Hacking my Habits

I've read a lot about habit formation, and how useful it is to focus on that rather than willpower to do the right thing. I've developed a bunch of habits, including intentionally adding specific ones. We learn, a habit is a loop composed of three things: Stimulus, (re)Action, Reward. Most of our habits are developed unconsciously, and I've learned to observe my behavior, analyze what's going on, and then try to change that loop by breaking the reaction to the stimulus, or avoiding the stimulus altogether. But I've also thought of what habits I want to cultivate, and worked to find the stimulus and reward that change me from thinking about it to just doing it.

I'm convinced you can teach an old dog new tricks, and for me, flossing is Exhibit A. Flossing is a habit probably most of us hear about from our dentists. For me, pretty much before three years ago, I simply didn't floss. I lied to the dentist, "oh yes, I floss once a week" when really I didn't even do that. Every time I went to the dentist, I was ashamed of lying to them, and they warned me about great teeth and bad gums, and begged me to floss. So one day, about a month before my regularly scheduled 3-4 times a year trip to the dentist, I suddenly decided on an experiment. I would floss every day before the visit and see if they could tell, if it really made a difference. I had seen in the store new things for flossing - little furry picks, and sticks with the string strung already. They seemed silly and wasteful, compared to just wrapping string around your fingers, but hey, they were new, and I like new, so I got some. And every day, I flossed. But I didn't just try to remember. I plugged the actions into my morning nearly zombie-like ritual. After the shower, open the medicine cabinet, grab a q tip, then grab a flossing device, then grab the tooth brush. Stimulus: grab the q tip. Action: grab the new silly flossing sticks, floss. Reward: it kind of felt good in the moment, but would it make a difference?

It is really amazing to me what a stir I caused in the dentist's office! The hygienist was all, "Wow, you are really doing something different here! This is amazing! This cleaning is so much easier! I can't wait to show the dentist!" and he was all "Well done!".  I preened myself under their praise, feeling silly at how pleased I was. The habit stuck, and now, a couple of years later, the big reward: we've reduced the number of visits I need to make, a real financial boon.

I've chained a few other early morning habits together - I reach for the deodorant, and then the lotion right next to it. Again, an existing habit is the stimulus, and there is a small reward that intrinsicly comes from the action itself. Things I consistently forget in the morning I'm trying to make into ritual habits, done in the same order, so I don't have to think.

I am stupidly bad at taking my medicine. I'm pretty healthy, but I started taking a twice daily drug for arthritis a year ago, and I've tracked how I feel when I do and don't take it, and I'm convinced it makes a difference, and yet I often miss it. I also have been told by my doctor to take some supplements - Vitamins B and D - but I'm extremely bad at taking those. I have no aversion to the medicines and supplements - just not into the habit yet, despite years of trying. I take tylenol for pain with no hesitation - but the reward of feeling better is closely tied to the act of taking it. These medicines and vitamins are more removed from how I feel, the effect, if any, is removed in time from when I swallow them.

I've had a ritual for a couple of years of recording my medicine intake and then checking in with my body and recording how I feel. This is what has allowed me to decide they do make a positive difference - going back and looking at the results. And yet, my performance in taking them is less than stellar. I'm better at tracking than doing, so it's time to hack this issue.

I got a nice, colorful pill box so I can tell if I took the pills or not. I set one up for my mother every week, and I decided this would help me, because I often simply couldn't remember if I took it or not. But often I would reach for it again and find I hadn't. So good but insufficient.

I have a couple of apps (of course) on my phone I use for tracking meds and physical pain. I grab my phone as I walk from my car to my office at work in the morning. I grab my phone to track if I took my meds, and it's too late if I didn't. The meds are home. So useful to track, but maybe I need to chain the tracking to the taking. Rocket science! Possible breakthrough!

I've been through a couple of iterations of how to do this - when to track to make this work. My morning ritual starts slow, then ends in a rush to get out the door. I have a nominal but not enforced time to get to work, but with my new, busier, job I have found it's useful to get out the door earlier, and the traffic is significantly better with an even 15 minute push. So I keep pushing the attempt to hang this habit on something earlier and earlier, before the mental rush happens.  Not there yet, but this is going to work.

This is a lot of words for a very tiny habit, and set of habits. But I think habits are what are going to carry me through times of stress and busy-ness, clearing away stress to allow more important things to get done.