Environment Is More Important Than Motivation

People often buy something not because of what it is, but because of where it is. Suppose I walk into the kitchen and see a plate of cookies on the counter. In that case, I'll grab half a dozen and start eating, even if I wasn't thinking about cookies and wasn't necessarily hungry. If doughnuts and cakes are always on the shared table at work, it will be hard not to grab one now and then. Your routines change depending on where you are and what you see.

Environment is the unseen force that shapes how people act.

Despite our unique personalities, certain behaviours tend to arise again and again under certain environmental conditions. Most people whisper when they're at a funeral. People are wary and careful on a dark street.

In this way, the most common change is not something inside us, but something outside us: the world around us changes us. Every habit is context dependent.

Kurt Lewin, a psychologist, wrote a simple equation in 1936 that says a lot: Behavior is a function of the person in their environment, or B = f. (P,E).

Lewin's Equation wasn't used in business for long before it was put to the test. In 1952, an economist named Hawkins Stern wrote about a thing he called "Suggestion Impulse Buying." This is when a shopper sees a product for the first time and thinks about how much they need it. In other words, customers will sometimes buy things they don't want just because they like how they are shown.

For example, people tend to buy more of the things that are at eye level than those that are closer to the floor. Because of this, expensive brand names are put in easy-to-reach spots on store shelves because they make the most money, while cheaper alternatives are put in places that are harder to get to. The same is true for end caps, which are the units at the end of aisles. End caps are great places for stores to make money because they are easy to see and get a lot of foot traffic. For example, 45 percent of Coca-Cola sales come from end-of-aisle racks.

If a product or service is easy to find, you are likelier to try it. People drink Starbucks because it is on every corner. We like to believe we're in charge. We assume that if we choose water over fizzy drinks, it's because we wanted to. But the truth is that many things we do daily are based on the most obvious choice, not on what we want to do.

Every living thing has its way of figuring out what's happening around it. Eagles have amazing long-range eyesight. Snakes can smell because their tongues are so sensitive that they can "taste the air." Sharks can pick up on tiny amounts of electricity and vibrations in the water that fish make. Even bacteria have chemoreceptors, which are tiny cells that can sense chemicals that are harmful to them.

The sensory nervous system is in charge of how people perceive things.

We can see, hear, smell, touch, and taste the world around us.

But we can also sense things in other ways. Some of them we are aware of, but most of them we are not. For example, you can "notice" when the temperature drops before a storm, when the pain in your stomach gets worse when you have a stomachache, or when you lose your balance while walking on rocky ground. Your body has receptors that pick up on a wide range of internal signals, such as the amount of salt in your blood or the need to drink when you're thirsty.

On the other hand, vision is the most powerful sense we have.

About 11 million sensory receptors are spread out all over the body.

About ten million of those are used to help people see. Some experts say that seeing uses up about half of the brain's power.

Since we use our eyes more than any other sense, it shouldn't be surprising that visual cues are the most important way to decide what to do. Because of this, a small change in what you see can make you do something very different. So, you can see how important it is to live and work in places full of helpful cues and free of those that aren't.

There is, however, good news about this. You don't have to let your environment control you. You can also help make it happen.

Every habit starts with a cue, and cues that stand out are more likely to be noticed. Unfortunately, the places we live and work often make it easy for us not to do certain things because there is no clear sign to make us do them. When the guitar is in the closet, it's easy to forget to play it. When the bookshelf is in the corner of the guest room, it's easy to not read a book. If your vitamins are in the cabinet, it's easy to forget to take them. When the triggers for a habit are subtle or hard to find, it's easy to ignore them.

In contrast, clear visual cues can help you focus on a habit you want to form. In the early 1990s, the people who cleaned the urinals at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam put a small sticker on each one that looked like a fly. When men went to the urinals, they aimed for what they thought was a bug. The stickers helped them aim better and cut down on "spillage" around the urinals. After more research, it was found that the stickers cut the cost of cleaning bathrooms by 8% per year.

Here are a few ways you can change your environment to make it easier to pick up on your favourite habits:

Put your vitamin bottle right next to the sink on the bathroom counter. This will help you remember to take your vitamin every morning.

Put your guitar stand in the middle of the living room if you want to play your guitar more often.

If you want to drink more water, fill a few water bottles every morning and put them where you are likely to see them.

Make the cue a big part of your environment if you want to make a habit a big part of your life. Most behaviours that last for a long time have more than one trigger. Think about all the different things that could make a smoker reach for a cigarette: being in a car, seeing a friend smoke, being stressed at work, etc.

You can use the same method to get into good habits. By putting triggers all over your environment, you make it more likely that you'll think about your habit during the day. Make sure that the best choice is the one that stands out the most. When the signs for good habits are right in front of you, it's easy and natural to make better choices.

Environment design is powerful not only because it affects how we interact with the world, but also because we rarely do it. Most people live in a world that was made for them by someone else. But you can change the places where you live and work so that you see more positive cues and less negative ones. Environment design lets you take control and make your life what you want it to be.

Be the one who makes your world, not just the one who lives in it.

The clue is in the setting.

At first, the cues that make you do something can be very specific. Still, over time, your habits become linked not just to a single cue, but to the whole situation in which you do it.

We associate our habits with where they happen, like the home, the office, and the gym. Each place becomes linked to certain routines and habits. You have a certain relationship with the things on your desk, on your kitchen counter, and in your bedroom.

How we act is not determined by the things around us, but by how we relate to them. This is a good way to think about how your environment can change your actions. Stop thinking that everything around you is made up of things. Start thinking of it as full of people you know. Think about how you move through and use the spaces around you. One person reads for an hour every night on her couch. For someone else, the couch is where he sits after work to watch TV and eat ice cream. People can have different memories of the same place, leading to different habits.

What's good? You can teach yourself to connect a certain habit with a certain situation.

In one study, scientists told people who couldn't sleep to only go to bed when tired. If they couldn't fall asleep, they were told to sit in a different room until they got tired. Over time, the people in the study began to connect their bed with sleeping, making it easier for them to fall asleep quickly when they went to bed. Their brains learned that the only thing that happened in that room was sleeping, not looking at their phones, not watching TV, and not looking at the clock.

Context also shows an important strategy: it can be easier to change habits when you move to a new place. It helps you avoid the subtle cues and triggers that lead you back to your old habits. Go to a new place, like a different coffee shop, a bench in the park, or a corner of your room you rarely use, and start a new routine there.

It's easier to build a new habit in a new setting than when other things are happening around you. If you watch TV every night in your bedroom, it can be hard to go to bed early. If you always play video games in the living room, it can be hard to study there without getting distracted. But when you leave your normal environment, you stop acting like you did. You aren't fighting against old environmental cues, which lets you form new habits without being stopped.

Want to think of things in new ways? Move to a place with a bigger room, a rooftop patio, or a building with a lot of space. Take a break from where you work every day, which is also tied to how you think right now.

Are you trying to eat better? You probably don't think much about what you buy at your usual grocery store. Try a different supermarket. When your brain doesn't know where unhealthy food is in the shop, it may be easier to stay away from it.

When you can't move to a completely new place, try redefining or rearranging the one you're in. Make sure you have a separate place to work, study, exercise, play, and cook. "One space, one use" is a good motto.

When I started as a business owner, I often worked from my couch or the kitchen table. Evenings were hard for me because I didn't want to stop working. There was no clear line between when work time ended and when personal time started. Was the table in the kitchen my office or where I ate? Was I relaxing on the couch or sending emails? All of the events took place in the same place.

After a few years, I finally rearranged the house and organised a little separate office for myself. Work became something that happened "in here," and personal life became something that happened "out there." When there was a clear line between my work life and home life, it was easier for me to turn off the work part of my brain. Each room was mostly used for one thing. The kitchen was where food was made. The office was a place to work.

If you can, don't mix the context of one habit with that of another. When you switch between different situations, your habits will change, and the ones that are easiest to do will usually win out. This is one reason modern technology can be used in many different ways is both a strength and a weakness.

Your phone is a powerful tool because you can use it for many different things. But when you can do almost anything with your phone, it's hard to link it to just one task. You want to get things done, but every time you open your phone, you're trained to look at social media, check your email, and play games. It's a mix of different things.

You might say to yourself, "You don't get it. I live in Dublin. I only have one room and it has to be used for more than one thing." All right. If your room is small, try to put a chair for reading, a desk for writing, and a table for eating in different places. You can also do this with your online spaces. Use the computer to write, a tablet to read, and a phone for social media and texting. Every habit needs a place to live.

If you stick to this plan, each situation will start to remind you of a certain habit and way of thinking. When things are always the same, habits tend to grow. When you're at your work desk, it's easy to pay attention. When you're in a space made for relaxing, it's easier to do so. When sleep is the only thing going on in your bedroom, you fall asleep quickly. If you want stable and predictable behaviours, you need a stable and predictable environment.

Habits are easy to form in a stable place where everything has a place and a reason for being there.