“I don’t have the time!” How often have we heard these words ushered in vain when attempting to keep up with a new gym routine or healthy eating plan? Numerous theories have been proposed as to why we feel this squeeze of time when taking on new tasks outside of our habitual daily patterns. We are inherently susceptible to underestimating how long particular tasks take, even ones that we complete daily. Technology has enabled us to remove the guesswork with commuting and long journeys using live traffic data and journey time estimation, but even these can go array. The likes of Elon Musk profess his remarkable productivity is built around structuring his day into 15-minute blocks. Indeed, if you are prone to procrastination or are easily distracted then this method could be helpful. When working online, I use a browser extension called ‘Pomodoros’ to help keep me focused on the task in hand, chunking time into distinct blocks of ‘work’ and ‘rest’. Rest means cognitive rest and physical movement. In reality, this means I get up and go for a short walk, have a drink of water and relax my mind before continuing. The methodology employed here is to utilise the time we have set aside already (the working day) and work more effectively by taking breaks. This goes against our idea of logic. How could taking 10 minutes out of each hour possibly make me more productive? Thankfully there is a fair bit of research in this area, quickly summarised in a quick, informative Nature article.
This is all well and good for tasks that we are obliged to undertake, such as work, but what about new tasks we want to bring into the day foray. How do we make it easier to keep up with them and make them feel part of our lives? For most people, work is non-negotiable. You will need to be present in the office at a certain time each day. This time is in effect protected, free from other activities. We place a high value on this time as the consequences of time away from work are serious. Consider for a moment if you were to set clear boundaries with other blocks of time that were not work-related. That 3-mile run you love to do, that always leaves you feeling happier, clearer and in a better mood. Who says that shouldn’t hold the same value as your email to Janet about stock levels? Having a basic understanding of how our brains and bodies work can give us some clues as to why most people place such little value on the lifestyle habits they so want to implement.
Willpower is a finite resource that depletes linearly throughout the day. That is to say, you should, Eat the Frog or complete your most important tasks early in the day. Don’t expect to feel any more motivated to go for a run when you get back from work when it's dark and dinner is in the oven. Every decision we make requires willpower. Important decisions and tasks should be scheduled from the morning if you want the biggest return for your efforts.
Knowledge is rarely an issue when it comes to the majority of lifestyle change. You already know that processed food is not helping you lose weight. You appreciate that walking somewhere is better than driving. You understand why exercise is important for health. As explained beautifully by the Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahnemen, we have 2 ‘selfs’; our experiencing self and remembering self. Our remembering self is the slow, rational, conscious mode of thinking and tells the story of how we think about an experience. The experiencing self is made up of short moments, around 3 seconds long. We tend to remember significant moments mid-way through an experience and in particular the ending, which typically colours our memory of the entire experience. The relevance here is we make most of our decisions based on the remembering self which has a strong bias towards storing negative, intense moments. The person rustling crisps through a poignant scene in a film can make the whole film seem average as we struggle to contextualise the experience as a whole. The relevance here is two-fold. Can we accept that when taking on a new task we expect to a) Not be masters of that task on our first try? And b) That our initial experience may not elicit many if any, positive memories despite many positive moments (unconsciously incompetent stage of learning) and knowing this, can we then contextualise the situation? That memory of being humiliated at school sports day when you dropped the baton in the relay race. Or embarrassed in the playground when you dropped the ball in front of your whole class. Prospect theory and loss aversion, both economic concepts presented again by Kahneman, explain how we remember and feel losses more than their equivalent gains. Understanding these concepts can give us an insight into the discrepancy between what we think we should be doing and what we are doing.
Overthinking is another common trait of someone wrestling to incorporate a new habit or activity into their lives. We’ve all met the person with good intentions, ‘One-day I’ll…’ Although on the surface, the desires and motivations of these people are high, their relentless rumination over the intricacies ultimately cripples them from making any forward progress. Realising the difference between motivation and commitment is critical when building new tasks and forming habits. Commitment is action. Commitment is signing on the dotted line, entering the race, lacing up your trainers and leaving the front door. Commitment is visible, tangible and can be quantified.
Armed with the knowledge, it's now time to look at some actions that you can put in to practise. Consider sitting down and reflecting on the past 2 days. Where did you time go? Keep in mind you’re brain’s bias’ as explained before, and also consider we are terrible at estimating time spent on tasks! If you are an adult over the age of 25 your days will undoubtedly be jam-packed with various work, social or parental commitments, without a smidgin of time spare. Now consider for a moment that you could design your perfect day. What would it look like? The likelihood is your perfect day contains lots of activities that are of high value to you, intrinsically motivating and support your core belief system. These are the types of activities that it would be wise to try and incorporate into your week, a concept supported by self-determination theory. Sadly, our screen-based world doesn't foster an environment where this type of slower thinking is encouraged. Our appeal to novelty is real and it's a real challenge to resist the temptation of new fads. The ‘perfect day/week’ exercise is something I’ve completed with around 60 people and the answers almost always fall into 3 distinct categories. Every person has a strong desire to work 3-4 days each week. Interestingly, only a few wished they had no work to do. Almost everyone I spoke with included some form of physical activity in their perfect week. This ranged from a long dog walk on the weekend to playing squash with friends. Eating dinner together as a family or couple was another feature.
After the awareness stage, I would suggest taking some time to understand your ‘default settings’. Appreciate that priorities need to be set to engineer an environment that promotes and supports habit change. Once back from work, you enter a phase of discretionary time, free to do what you wish. If you intend to cook a tasty meal, your kitchen needs to be in such a way that it is easy for your slice, boil, bake and serve without spending 30 minutes washing up and cleaning.
Be realistic. Cooking food takes time. If your goal is to eat better (motivation), expect to have to invest more time (commitment).
Avoid absolutes. Lifestyle change shouldn’t be a case of adding new things in, taking other things away. If we’re realistic, we need to appreciate that we have certain things we must do each day and some things we do which are optional. An example might be a TV series. Instead of just stopping watching it, why not combine it with cooking. Put catch-up on your laptop and slice vegetables in the kitchen at the same time. Make a phone call to a loved one when out for a walk.
Despite how you may feel, rarely what you are trying to achieve is impossible. But understanding your biology, biases and behaviours is a reasonable place to start.
Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman.
Some ideas used have been previously presented by Simon Marshal