Perhaps nothing has given me more insight into human behavior than observing my own child. My son is almost two years old now. Watching him develop up to this point has been truly fascinating.
He seemingly imitates everything, and with astonishing detail. Little things that I wasn’t even aware I did will be brought to my attention through his performances. Now he is also repeating everything I say. I really have to be careful because I’m not known for my flowery language. But most striking to me are his strong reactions to environmental cues.
He instantly desires certain foods he sees. Show him a pouch of pureed fruits and vegetables and he won’t rest until he gets one. I guess it could be worse. It’s the same with objects. Walking by our lawn tractor turns into an instant debate about why we can’t take a ride right now. It’s surprising how often the lawn tractor is either sick or sleeping, although he certainly gets his fair share of rides.
We all respond to cues
Adults aren’t any different than children. We probably don’t realize how susceptible we are to cues because we like to think we are in control of our own behavior. But we are certainly no less victim to the cues around us.
Show me an ice cold Coca-Cola Classic sitting in my refrigerator and it’s on my mind. I don’t keep cold ones sitting in my fridge for that reason. Give me a whiff of vegan sausage in the frying pan and my mouth waters. We all know what it’s like when our phone gives us a notification. The dings, bings, buzzes and rings make us crave the information awaiting us.
The evening news is a perfect example of how to leverage cues. At start of the program the news anchors give a brief overview of what the rest of the broadcast will contain. Throughout the newscast they will continue to litter bits and pieces of what is still to come. They know that giving you this information will create a craving to know the rest of the story. Therefore you’ll stick around and watch the entire show.
Why are cues so powerful?
Cues are the first, and arguably the most important, component of a habit loop. Habit loops are characterized by four distinct phases. The first is the cue. A cue signals to our brains that a past behavior or experience is about to occur. If this past behavior worked out well then you will have a craving to take action. If the past behavior was unfavorable you will have a desire not to act. Desire, positive or negative, is what gets triggered by a cue.
Then there is the action itself. The action you take, based on your previously established desire, is the third step of a habit loop. Finally, there is the reward for the action. If the reward is worth while then you will likely repeat the action. The reward is the final step of the habit loop.
Cues set this whole process into motion. Without the cue nothing else happens. There is no desire to act and therefore action isn’t taken.
How to take control
It might sound overly simple to say that the easiest way to bury a bad habit is to remove the cue. But it just might be that simple in some cases. Have a bad habit of going through the drive through on the way home from work? Try taking a different route. Getting distracted by your phone at work? Try shutting off notifications and keeping it out of sight. Staying up too late watching TV in bed? Try taking the TV out of your bedroom.
We all have a surprising amount of control to design our lives. We might not think that we have this control or maybe we haven’t even considered the possibility of it. Controlling cues is one of the easiest and most effective ways to bury a bad habit.
Big payoff
The cumulative effect of removing cues can be astounding. Let’s focus on the few examples I mentioned above. Skipping the drive through on the way home from work might only amount to skimming off 200 calories per night. But when you multiply that by 5 nights a week you’re left with 1,000 missed calories. Do this for 50 weeks out of the year and you’ve avoided 50,000 calories and lost almost 15 pounds of body fat! All of this happened because you took a different route and avoided a cue to go through the drive through.
Phones are a rabbit hole when it comes to productivity. Checking that one notification usually turns into checking other things too. We all know how it works. Let’s say every hour you’re pulled away from work for 5 minutes because of your phone. Multiplying everything out again leaves us with 40 minutes of distraction in an 8 hour work day. 5 days per week and 50 weeks a year leaves us with 10,000 minutes or over 165 hours of lost productivity.
I’ll keep it short with TV in bed because by now I’m sure you get the picture. Even just 15 minutes of additional TV per night results in over 90 hours of lost sleep per year. That’s 3.8 full days of missed sleep!
The big picture
Sometimes it helps to look at small daily habits over long time horizons. What seems insignificant in the moment can actually have a big influence on our lives. That just goes to show the true power of habits.
Burying a bad habit starts with burying the cue for it. Examine the behaviors in your life that you would like to change. Then search for the cues to these behaviors. I bet the cues exist even if you aren’t currently aware of them. Bury the cue and bury the behavior!
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