The Influence of Environment on Habit Formation
In the process of forming useful habits and getting rid of bad habits, motivation alone is not enough. According to James Cleary, it is much more important to optimize the environment, which will facilitate the change and formation of habits.
People behave as their environment dictates, because behaviors are often responses to external signals. For example, if we always have our phone near us, we will spend more time on social networks.
We mentally attribute our habits to the places where they occur: home, office, gym. Each place develops an association with certain habits and routines. You can change the spaces where you live and work to increase your exposure to positive signals and reduce your exposure to negative ones.
A stable environment, where everything has a place and a purpose, is an environment where habits can easily be formed.
If you want to make a habit a big part of your life, you need to make it a point to focus on it in your environment. These cues will make you think about the habit throughout the day and make it more natural to do. For example, if you want to read more, put books in a visible place.
How can you use your environment to improve your habits?
✅ Create an environment that makes it easy to do the habits you want.
✅ Make good habits easy; the easier they are to do, the more likely you are to stick to them.
✅ Make bad habits difficult; if your phone is in another room, you will be less tempted to check social media.
✅ If something is easy and accessible, the more likely you are to do it.
Remember, the environment should serve the purpose, not the other way around! If you set up your environment correctly, good habits will naturally form.