reason, a small change in what you see can lead to a big shift in what you do. As a result, you can imagine how important it is to live and work in environments that are filled with productive cues and devoid of unproductive ones.
Thankfully, there is good news in this respect. You don’t have to be the victim of your environment. You can also be the architect of it.
How to design your environment for success
During the energy crisis and oil embargo of the 1970s, Dutch researchers began to pay close attention to the country’s energy usage. In one suburb near Amsterdam, they found that some homeowners used 30 percent less energy than their neighbours – despite the homes being of similar size and getting electricity for the same price. It turned out the houses in this neighbourhood were nearly identical except for one feature: the location of the electrical meter. Some had one in the basement. Others had the electrical meter upstairs in the main hallway. As you may guess, the homes with the meters located in the main hallway used less electricity. When their energy use was obvious and easy to track, people changed their behaviour.
Every habit is initiated by a cue, and we are more likely to notice cues that stand out. Unfortunately, the environments where we live and work often make it easy not to do certain actions because there is no obvious cue to trigger the behaviour. It’s easy not to practice the guitar when it’s tucked away in the closet. It’s easy not to read a book when the bookshelf is in the corner of the guest room. It’s easy not to take your vitamins when they are out of sight in the pantry. When the cues that spark a habit are subtle or hidden, they are easy to ignore.
During the energy crisis and oil embargo of the 1970s, Dutch researchers began to pay close attention to the country’s energy usage. In one suburb near Amsterdam, they found that some homeowners used 30 percent less energy than their neighbours – despite the homes being of similar size and getting electricity for the same price. It turned out the houses in this neighbourhood were nearly identical except for one feature: the location of the electrical meter. Some had one in the basement. Others had the electrical meter upstairs in the main hallway. As you may guess, the homes with the meters located in the main hallway used less electricity. When their energy use was obvious and easy to track, people changed their behaviour.
Every habit is initiated by a cue, and we are more likely to notice cues that stand out. Unfortunately, the environments where we live and work often make it easy not to do certain actions because there is no obvious cue to trigger the behaviour. It’s easy not to practice the guitar when it’s tucked away in the closet. It’s easy not to read a book when the bookshelf is in the corner of the guest room. It’s easy not to take your vitamins when they are out of sight in the pantry. When the cues that spark a habit are subtle or hidden, they are easy to ignore.
By comparison, creating obvious visual cues can draw your attention toward a desired habit. In the early 1990s, the cleaning staff at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam installed a small sticker that looked like a fly near the centre of each urinal. Apparently, when men stepped up to the urinals, they aimed for what they thought was a bug. The stickers improved their aim and significantly reduced ‘spillage’ around the urinals. Further analysis determined that the stickers cut bathroom cleaning costs by eight percent per year.
Here are a few ways you can redesign your environment and make the cues for your preferred habits more obvious:
Here are a few ways you can redesign your environment and make the cues for your preferred habits more obvious:
- If you want to remember to take your medication each night, put your pill bottle directly next to the tap on the bathroom vanity.
- If you want to practise guitar more frequently, place your guitar stand in the middle of the living room.
- If you want to remember to send more thank-you notes, keep a stack of stationery on your desk.
- If you want to drink more water, fill up a few water bottles each morning and place them in common locations around the house.
If you want to make a habit a big part of your life, make the cue a big part of your environment. The most persistent behaviours usually have multiple cues. Consider how many different ways a smoker could be prompted to pull out a cigarette: driving in the car, seeing a friend smoke, feeling stressed at work, and so on.
The same strategy can be employed for good habits. By sprinkling triggers throughout your surroundings, you increase the odds that you’ll think about your habit throughout the day. Make sure the best choice is the most obvious one. Making a better decision is easy and natural when the cues for good habits are right in front of you.
Environment design is powerful not only because it influences how we engage with the world but also because we rarely do it. Most people live in a world others have created for them. But you can alter the spaces where you live and work to increase your exposure to positive cues and reduce your exposure to negative ones. Environment design allows you to take back control and become the architect of your life. Be the designer of your world and not merely the consumer of it.
The same strategy can be employed for good habits. By sprinkling triggers throughout your surroundings, you increase the odds that you’ll think about your habit throughout the day. Make sure the best choice is the most obvious one. Making a better decision is easy and natural when the cues for good habits are right in front of you.
Environment design is powerful not only because it influences how we engage with the world but also because we rarely do it. Most people live in a world others have created for them. But you can alter the spaces where you live and work to increase your exposure to positive cues and reduce your exposure to negative ones. Environment design allows you to take back control and become the architect of your life. Be the designer of your world and not merely the consumer of it.
The context is the cue
The cues that trigger a habit can start out very specific, but over time your habits become associated not with a single trigger but with the entire context surrounding the behaviour. For example, many people drink more in social situations than they would ever drink alone. The trigger is rarely a single cue, but rather the whole situation: watching your friends order drinks, hearing the music at the bar, seeing the beers on tap.
We mentally assign our habits to the locations in which they occur: the home, the office, the gym. Each location develops a connection to certain habits and routines. You establish a particular relationship with the objects on your desk, the items on your kitchen counter, the things in your bedroom.
Our behaviour is not defined by the objects in the environment but by our relationship to them. In fact, this is a useful way to think about the influence of the environment on your behaviour. Stop thinking about your environment as filled with objects. Start thinking about it as filled with relationships. Think in terms of how you interact with the spaces around you. For one person, her couch is the place where she reads for an hour each night. For someone else, the couch is where he watches television and eats a bowl of ice cream after work.
Browse more beautifully designed Australian kitchens
The cues that trigger a habit can start out very specific, but over time your habits become associated not with a single trigger but with the entire context surrounding the behaviour. For example, many people drink more in social situations than they would ever drink alone. The trigger is rarely a single cue, but rather the whole situation: watching your friends order drinks, hearing the music at the bar, seeing the beers on tap.
We mentally assign our habits to the locations in which they occur: the home, the office, the gym. Each location develops a connection to certain habits and routines. You establish a particular relationship with the objects on your desk, the items on your kitchen counter, the things in your bedroom.
Our behaviour is not defined by the objects in the environment but by our relationship to them. In fact, this is a useful way to think about the influence of the environment on your behaviour. Stop thinking about your environment as filled with objects. Start thinking about it as filled with relationships. Think in terms of how you interact with the spaces around you. For one person, her couch is the place where she reads for an hour each night. For someone else, the couch is where he watches television and eats a bowl of ice cream after work.
Browse more beautifully designed Australian kitchens
Different people can have different memories – and thus different habits – associated with the same place. The good news? You can train yourself to link a particular habit with a particular context.
In one study, scientists instructed insomniacs to get into bed only when they were tired. If they couldn’t fall asleep, they were told to sit in a different room until they became sleepy. Over time, subjects began to associate the context of their bed with the action of sleeping, and it became easier to quickly fall asleep when they climbed in bed. Their brains learned that sleeping – not browsing on their phones, not watching television, not staring at the clock – was the only action that happened in that room.
In one study, scientists instructed insomniacs to get into bed only when they were tired. If they couldn’t fall asleep, they were told to sit in a different room until they became sleepy. Over time, subjects began to associate the context of their bed with the action of sleeping, and it became easier to quickly fall asleep when they climbed in bed. Their brains learned that sleeping – not browsing on their phones, not watching television, not staring at the clock – was the only action that happened in that room.
The power of context also reveals an important strategy: habits can be easier to change in a new environment. It helps to escape the subtle triggers and cues that nudge you toward your current habits. Go to a new place – a different coffee shop, a bench in the park, a corner of your room you seldom use – and create a new routine there. It is easier to associate a new habit with a new context than to build a new habit in the face of competing cues. It can be difficult to go to bed early if you watch television in your bedroom each night. It can be hard to study in the living room without getting distracted if that’s where you always play video games. But when you step outside your normal environment, you leave your behavioural biases behind. You aren’t battling old environmental cues, which allows new habits to form without interruption.
Want to think more creatively? Move to a bigger room, a rooftop patio, or a building with expansive architecture. Take a break from the space where you do your daily work, which is also linked to your current thought patterns.
Want to think more creatively? Move to a bigger room, a rooftop patio, or a building with expansive architecture. Take a break from the space where you do your daily work, which is also linked to your current thought patterns.
Trying to eat healthier? It is likely that you shop on autopilot at your regular supermarket. Try a new grocery store. You may find it easier to avoid unhealthy food when your brain doesn’t automatically know where it is located in the store. When you can’t manage to get to an entirely new environment, redefine or rearrange your current one. Create a separate space for work, study, exercise, entertainment, and cooking. The mantra I find useful is ‘One space, one use’.
When I started my career as an entrepreneur, I would often work from my couch or at the kitchen table. In the evenings, I found it very difficult to stop working. There was no clear division between the end of work time and the beginning of personal time. Was the kitchen table my office or the space where I ate meals? Was the couch where I relaxed or where I sent emails? Everything happened in the same place. A few years later, I could finally afford to move to a home with a separate room for my office. Suddenly, work was something that happened ‘in here’ and personal life was something that happened ‘out there.’ It was easier for me to turn off the professional side of my brain when there was a clear dividing line.
When I started my career as an entrepreneur, I would often work from my couch or at the kitchen table. In the evenings, I found it very difficult to stop working. There was no clear division between the end of work time and the beginning of personal time. Was the kitchen table my office or the space where I ate meals? Was the couch where I relaxed or where I sent emails? Everything happened in the same place. A few years later, I could finally afford to move to a home with a separate room for my office. Suddenly, work was something that happened ‘in here’ and personal life was something that happened ‘out there.’ It was easier for me to turn off the professional side of my brain when there was a clear dividing line.
Whenever possible, avoid mixing the context of one habit with another. When you start mixing contexts, you’ll start mixing habits – and the easier ones will usually win out. This is one reason why the versatility of modern technology is both a strength and a weakness. You can use your phone for all sorts of tasks, which makes it a powerful device. But when you can use your phone to do nearly anything, it becomes hard to associate it with one task. You want to be productive, but you’re also conditioned to browse social media, check emails, and play video games whenever you open your phone. It’s a mishmash of cues.
If you can manage to stick with this strategy, each context will become associated with a particular habit and mode of thought. Habits thrive under predictable circumstances like these. Focus comes automatically when you are sitting at your work desk. Relaxation is easier when you are in a space designed for that purpose. Sleep comes quickly when it is the only thing that happens in your bedroom. If you want behaviours that are stable and predictable, you need an environment that is stable and predictable.
A stable environment where everything has a place and a purpose is an environment where habits can easily form.
If you can manage to stick with this strategy, each context will become associated with a particular habit and mode of thought. Habits thrive under predictable circumstances like these. Focus comes automatically when you are sitting at your work desk. Relaxation is easier when you are in a space designed for that purpose. Sleep comes quickly when it is the only thing that happens in your bedroom. If you want behaviours that are stable and predictable, you need an environment that is stable and predictable.
A stable environment where everything has a place and a purpose is an environment where habits can easily form.
‘Atomic Habits’ is written by James Clear, published by Penguin and is available for AU$35 from booksellers.
Your turn
Which of these habit-breaking ideas would work best for you? Tell us your favourites in the Comments below. And if you found this story interesting, like it, save the images and join the conversation.
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Ready to redesign your home environment to support healthy habits? Be inspired by our round-up of 101 Most Beautiful Spaces of 2021
Your turn
Which of these habit-breaking ideas would work best for you? Tell us your favourites in the Comments below. And if you found this story interesting, like it, save the images and join the conversation.
More
Ready to redesign your home environment to support healthy habits? Be inspired by our round-up of 101 Most Beautiful Spaces of 2021
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Oh I love this article and truly believe lives can be changed with good design. Since we have extended our own home to include an open plan living space with doors to the garden, I have not missed one day of a 10 minute morning yoga ritual. That stretching in the sunny space grounds me for the day =)
My brain is on fire after reading this!! I love it.
What an interesting article! I’m going to start putting my walking shoes in a spot where they’re easily visible when I wake up. I imagine it’ll much harder to lie n bed if I can see my comfy shoes calling me out!