#047: Low-Energy States
Chances are, you’re doing some things you’d rather not. Maybe you’re eating a lot of chocolate, and training for the couch potato Olympics. And you’re also probably not doing something you should. Be it going outside more, eating healthy, or trying out that cool new thing you’ve heard so much about.
The good news is, there’s a deluge of apps and gadgets out there that want to help you. The bad? They don’t really work, in the long run. Partly, they rely on a very simple framework, and/or simplified assumptions. Few gadgets seem aware of such things as rest days (which are important to weight lifters), or the fact that humans occasionally get sick, and should stay in bed for at least a few days. Your fitness companion will badger you anyway, pointing out that you’ve been lazy today (albeit coated in nicer language), and you should really get up and move, fever be damned. And even if you’re healthy, their reminders may be more of a hindrance than help.
Changing existing behavior is hard. Your brain likes the way things are going right now, because it’s what uses the least energy, and new behavior requires more energy (roughly speaking). If you’ve been brushing your teeth after showering every morning, your brain doesn’t have to expend energy to thinking about brushing your teeth after stepping out of the shower, you just do it.
Starting on a new habit, then, requires you to overcome the inertia of your brain, in hopes of eventually turning it into a habit. The effort to start a new habit also corresponds to its size, so doing something tiny (like flossing teeth) is easier to turn into a habit than something large (start going to the gym 3 times a week, and work out for 2h).
First, whenever you want to do something new, you should first get some things in order. Starting with the “Why do you want this in the first place?” If you’re doing it because a glossy magazine told you to, then it’s very unlikely to stick. If you’re doing it because your life depends on it, it’s likely to stick. Most of the time, you’ll be somewhere in between those two extremes, but having a clear “Why” in mind will help you. And if you can’t figure out your “why”, then maybe you should think about doing something else.
So, if you want to add a new habit, let’s say going for an hour-long run regularly, it’s best to split it up into smaller behaviors that are then easier to turn into habits. Start out by putting on your workout clothes & shoes, and leave it at that. You’ve completed your small task for now. Keep doing this every day you eventually want to go on a run for. Then, after a week or so, you add the next step: Actually go outside. Once you’ve smelled the fresh air, you again have completed your small task. The next week, you add a 5 minute run to it. Eventually, you’ll have reached your overall goal of going for a run regularly.
Breaking it down like this works for many new behaviors you want to add. Sometimes, you’ll need to do some research, or even ask a few people who’ve done what you’re about to do, in order to get a better idea of all the individual steps required. But doing it this way makes adding new big habits much easier than trying to do everything all at once in the first place.
On the flip side, unlearning an existing behavior is tricky. Not only do you do it without thinking about it, it also often uses cues to trigger that are ever-present around you. Social media apps on your smartphone are especially bad, because they base their entire design around providing you with triggers and cues to check them.
The first thing you might think of doing to curb this is banning something entirely. But this can have the opposite effect, making you desire it even more, leading to the inevitable relapse. On the other hand, if you make it boring instead, your brain won’t feel the immediate desire to go back to it, and instead find it more… boring. Consequently, it’s easier to untrain the unwanted behavior.