2430: Engineer Your Environment for More Productive Habits by Tyler Tervooren of Riskology on Encouraging Your Habits

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[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_02]: This is Optimal Health Daily, episode 2430.

[00:00:33] [SPEAKER_02]: Engineer Your Environment for More Productive Habits by Tyler Tervooren of Riskology.co

[00:00:40] [SPEAKER_02]: and I'm Dr. Neal, your host.

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Hey there and welcome back to another bonus Sunday episode.

[00:00:46] [SPEAKER_02]: This is where I share an episode from one of the other podcasts in our network

[00:00:49] [SPEAKER_02]: where we read articles to you.

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_02]: Today's post comes from my brother's podcast, Optimal Living Daily

[00:00:55] [SPEAKER_02]: where articles covering mindfulness, personal development and minimalism are read to you every day.

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_02]: You can find and subscribe to or follow that podcast

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_02]: by searching for Optimal Living Daily wherever you're listening to this.

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_02]: And with that, here's my brother Justin as we optimize your life.

[00:01:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Engineer Your Environment for More Productive Habits by Tyler Tervooren of Riskology.co

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_01]: 1970s America faced a big problem.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_01]: The Vietnam War was winding down and the troops were coming home, addicted to heroin.

[00:01:34] [SPEAKER_01]: There was widespread panic and a plan was concocted.

[00:01:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Addicted troops would be held until they'd sobered up, then sent home with methadone prescriptions

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_01]: and carefully monitored for relapses.

[00:01:46] [SPEAKER_01]: But the plan was never really implemented.

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Turns out it wasn't necessary.

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_01]: The troops came home and for the most part, kicked their addictions

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_01]: and reintegrated into society.

[00:01:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Less than 5% of them ever relapsed.

[00:02:01] [SPEAKER_01]: A simple change of scenery cured their addiction.

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Decades of follow-up research has uncovered why.

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_01]: The environment you exist in, what you're surrounded by,

[00:02:12] [SPEAKER_01]: has a profound impact on the way you behave.

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Different environments encourage different habits.

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Your habits are a product of your environment.

[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_01]: What do you think about when you sit down at your computer to read your email?

[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Probably nothing.

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Once you've done something enough times in the same place,

[00:02:30] [SPEAKER_01]: your brain can offload all the work it takes to remember how to do it.

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Checking your email seems like the simplest task, but it really isn't.

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_01]: To understand why, imagine you time traveled here from 100 years ago.

[00:02:43] [SPEAKER_01]: You've never seen a computer.

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_01]: What are all the steps, movements and information you'd have to learn

[00:02:49] [SPEAKER_01]: before you could read your email?

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_01]: How long would it take just to figure out how to turn your computer on?

[00:02:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Yet, here you are.

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_01]: When you sit down at your desk, your habit takes over

[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_01]: and you're inside your inbox before you know it.

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_01]: That's the way habits work.

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_01]: At the same time, if you're not in front of your computer

[00:03:06] [SPEAKER_01]: and your phone is put away, you're probably not thinking about email.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_01]: You can go all day in fact without it crossing your mind.

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_01]: But as soon as you sit down at your computer again, boom.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_01]: There you are reading your email.

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_01]: There's a special connection between the things you do

[00:03:22] [SPEAKER_01]: and the places you do them.

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_01]: This is critical to know if you have a bad habit you want to break

[00:03:27] [SPEAKER_01]: or a productive one you'd like to start.

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_01]: To change a habit, change your environment.

[00:03:35] [SPEAKER_01]: I keep a pretty strict work schedule.

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm able to make progress on my most important projects every day

[00:03:40] [SPEAKER_01]: despite not having a boss to dictate my priorities or set deadlines.

[00:03:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Of course, some days are easier than others

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_01]: and on the hard ones there's one place I can always go to work without struggle

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_01]: a coffee shop.

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Over time, I've created some psychological link

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_01]: between being in a coffee shop and being productive.

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_01]: When I show up,

[00:04:00] [SPEAKER_01]: priorities magically become more clear

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_01]: and hard work becomes easier.

[00:04:04] [SPEAKER_01]: I usually find myself feeling this way at Starbucks,

[00:04:07] [SPEAKER_01]: it's convenient, but it could be any similar cafe.

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Time and again, I've turned to a coffee shop

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_01]: in my most desperate moments of procrastination.

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Eventually, my body and mind got used to being productive in those spaces.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_01]: If I had turned to a bathtub or a nightclub instead,

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_01]: those places probably would have produced the same result.

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_01]: Habits both good and bad

[00:04:30] [SPEAKER_01]: can also be tied to the feelings and circumstances

[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_01]: that come with an environment.

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Wendy Wood, one of the lead researchers of the heroin-addicted soldiers of the 70s,

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_01]: makes the case that once certain feelings associated with an environment,

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_01]: it can drive your behavior whether you want it to or not.

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_01]: We don't feel sort of pushed by the environment, Wood says,

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_01]: but in fact, we're very integrated with it.

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_01]: This explains why a soldier suffering the love war

[00:04:57] [SPEAKER_01]: can be addicted to heroin halfway across the world

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_01]: but when they return to stability at home, the problem disappears.

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And it gives a clue to why giving homeless people houses leads to a similar outcome.

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_01]: It's harder and less effective to break a drug addiction in the same environment

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_01]: that produced it in the first place.

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_01]: All that to say, if you want to stop wasting time in the morning,

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_01]: the first step is to find a different place to go when you wake up.

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Do this now.

[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Identify your trigger environments.

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_01]: To break a bad habit, figure out where you tend to be when you do that bad habit.

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Your environment is taking over for your brain

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_01]: and until you figure out where these things happen,

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_01]: you'll be relatively helpless to change them.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Number one,

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_01]: attempt to waste time between tasks when you're on your computer?

[00:05:46] [SPEAKER_01]: Try working offline for your most important tasks.

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Number two, can't focus when you're in a cubicle?

[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Find an empty conference room or head to a coffee shop.

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_01]: And number three, always make mistakes when you work from home?

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Put your clothes on and go to the office for mission critical work.

[00:06:04] [SPEAKER_01]: When you identify where you're most likely to do the things you wish you wouldn't,

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_01]: you'll improve your odds of actually stopping.

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_01]: And the same holds true for creating new productive habits.

[00:06:15] [SPEAKER_01]: If you want the best shot at starting and sticking to a habit,

[00:06:18] [SPEAKER_01]: pick a spot where you'll always do it.

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_01]: You just listen to the post titled,

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_01]: engineer your environment for more productive habits

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_01]: by Tyler Tvoron of riskology.co

[00:06:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you to Tyler, great tips and reminder here.

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_01]: This is exactly why the minimalists encourage us to limit what goes in our bedroom.

[00:06:43] [SPEAKER_01]: It's harder to sleep if you have a TV and cell phone getting your attention.

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_01]: But if your bed becomes a place where you sleep and not check email or watch TV,

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_01]: then our bodies get used to that routine or habit

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_01]: and we have an easier time falling asleep and sleeping better.

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_01]: This is also how I like to treat my workspace.

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll have my phone with me, but when I'm working on our podcast, for example,

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_01]: my tension is on that because if I end up fiddling around with my phone,

[00:07:09] [SPEAKER_01]: everything takes twice as long and maybe even longer.

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I've caught myself checking my phone while I'm editing a podcast before

[00:07:16] [SPEAKER_01]: and then what happens is I'll miss something and have to go back a minute

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_01]: and relisten, but the time it takes to go back to figure out where I stopped paying attention

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_01]: takes time, relistening takes time, and getting back into the groove takes time.

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Instead, if my workspace becomes a place of focus, not only am I more efficient,

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_01]: but then as Tyler talked about, my mind goes into work mode whenever I'm in that space.

[00:07:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's kind of cool how that works out.

[00:07:44] [SPEAKER_01]: So think about your environment today, see what you can change,

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_01]: small things that can make the difference in productivity and healthy habits.

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Have a great rest of your day and I'll be back tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.