

What the Research on Habit Formation Reveals about our Willpower - LeonW
http://blog.bufferapp.com/what-the-research-on-habit-formation-reveals-about-willpower-and-overall-well-being

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natasham25
I never trust just my willpower, so I trick myself into habits that I want.
Want to eat healthy? Only have healthy food at home (no cookies). Want to be
productive and not go on Facebook or Hacker News or Twitter? Install Self
Control, and have these websites blocked. Want to get out of bed right away?
Keep your phone far away from bed, etc. I found this works a lot better than
putting myself in the path of tempting bad habits and relying on willpower to
ignore these.

~~~
stephengillie
I tried your method, it was a recipe for disaster for me.

Want to eat healthy? Eat so much bad food that you get tired and bored with
it. Want to be productive and not goto facebook? Find something you want to do
so badly that you forget facebook. Want to be productive and not goto HN? Go
there and read every article on the first page for 2 weeks, then become bored.
Want to fall asleep upon entering your bed? Stay awake until you're tired --
if this means you'll be too tired for work, then you need to change your
schedule, or find a way to work tired.

\---

Visualize Jack Sparrow's compass -- it always points toward what you want. But
compasses are balanced metal bars, with the magnetic end pointing toward, and
the other end pointing away from what you want. Visualize the rod bending in
half, so both ends point toward what you want. Now do this with your wants.

~~~
CamperBob2
_Find something you want to do so badly that you forget facebook._

An underrated point, IMHO. When I find myself constantly surfing or otherwise
distracting myself, there is invariably a good reason for it: I'm not that
into what I'm doing at work. I wouldn't be any good at it if I _did_ force
myself to do it.

Excessive self-distraction is not a problem: it is a symptom of another
problem.

------
danso
> _By developing a new positive habit, such as regular exercise, a meditation
> practice or making your bed in the morning, you will immediately reap the
> direct benefits of the new habit. On top of this you will also increase your
> willpower and naturally implement better behaviors across many aspects of
> your life, including health and social activities._

Having a brain-fart here...but this calls to mind the famous study in which
_it seemed_ that altering the color of the walls positively affected workers'
mood...when it was the perception of change -- *that is, the subjects reacting
positively to the idea that managers cared enough to repaint the walls to
improve working conditions -- that was bringing about the positive mood
change.

So by entering into a new habit, you will automatically feel better because
you're implying, to yourself, that you care enough to try something new.

~~~
SatvikBeri
You're probably thinking of the Hawthorne effect[1]. It's like a placebo
effect for productivity experiments. It basically says that when employees
were being observed (as part of an experiment to boost productivity), their
productivity would increase even if no other changes were made. So you have to
control for the Hawthorne effect to see the impact of other changes.

That said, the Hawthorne effect is short-term, so you could measure the impact
of building willpower and habits by looking at how people perform over a year.
I imagine that this has been done, but I don't know of any studies off the top
of my head.

[1]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect>

~~~
danso
Yep, but sometimes that short term boost can be what helps you finally commit
to a long term practice.

