18th May 2021 – day 54 of my personal 66 day challenge to become a blogger here on WordPress, while doing some research into the topic of habit formation.
Thomas Frank points out the habit formation can be stressful. To make it easier and more achievable, he suggests using the IF/THEN logic, that I mentioned yesterday, in order to bind the habit. Many habit formation gurus seem to favour this technique. I love IF/THEN logic and not only because it originated in Ireland, via the great English mathematician, George Boole : ) It makes such sense to me. Thomas uses the example of a complex board game to explain the conditional statements involved. I prefer to think of Monopoly – IF you pass GO, THEN collect £200 : ) Thomas also mentions the algorithms used on the internet, in order to drive our interest i.e. IF you seem to be clicking on a certain topic, THEN the algorithm will deliver more of the same. Marketing made easy!
Thomas recognises that we’re not automatons and that the IF/THEN technique might not work every time. However, with the help of environmental design, you will have more chance of success. I mentioned this in the early days of this blog. I’m going swimming tomorrow and the bag is ready already! Thomas really wanted to become good at pull ups, so he fitted a pull up device at the door to his home office. Bingo! My number 3 son David, wanted to practice the guitar, so he kept it close by, so that whenever the urge took him, he could pluck the stings to his heart’s content, even if it was only for a few minutes.
ADataStory 