Chapter 5 of 10All chapters
Chapter 5 of 10
Environment
Friction and defaults.
Design the surroundings
Make the wanted behaviour easy to start and the unwanted one awkward. Put the book on the pillow and the phone in another room.
- People with apparently strong self-control mostly arrange to face less temptation.
- A twenty second delay is often enough to break an automatic reach.
Social environment
Habits spread through the people around you. Choosing groups whose default behaviour is what you want is more effective than resisting groups whose is not.