This week, we will choose a beneficial habit we want to increase in our lives and a harmful habit we want to reduce. We will make the useful habit easier to perform in 20 seconds, and the harmful habit harder and engaging with an extra 20 second effort.

 

What is the 20-second law, explanation and examples:

You can say that most of us are naturally lazy, and that's ok, it is what it is. The problem is that when we're in a lazy mood, we don't have the motivation and excitement to do things that require a little more effort.

On days like this we tend to do what is most comfortable, easy and available. This is our "default" - "default choice".

 

Default in the context of electronic equipment means:

How things work when you start using them, in case we haven't made any changes.

The idea of the 20 second rule is to use our lazy nature to our benefit.

In his book "The Advantage of Happiness" Sean Baker describes his struggle. He wanted to play guitar more and watch less tv. He saw that his wish was not enough. He noticed that to play the guitar he had to take it out of the closet and then out of its case. On the other hand, to sit and watch TV required no effort from him.

 

What was he doing?

Puts his guitar on a stand in the living room next to his chair. He used the same trick for his second leg too, he took the batteries out of the TV remote. He actually made playing guitar easier and more comfortable (in 20 seconds), and watching tv harder.

He called it the 20 second rule.

 

The idea behind the law: The hardest part of any action is the required beginning - a certain "activating energy". It's actually the effort we put in before we take action. For example - the effort involved in putting on jogging pants, socks and shoes before the running itself.

The 20-second rule aims to reduce the activation energy required before any positive habit, so that it is easier for us to start it. And from the opposite direction, increasing the amount of running energy before the leg is harmful that we want to reduce, to make it less accessible to us.

Good luck to everyone in the election and implementation of the law.

Tell me what you picked and how it went!

 

Photo credit: stable diffusion