The power of habit and how they work

     Just recently I finished a book titled ‘The Power of Habit : Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business’ (by Charles Duhigg) which I borrowed a year ago from my friend, Mbak Een (matur muwun mba!). I skipped two chapters anyway! hahaha However, I could get the writer idea’s how habit can be a powerful thing and change someone’s life. Back then, I would think habit is something that already rooted to our body and can’t be changed anymore. But, I was wrong. There are many miracle things that happened from habit changes! Habits AREN’T destiny! We can train new habit, renew it and remake it.

     Habit works like muscle. You need to train them in order to get a good shape. The more you train new habit, the more you will effortlessly perform it. Sounds easy to do, right? Search a new habit, work it every day, then there you are: “A brand-new habit!”. No no no, it doesn’t work like that. It is actually pretty difficult to get consistent to train a new habit if you don’t know how they work.

     Our habits affect our everyday life. From how we start our days after waking up, how we work, how we make an appointment with our friends, how we spend our money, how we decide solution of important matters and many other things. Most of the time, we perform habit unconsciously, and each of them has a different cue and offers a unique reward. Despite of how simple or complex they are, when you want to change habit, you must decide to change it. This summary mainly sourced from the last chapter of his book. Hope it will be useful!

STEP 1 : Identify the routine 

Researchers found out that habit works in loops and consists of three parts: a cue, a routine and a reward. To understand your own habits, you need to identify the components of your loops. Once you figure it out, you can look for alternatives to replace old routines with a new one.

Simply, I will show you my own example. When I decided to live more sustainable, I’ve been making my best effort to cut excessive tissue consumption. Layer by layer I take without even care about its environmental cost. Repeatedly, I felt bad and guilty after doing it. When you want to change a habit, you have to start diagnosing your habit loop you want to change. I simply made it like this:

Next, you need to understand and complete your habit loop. It is quite tricky when you can’t correctly figure out the cue and the reward. To do so, let’s do a little experimentation about it!

STEP 2 : Experiment with rewards

Rewards are powerful because they satisfy cravings. But, we’re often unconscious of the cravings that drive our behaviors. To figure out which cravings are driving particular habits, it’s useful to experiment with different rewards. This may take a few days, weeks or even longer. During this period, you shouldn’t push yourself to make a real change –imagine yourself as a scientist in the data collection phase.

On the first day of my experiment, when I feel the urge to use tissue box again, I adjust my routine so it delivers a different reward. For example, instead of taking many layers of tissues, I tried using only one or two layers. The next day, after washing my hands, I tried to pat them on my trousers instead of taking tissues. In other days, I tried to bring handkerchief everywhere I go or I put my small towel near my desk and use it whenever the urge comes. You must search for the alternatives until you get the idea: what reward you’re craving for?

Is it because you feel tissue is cleaner? (If so, anything that you feel cleaner should work). Or because pocket tissue is convenient to use? (In which bringing handkerchief should probably satisfy your craving). Or maybe is it because tissue was the only option you had that time? (For this, you can place tissue box far away from your desk and put small towel nearby to increase your options). By experimenting with different rewards, you can isolate what you’re actually craving for. This is essential in redesigning the habit. In my case, I realized that my excessive habit of tissue usage because I want to dry my hands quickly and anything clean could work for me. Once you’ve figured out the routine and the reward, what remains is identifying the cue.

STEP 3 : Isolate the cue 

Isolating cues that triggers our habits is tricky because mostly it happens unconsciously. Ask these to yourself, do you wake up at certain time every day because you have enough sleep? Or is it because already 05:00 AM? Or is it because the time for praying? When you know you’re in the middle of working, but absentmindedly you keep opening youtube and browsing very unrelated things to your work. What cue that exactly triggers such mistakes?

To identify a cue, we can use the same system as the psychologist use: Identify categories of behaviors ahead of time to scrutinize in order to see the patterns. Luckily, science offers some help here. Experiments have shown that almost all habitual cues fit into one of five categories.

          Location

          Time

          Emotional state

          Other people

          Immediately preceding action

My habit is not a complex one so I didn’t do this part so intensively. In my case, I got a pretty clear idea which cue was triggering my excessive tissue usage habit. The urge comes only when I need to clean anything quickly (when I wet my hands or when I dirt or spill something) and anything clean would work for it. But, for some dirt types that I know it will stain (ex: foods contain chilli or colouring agent), I still prefer to use tissue for safest option (because most of my towel is bright color and I don’t want to stain them T__T). Maybe later, I will buy a cotton cloth with a lot of motif and dark color, so I will not care about this point. Anyway, here is my complete habit loop!

STEP 4 : Have a plan 

When you’ve figured out your habit loop –the cue, the routine, the reward– you can begin to remake/renew your habit. You can change to better routine which delivers same reward you’re craving. The author explained that habit is a choice we deliberately make, and then stop thinking about, but continue doing, often every day. Habit is a formula in our brain that automatically follow: When I see CUE, I will do ROUTINE in order to get a REWARD. To re-design that formula, we need to make new choices. And the easiest way to do this is making a plan. When you are ready to make your plan, you need to train it so you can achieve it. Remember, it’s not a miracle thing that happens overnight!

Let’s review my previous example. I learned that what I really search to satisfy my craving wasn’t because I really need tissue in the first place. It was because I need to dry my hands and clean the dirt as quick as I can and tissue was the only option I had that time. As I experimented with the reward, I realized that anything clean will work for me. Since I frequently and properly wash my towel and handkerchief, I know they are clean. Thus, I made some plans:

I will bring handkerchief or towel wherever I go

I will increase options for reusable towels in my home

I will put towel near around my desk instead of tissue box

Surely it doesn’t work immediately like you may imagine. Whenever the urge kicks in, I HAVE TO REMEMBER those three points. I need to be conscious that I have other choices (If you want to be more strict, you can make alarm or write on post-it and paste it around your desk). Sometime, my habit takes all over again. But slowly, I realized that I’m making my progress. Sure, I still can’t live without disposable tissues, but I’m waaaay less consumptive than I was before. At some point in the future, I may don’t even need to remember all of it again and eventually it will be automatic to do such things. Now, it’s nearly 2 months and I’m still using only one tissue box! Couldn’t be happier about this!

     Last, a big question here: “When you think you NEED to change particular habits?”. I personally think you need to change a habit when you think it becomes a threat for yourself or people around you. For example: when you realized that your habit of eating too much instant foods and junk foods can lead to a lot of health problems. Or when you realized that your habit of sleeping late night can affect mood-swing and productivity during the day. Or when you realized your habit of excessive smartphone usage makes you so unproductive during your working time. Or maybe when you realized that your habit of buying your hobbies can make you so obsessive and broke you (in terms of priority, financial, health and mentality) at some point in the future. This habit change implementation is broadly applicable for a lot of things!

     This summary is just a small part of his book and I really recommend you to read the full book when you have time. It helped me a lot to understand and remake some particular habits I wished to change from a long time ago. When I decided to live a more sustainable lifestyle, I know this is one of the books I HAVE to read. Last but not least, to end this book review, here I share you my favorite paragraph of this book: “Once you understand that habits can change, you have the freedom – and the responsibility – to remake them. Once you understand that habits can be rebuilt, the power of habit becomes easier to grasp, and the only option left is to get to work.”

So, let’s grow some good habits! :)