THE 1ST LAW : Make It Obvious
Chapter 6 : Motivation Is Overrated; Environment Often Matters More
Case study: at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, sales of soda bottles were reduced and water bottle were increased because water bottles were filled in the refrigerators next to the cashier.
People often choose products not because of what they are, but because of where they are.
In 1936, psychologist Kurt Lewin wrote a simple equation that makes a powerful statement: Behavior is a function of the Person in their Environment, or B = f (P,E).
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 visualizes 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.
The most powerful of all human sensory abilities, however, is vision.
visual cues are the greatest catalyst of our behavior.
important to live and work in environments that are filled with productive cues and devoid of unproductive ones.
HOW TO DESIGN YOUR ENVIRONMENT FOR SUCCESS
Case study: energy usage in Amsterdam, some household has lower consumption because the meter is in visible area. When their energy use was obvious and easy to track, people changed their behavior.
Every habit is initiated by a cue, and we are more likely to notice cues that stand out.
By comparison, creating obvious visual cues can draw your attention toward a desired habit.
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 behaviors usually have multiple cues.
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 allows you to take back control and become the architect of your life.
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 behavior.
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.
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.
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.
It is easier to associate a new habit with a new context than to build a new habit in the face of competing cues.
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.
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.
A stable environment where everything has a place and a purpose is an environment where habits can easily form.
Chapter Summary
- Small changes in context can lead to large changes in behavior over time.
- Every habit is initiated by a cue. We are more likely to notice cues that stand out.
- Make the cues of good habits obvious in your environment.
- Gradually, your habits become associated not with a single trigger but with the entire context surrounding the behavior. The context becomes the cue.
- It is easier to build new habits in a new environment because you are not fighting against old cues.