Objective:
- Improve my existing habit: "Waking Up".
- I want the habit to reinforce getting out of bed and not fall back to bed.
- Get practice analyzing Habits.
To better understand how habits works, I recommend checking this post:
Waking Up - Case Study
This was my habit loop for when I wake up in the morning.
Problem Stage:
Cue: Phone Alarm Rings at 7:00am near the side of the bed.
Craving:
- Current State: Alarm Blaring (Annoying, Uncomfortable, Noisy)
- Desired State: Silence (Peaceful)
- Craving (Problem): Alarm making loud noise
Solution Stage:
Response: Grab the phone -> Swipe to disable the alarm.
Reward: Immediate Silence
What was the problem with this habit loop?
If you go back to the habit loop, I was able to satisfy the craving: "Alarm making loud noise" by reaching the phone and turning off the alarm within arm reach. There was no reason for me to get out of bed.
Waking Up 2.0
In this new habit loop, we want the habit loop to reinforce waking up with getting out of bed. To do this, we want to make "getting up and walking to the alarm" part of the solution to the craving. This is known as temptation bundling - Linking an action you want to do with an action you need to do.
In this case, action you want to do: "Wake up and Get out of bed" and the action you need to do: "turn off the alarm".
This is the new habit loop
Problem Stage:
Cue: Physical Alarm Clock rings at 7:30am near the Desk.
- Why this is better?: The physical alarm clock is louder and the location of alarm is not easily accessible. You're force to get up to disable it.
Craving:
- Current State: Alarm Blaring (Annoying, Uncomfortable, Noisy)
- Desired State: Silence (Peaceful)
- Craving (Problem): Alarm making loud noise
Solution Stage:
Response: Get out of bed, turn on the light, turn off the alarm.
Why this is better?: You're reinforcing getting up from bed, and turn off the alarm. You literally can't turn off the alarm without getting up and going to the alarm. Additionally, the lights tells your body: "Hey, it's morning. time to wake up".
Reward: Immediate Silence