The Happiness Advantage - Principle #6 - The 20-Second Rule
This week we will look at Principle # 6: The 20-Second Rule
No this is not a how long can you eat a hotdog after it has fallen on the floor article. It is about habits and how to use these to our advantage.
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Background
Essentially, we are ‘mere bundles of habits’. We all have habits. Good habits and bad habits. I know that I have the habit of turning on the TV as soon as I get home. It doesn’t matter if I was intending to watch TV, the switches just go on on my return.
While most of us try to do ‘good things’ through willpower, Achor argues that willpower is not the way. He argues that it is ineffective at sustaining change because it gets worn out.
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We also choose the path of least resistance. We can have all the intention in the world to get home and study but when the remote is so much easier to get to, we end up sitting down and watching TV. And if we have Netflix, maybe even watch an entire season!
Evidence
As you can imagine there is plenty of evidence to back this up.
When people were told to watch a comedy without laughing and then solve difficult anagrams they gave up quicker on the anagram.
Advertisers also use it. When you buy things with a mail-in rebate, how often do you actually go to the effort to get the rebate.
We call it the lazy tax.
Toolkit
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Save Time by Adding Time
Use the 20-second rule to your advantage. Add 20 seconds to things you are trying to avoid to increase resistance.
If you are trying to avoid email, keep the application closed while you work.
If you are trying to avoid TV, take the batteries out of the remote and put them 20 seconds away.
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Sleep in Your Gym Clothes
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To increase the likelihood of doing something, reduce the barriers.
Sleep in your gym clothes so you have to get up and go to the gym.
Set Rules of Engagement
This involves setting simples rules for your life. This makes decisions ahead of time to remove the stress or having to make the decision each time we come to the same decision point.
You could have a rule to only check your email once an hour.
Conclusion
We often believe that willpower is the way to positive change and then tell ourselves, the reason we insert ‘bad’ thing here is because we have no willpower.
However, often what we do is due to habits. Once we learn this and how we can use these habits to our advantage, we can start to make real changes. We often follow the path of least resistance and this is something we can use.
Try increasing resistance for things we trying to avoid by adding 20 seconds to these tasks. Try decreasing resistance for things we want to promote. Try decreasing resistance for making good decisions by making rules in advance.
How do you promote ‘good’ habits in your life?
