The Quick and Dirty 20 Second Rule
You can design your environment to help you develop new habits and quit bad ones.
The thing about willpower is that it runs out, so we often have to play small games with our minds to get them to do what we want.
The "20 Second Rule" is a great trick to save your willpower for bigger and better things.
Here’s Shawn Achor explanation of the rule:
"…those 20 seconds of extra effort it took to walk to the closet and pull out the guitar had proved to be a major deterrent. I had tried to overcome this barrier with willpower, but after only four days, my reserves were completely dried up. If I couldn’t use self-control to ingrain the habit, at least not for an extended period, I now wondered: What if I could eliminate the amount of activation energy it took to get started?
Clearly, it was time for another experiment. I took the guitar out of the closet, bought a $2 guitar stand, and set it up in the middle of my living room. Nothing had changed except that now instead of being 20 seconds away, the guitar was in immediate reach.
What I had done here, essentially, was put the desired behavior on the path of least resistance, so it actually took less energy and effort to pick up and practice the guitar than to avoid it.
I like to refer to this as the 20-Second Rule because lowering the barrier to change by just 20 seconds was all it took to help me form a new life habit."
What things can you move closer to where you work to make you more productive?
What distractions (that deplete your willpower reserve throughout the day) are within 20 seconds of your desk?