Is the "new year, new you" planning on [insert crazy goal] in 2022? Try this instead.
I’m pretty sure you and I are more alike than you realise.
Throughout the year, we both have good and bad habits. Some we simply tolerate and accept. Others we’re keen to change (diets = any given Monday. Big goals = 1 January).
Some of my habits include:
Taking daily calcium supplements to help with my low bone density.
Practically inhaling a microwave mug cake when I have had a crappy day and want to change my mood.
Writing on my wallchart whenever I do a workout as part of my triathlon training.
Never making the bed.
Sticking a wash on every morning (saves running out of space for masses of wet clothes over a weekend).
Rarely tightening lids on liquids.
They’re all things that I do (or don’t do) on autopilot.
Let’s hone in on the more unhelpful ones and why I should probably try and get rid of them in 2022 to make myself a better person:
the calorific cake mug cake is gone before I know it and goes straight to my thighs.
the unmade bed has been annoying the hell out of Adam for our entire 12 years together.
and my lack of interest in screwing lids on properly causes all sorts of leaks, drips.. and frustrations from my family.
Continuing the unmade bed theme, Retired U.S. Navy Admiral Seal William H. McRaven once said:
“If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another, and another. And by the end of the day that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed.”
And although I’ll never care about making beds and I really do enjoy the mug cakes (#SorryNotSorry), I reckon William H. McRaven was onto something when it comes to that sense of pride from doing the little things.
And in a survey about habits on LinkedIn, 39% of respondents were making life harder for themselves by relying on sheer willpower alone.
That’s where habit loops and Tiny Habits come in (combined with actually wanting to make a change).
The habit loop: having a familiar cue, tagging on a new routine, celebrating the success. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Oh, and if my examples don’t resonate with you:
Swap the mug cake with your fave comfort food or tipple of choice
Making beds could be making meetings or deadlines on time
And rarely tightening lids could be rarely prioritising self-care over work.
Tiny Habits is a concept created by a guy called BJ Fogg, after 20+ years of research.
With Tiny Habits, you take something you’re already doing every day (they call this your Anchor Moment), and you use this existing thing to remind you to do something new (a Tiny Behaviour).
Side note: The final stage is to celebrate taking the action – like a “woohoo” or an air fist pump. I’ll be honest – I have skipped this bit because it feels really awkward to woohoo myself after grabbing my morning coffee (Anchor Moment) and taking a vitamin (Tiny Behaviour). But I think the point is that you’re taking a mindful moment to appreciate that you’ve just done something new. So, for me, it’s more of a feeling.
And that ^^ is the essence of creating a successful new habit loop off the back of an existing behaviour, rather than relying on sheer willpower and self-control alone.
What new habits look like
While I wait for my morning coffee, I will fill my 1L water bottle.
Aim: Have a pre-filled bottle on my desk so that I stay hydrated (and migraine-free) each day.
After I put my breakfast bowl in the dishwasher, I will log what I’ve eaten in MyFitnessPal.
Aim: Track what I eat throughout the day and be mindful of my food consumption/macros.
After I get dressed in the morning, I will empty the washing basket and stick a wash on.
Aim: Keep on top of the washing pile so it never feels out of control.
After I screw a lid on, I will tighten it again to ensure the seal is fully closed.
Aim: Stop annoying my family with leaky jars/bottles/containers.
Linking by location / theme /time
A subtlety is that these new habits are linked by location or time to make them even easier to remember and do.
I grab my morning coffee in the kitchen. I fill my water bottle from the kitchen sink.
The dishwasher is in the kitchen. My phone is on charge in the kitchen.
I get dressed in my bedroom. The washing basket is in the bedroom.
They simply wouldn’t work so well if I decided that every time I got dressed in my bedroom, I’d then have to remember to buy bread from the shop.
A better reminder there would be to link dropping my daughter off at school with nipping to the shop - the two buildings are next to one another.
Or if I said when I make my morning coffee, I’ll start making business development calls… people aren’t going to appreciate a call at 6 am. I'd have to mentally park that idea for a good few hours... and then I'd be more likely to forget.
The quicker, the better
You’ll notice that none of these new habits take masses of time.
Instead, I’m concentrating on quick wins and that “small sense of pride” rather than self-imposed pressure and over-commitment.
Summary
By attaching a new habit to an existing behaviour, you are more likely to succeed because you’re not relying on memory or sheer willpower alone.
Why is that important to you as a leader? Because the mental load is very real, and the more good habits we can create on autopilot, the more brain space we have free for creative and strategic thinking.
Tiny Habits Resources
Sign up for the free five-day programme to build habits with Tiny Habits – I’m not affiliated in any way, but I’ve loved this every time I’ve joined in. Just make sure you sign up before the end of a Friday to be auto-enrolled to start on the following Monday. I'm already in - let me know if you join too.
Buy the Tiny Habits book via Amazon UK to read more. This is an affiliate link.
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