There are many golden tips on the internet, but can they be applied to everyone? Will what works for some work for others?
And most importantly - does anyone take into account how our brain works and how we can build habits? And here comes the topic of behavioral economics, which has recently “messed up” with decision making.
“Decision-making is a process that consists of many steps over time.”
Many studies show that we tend to approach with too much confidence how easily we manage to maintain discipline. We think that the “future self” will be able to make better decisions, but the “present self” too often gives in to temptation.
Pressures of the Present
Psychologists Ayelet Fishbach and Kaitlin Woolley began to suspect that people could more effectively pursue ambitious goals if they stopped overestimating their willpower. They saw that if people focused on making the pursuit of a long-term goal more enjoyable in the short term by adding some element of reward, they were much more successful. We all face the pressure of the present.
Motivation and habits
In this article I decided to collect information that can help us to sustain our goals and at the same time to build habits so that things happen more automatically and we and our brain do not need so much energy to realize it:
- The New Year (as well as the beginning) is ideal for initiating change. It's such a clean card, where we have increased motivation,
- introducing your own immediate gratification will allow you to maintain a given behavior. Through conscious choice, we will not succumb to momentary temptations,
- introduction of gamification - symbolic rewards, (gamification is good if we engage ourselves and not someone persuades and imposes it),
- making smaller commitments more often than less often larger ones, even if the summary results in the same way, for example, putting aside money per day rather than monthly,
- action on signals. The signal can be anything that evokes an association from a specific time or place, i.e. the so-called accumulation of habits. You can build a new habit, on an old habit. When I wanted to introduce drinking warm water in the morning into my day, I added it to the activity of making breakfast for my family.
- Remember: creating multiple plans based on signals can put you off and engagement can diminish.
- reminder sent in a timely manner - not every notification works. Communication time is very important.
- routine, repetition is more important than the number of days to bring out a given habit,
- For a habit to be permanent we cannot cultivate it in one way. The most enduring behaviors are formed when we learn to make decisions no matter the circumstances - not just at one hour and time,
- flexibility - excessive rigidity is the enemy of a good habit,
- default settings can work in your favor - e.g. setting a different start page, throwing social media from the first screen on your phone - your laziness can become an asset!
- accessibility rule - putting a prepared glass of water on the kitchen counter can help you hydrate your body frequently,
- packing temptations - if you are tempted by a new series on Netflix and you know that you still have a lot of household chores, maybe it is worth watching it, for example, while hanging up the laundry?
I assume that we designers can design great things, but also smaller ones like habits that have enormous power. We define problems, we look for solutions - our design approach can positively affect others as well as ourselves:) Good luck and happy New Year!
