Atomic Habits — Part 6 and 7

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atomic habits environment over willpower self study focus productivity moms shopping trick

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Indeed, I have recently realized that the efficiency of self-study at home is extremely low because this familiar environment can trigger too many habits. However, the efficiency of self-study when going out to work is much higher.
确实，我最近也意识到了，在家自习效率极低，因为这个熟悉的环境能触发的习惯太多了，然而出门工作自习效率都会高很多
His proficient and authentic English expressions are amazing enough. It is rare to see an up owner with such a wide range of knowledge sincerely. The energy of knowledge he interprets is very beneficial! Thank you for sharing [off single doge] Come on [make a call] [make a call] [make a call]
熟练地道的英文表达已够惊艳，知识面如此广泛的up主，着实真心不多见，所解读的知识能量，让人受益匪浅！谢谢分享[脱单doge]加油[打call][打call][打call]
1. How people are affected by the environment when shopping, and how to develop good habits by creating a favorable environment. Vision is the strongest human sensory ability, so the environment has an important influence on our behavior. 00:01 - The author likes to go grocery shopping with her mother 01:20 - Economist Hawkins Stern proposed the suggested impulse buying theory in 1952 02:17 - The author believes that creating an environment is more important than self-discipline because we can create an environment for ourselves. 2. How to change
一、人们在购物时如何受到环境的影响，以及如何通过创造有利的环境来养成好习惯。视觉是人类最强的感官能力，因此环境对我们的行为有着重要的影响。 00:01 - 作者喜欢和妈妈一起去杂货店购物 01:20 - 经济学家霍金斯斯特恩建议在1952年提出了暗示冲动购买理论 02:17 - 作者认为创造环境比自律更重要，因为我们可以为自己创造环境的理念二、如何通过改变

Transcript

0:00I really like going grocery
0:01shopping with my mom.
0:02I feel like that's a mutual
0:04habit that she and I share.
0:06And since the earliest
0:07that I can remember,
0:08whenever we go buy something
0:10in the grocery store,
0:11she would always do this weird
0:12thing of bending down and looking
0:14on the very bottom shelf.
0:16And I would ask her,
0:17mom, what are you doing?
0:18And she would tell me
0:19that she's looking for high-
0:21quality but low-price products.
0:23My mom's a very expressive person.
0:24She goes on this rant about how
0:26grocery stores usually put their more expensive
0:29stuff at eye level and also in
0:32areas that are more conspicuous.
0:33And if you want to buy
0:34things that are cheaper and better,
0:37you actually want to look in
0:38areas harder to reach.
0:39For example, if you want to buy
0:41milk that has a later expiration date,
0:43you'll want to look beyond the one
0:45that's at the very front of the
0:46shelf and look in the back.
0:48And if you're choosing between
0:49similar products like a toothpaste,
0:51you don't want to look
0:52right in front of you.
0:53You want to go to the very
0:54bottom where it's really hard to reach
0:55and that's where you find
0:56all the good stuff.
0:57I've always thought that was very interesting
0:59and I did pay attention to how
1:01things are laid out in grocery stores.
1:02And because she mentioned it, I noticed
1:04that grocery stores do lay out their
1:06products exactly like my mom described.
1:09What I didn't know is that there's
1:10actually some theoretical basis behind this whole
1:13game between the store and the customers
1:15and it's called suggestion impulse buying.
1:17It is a theory that the
1:19economist Hawkins Stern suggested in 1952.
1:22It is used to describe the
1:23tendency that people have of more
1:25likely to buy things that are
1:27more available to them.
1:28The takeaway here is that
1:30we as human beings are
1:31subject to our environment.
1:32Despite our individual differences and our
1:35personalities, preferences,
1:37we're heavily affected by
1:38the environment that we're exposed to.
1:40Psychologist Kurt Levine wrote the simple equation
1:42that makes a powerful statement.
1:44Behavior is a function of
1:46a person and their environment.
1:48Or in mathematical terms,
1:50B= f(P, E) .
1:52We are perceptive to our
1:54environment, and what we perceive
1:55in turn affects our behavior.
1:57And out of all the
1:58sensory abilities that we have,
2:00vision is the strongest one.
2:02Every individual has about
2:0411 million sensory receptors
2:06and out of those there's 10
2:08million that directly pertains to sight.
2:10For this reason, a small change in
2:13what you see can lead to a
2:15big shift in what you do.
2:17Therefore, it makes sense for us
2:18to live in an environment where
2:20we are exposed to more productive
2:22cues and less unproductive ones.
2:25And I believe that this
2:26is a pretty enabling statement
2:27because we don't have to
2:28be victims of our environment.
2:30We can also create the
2:32ideal environment for ourselves.
2:33How?
2:35Make cues of good
2:36habits visible and obvious.
2:39Make the cues obvious.
2:41We tend to notice
2:42cues that stand out.
2:43For example, if you want
2:44to make sure that you
2:45have your vitamin every day,
2:46you want to put your vitamin bottle
2:48where it is more noticeable for you.
2:50What I personally do is that
2:51because I have to take
2:52my vitamin in the morning,
2:53I always put it right on the
2:55counter where I have my breakfast.
2:57If you want to have more water,
2:58prepare water bottles in advance
3:00and put them everywhere in your room so that
3:02you can see.
3:02I want to drink more water
3:04and I usually don't drink enough.
3:05And I have one water bottle
3:07that I keep in the kitchen
3:08most of the time.
3:09But yesterday I brought a tea
3:10cup to this room and I
3:11had it on my table
3:13and I noticed when I was
3:14looking at the recording from yesterday
3:15that in the very short period
3:17of time that I recorded
3:18I picked up the cup 3
3:20times and took a sip.
3:21And it was because the
3:22cup was right here and
3:23it was visible to me.
3:25Because the cue was obvious,
3:26I was reminded of that behavior.
3:28Not necessarily because of any motivation change,
3:31but because the environment has changed.
3:32And if you want to make a
3:33habit a big part of your life,
3:35you want to associate it with a lot of cues
3:37and make those cues very noticeable too.
3:39One personal example is reading.
3:41When I first tried to pick
3:43up the habit of reading during
3:45college, I carried a book everywhere
3:47with me in my bag.
3:48I used my bag a lot during
3:49the day when I was waiting for
3:50the bus, or when I was sitting
3:52down at a restaurant, or when I
3:54was simply waiting for a friend to
3:55show up.
3:56Whenever I opened it, I would
3:57see the book right there.
3:58It was really convenient for me to
4:00pick it up and read it.
4:02It served as a visual reminder
4:03for me to continue reading the
4:05chapter that I was reading before.
4:08And one thing I would like
4:09to bring up here as well
4:10is that you don't want to
4:11mix your cues too much.
4:12You want to keep your cues separate.
4:14For example, I don't personally like reading
4:16my books on iPad so much
4:18because the device can be
4:20also used for different functions.
4:21How many times have you picked up
4:23your phone for something but ended up
4:26doing something else completely different?
4:28Personally, I'm that person that would always
4:31get distracted by the latest notification that
4:33pops up on the phone.
4:34I need my phone for
4:35work from time to time
4:36and whenever I'm working on my
4:37laptop and have something that I
4:39have to perform on the phone,
4:40I would pick it up and
4:41then very soon get lost in
4:43whatever interesting thing that showed up
4:45and I'll start scrolling or
4:46just chatting with people
4:48and 5 minutes later
4:48I would suddenly realize:
4:50Why am I holding my phone?
4:51What am I doing right now?
4:53And I just couldn't remember
4:54why I'm holding the phone.
4:55But right after I put it down
4:56and go back to my laptop again,
4:58I immediately remembered,
4:59oh, I was supposed to use
5:01my phone to receive a verification code
5:03or send this important work
5:05message to my colleague.
5:07So the point is that
5:09habits or your behaviors are tied to
5:12specific cues and contexts
5:14and you want to train yourself
5:15to tie a specific context with
5:18one specific habit one-to-one.
5:20You don't want to mix
5:21the cues too much
5:22because it causes your brain a
5:23lot of confusion if one cue
5:24can trigger multiple responses.
5:27So for example, when I
5:28was in college, I used
5:30my bed for multiple purposes.
5:32I would do my homework there,
5:34I would also watch shows
5:36I also go to bed
5:37obviously in my bed
5:38So it's used for 3
5:39purposes: work, entertainment, and resting
5:42And because of that, it
5:43was very hard for me
5:44to separate those 3 functions.
5:46I would lie in bed at
5:4711 but my brain would get confused,
5:50because it starts to pattern-match with all
5:52kinds of different behaviors.
5:53And because of that, I may end up
5:55watching a show or staying on
5:56my phone talking to friends.
5:58I may end up reading more.
5:59So my bedtime during undergrad was consistently
6:02pretty late,
6:03around 2 a.m. to 3 a.m.,
6:05which is not healthy at all.
6:07And in law school,
6:09my bedtime significantly improved.
6:11I actually fell asleep at around
6:1311 p.m. to 12 a.m.
6:15The latest that I go
6:16is probably 1 a.m.
6:18But that's a very rare
6:19exception and I very hardly
6:21do any homework in bed.
6:22One way that you can develop a
6:24good habit is to start fresh.
6:26When you go to a new environment,
6:28your bad habits don't come with you,
6:30because you don't have all
6:31these cues in the environment
6:33to trigger these behavioral responses.
6:35That (changing environment) could be harder to
6:37do because of realistic limitations.
6:38You may not be able to afford it,
6:40or you already have
6:41a routine that is very hard
6:43to go to a new place.
6:44If that's the case, you can
6:45still redefine or rearrange your existing
6:48environment so that you can designate
6:51one location to one activity.
6:54As I mentioned, in law school,
6:55I went to bed 2 hours
6:57earlier compared to undergrad.
6:59I didn't have enough space to have
7:01a separate study room, and school was too
7:04far for me to travel to,
7:05and there were no libraries around me.
7:07So it was most convenient
7:08for me to still use
7:09my bedroom for multiple purposes.
7:12But I was able to redesignate my
7:14desk area as the study area,
7:17even though it was probably 5 to
7:1810 steps away from the bed,
7:20but it was repurposed for studying,
7:22so that when I sat down there,
7:24I knew that I
7:25was supposed to study;
7:25and when I go to bed,
7:26I know that it's dedicated
7:27for just that purpose.
7:29And that allowed me to disentangle
7:31those different actions so that I
7:33know exactly where to perform what.
7:35And that made my actions
7:36much more controllable and conscious.
7:38So I would recommend
7:39you the same too.
7:40If your space is limited, try to
7:42designate each small area to one activity.
7:46You can designate your chair for reading,
7:48your desk for studying, or
7:50even the floor for entertainment,
7:51and you can use your
7:52bed just for sleeping.
7:54I really like this example
7:55that the book gives
7:57Some scientists did this experiment
7:59with a couple of insomniacs.
8:01Whenever they couldn't fall asleep,
8:02they were told to move to a
8:03different room until they feel sleepy.
8:06And only then could they
8:07go back to the bedroom.
8:08And after a while,
8:10they started to associate
8:11the idea of the bed with feeling sleepy
8:15they actually fell asleep more easily
8:17in the bedroom after this experiment.
8:19The takeaway here is that every
8:21habit should have a home.
8:22If you want a stable and consistent behavior
8:24to happen,
8:25you want to create a stable
8:27and consistent environment for it.
8:29And continuing on with my bar prep story,
8:31after we graduate from law school,
8:34you're supposed to take this bar exam,
8:36which is an exam that qualifies
8:38law students to practice the law
8:40in the United States.
8:41I actually started my preparation pretty late.
8:44Most people usually spend around
8:458 to 11 weeks or
8:4612 weeks for the preparation.
8:49I personally only saved myself 7
8:51weeks of time to prepare.
8:52So I was already on a time crunch.
8:54And when I first started, in the first
8:562 weeks I was extremely not productive.
8:58I would still meet up with my
8:59friends every week and we would compare
9:01notes on each other's progress.
9:03And I realized that not
9:04only did I start later,
9:06I was studying slower
9:07and I was way behind
9:08other people when they were
9:09already halfway through the course.
9:12I only started the first 1/8
9:15So that really made me panic
9:16and I started to realize that my
9:18study method was not working well.
9:19I was studying in my
9:20bedroom at the time
9:21and I sat at the desk
9:23that I designated for studying
9:25but there was just still
9:26too many distractions around me.
9:28If I felt the
9:28slightest bit of hunger,
9:30I would walk directly
9:31to the living room,
9:32open the fridge and
9:33start looking for snacks.
9:35And if I feel a little tired,
9:36I probably would just roll
9:37directly into bed and take
9:39a nap for 2 hours.
9:40Time just evaporated very fast
9:42and a lot of the
9:43times when I was sitting
9:44in front of the desk,
9:45my mind would just wander.
9:46It was hard for
9:46me to stay focused
9:48because I only had 5
9:49more weeks and I had
9:5075% of the material unstudied.
9:53And I didn't want to fail
9:54the exam because it was so
9:56important to my professional career.
9:58So what I did was that I
9:59started going to the coffee shop across
10:01the street from my home.
10:02That really helped me a lot.
10:03Immediately when I got there,
10:05I realized that there was no
10:07distraction in the new environment.
10:08There were no cues that
10:10would trigger familiar behavioral reactions.
10:12The environment was full of new cues
10:14and it was up to me
10:15to rebuild these new patterns
10:17So I just associated everything with studying.
10:19There was a desk close to
10:21the window with just green plants
10:23around and nothing else
10:25So it was pretty quiet and calm
10:27and I would associate that
10:28spot with focused learning
10:30And I actually have this little
10:33Pomodoro clock.
10:34Every time I go there,
10:35I would put it on my desk
10:36and I would just put a 25
10:38minute timer on this little clock and
10:40it will ring right after 25 minutes.
10:43And once it rings, it means
10:44that I have 5 minutes of
10:45free time to take a break.
10:47And I would use that break
10:48time to go to the bathroom,
10:49and then I would walk around in
10:51the coffee shop a little bit,
10:52and then I'll walk around the block.
10:53And that's more or
10:54less exactly 5 minutes.
10:56And I'll go straight back to
10:57the desk and study again.
10:59It was a very clean and efficient
11:02process with no time wasted at all.
11:04And it felt very good
11:05because these 3 hours were equivalent to
11:07studying in front of my desk in
11:09my bedroom for 7 or 8 hours.
11:11So I was usually able to get most
11:13of the reading done in the morning.
11:15And in the afternoon, I used that
11:17time for more diffuse thinking or doing
11:20exercises, practice questions, et cetera.
11:22And I would say that that was
11:24what saved me in my bar exam.
11:26In case you were wondering,
11:27I was able to pass the
11:29Texas bar exam among the top
11:3110-15% of all candidates.
11:34So that really turned out well,
11:35especially given that I spent
11:37probably around 100 to 300
11:40less hours than my peers,
11:42but I was still able to
11:43pass with a high grade.
11:45What I learned from
11:46that experience was that
11:47I was able to focus
11:48not because I became more disciplined
11:51all of a sudden due to the pressure,
11:52but because I realized that I
11:54could not trust myself with willpower.
11:56I'm very easily tempted
11:57and I would very easily give
11:59in to all the interesting things
12:01in my environment and not study.
12:03So what I did instead was
12:04that I just removed myself from
12:06an environment full of temptations into
12:08this new environment with no temptations
12:11that are immediately visible to me.
12:13If you want to break a bad habit,
12:15use the inversion of
12:16the first law of behavioral changes.
12:18Make it invisible.
12:20Reduce exposure.
12:21Remove the cues of your
12:23bad habit from your environment.
12:25I like this chapter (7), The
12:26Secret of Self-Control, a lot
12:28because it clarifies a lot of
12:30mindset or misconceptions that people have.
12:33He said that if you're overweight,
12:34a smoker, or an addict,
12:35you've been told your entire life
12:37that it's because you lack self-control.
12:40Maybe even that you're a bad person.
12:42The idea that a little bit of
12:43discipline would solve all our problems
12:45is deeply embedded in our culture.
12:47So we tend to believe that
12:48if we have bad habits,
12:50it's because we have weak willpower.
12:52Those people that have good control of
12:54themselves are able to do so
12:56because they have strong willpower,
12:58and they're more disciplined or
12:59they're better people than us.
13:00But that is not true.
13:02The reason why some people seem
13:04to be more disciplined than others
13:05is because they don't allow themselves to
13:07be exposed to those kind of environments.
13:10You may be able to succeed resisting
13:12temptations one or two times,
13:14but it's very unlikely that you can do it
13:16consistently every single time.
13:18So eventually most of us will
13:20be carried away by the environment.
13:21But what about training our willpower, our
13:24grit or discipline to make us more
13:26resistant to those temptations in life.
13:28Isn't that valuable?
13:29James Clear is of the belief
13:31that if you have that energy,
13:33you might as well expend it
13:34on changing your environment to allow
13:37good habits to happen more easily,
13:39rather than to use the
13:40same energy on exercising willpower.
13:42You have limited mental energy and
13:44it's up to you to choose
13:46which one to use it on.
13:47And using that energy to create a
13:50better environment for yourself
13:51ensures a higher
13:52likelihood of success for your desired behavior.
13:55This is the secret to self-control.
13:57Make the cues of your good
13:59habits obvious and the cues of
14:01your bad habits invisible.
14:03What's a bad habit that
14:04you wanna get rid of?
14:05And what is your plan
14:06for making the cues that
14:07might trigger it more invisible?
14:10I would like to hear
14:11your stories in the comment.
14:12If you're interested in building better habits,
14:14make sure to like the video and
14:15subscribe to the channel to make sure
14:17you get notified on the latest content.
14:19In future episodes, we're going to have
14:21a lot of more interesting topics to come
14:23such as how to make a good habit irresistible,
14:24how to stop procrastinating
14:27using the two-minute principle,
14:30how to automate a habit so that you never have
14:31to think about it again,
14:33and also how to make a habit contract with
14:35your accountability partner.
14:37And I'll see you again next time.

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