Opinion: Tiny Habits by Engr. Carlos Cornejo (Cebu)

A GOOD book on helping us accomplish hard to do goals or tasks is the one authored by BJ Fogg entitled “Tiny Habits.” 

According to Dr. Fogg, our ability to accomplish a hard task is proportional to our degree of motivation towards it.  If the task is hard, it requires a high level of motivation.  If the task is easy, it requires a low level of motivation.  He made an example of a hard task such as rescuing your child from a burning building.  Even if there is great danger and risk since the motivation is high, you will still undertake the action.  

An example of an easy task on the other hand would be brushing our teeth.  Since it requires little motivation to do it, even if we are sleepy and would want to go to bed right away, we would still do it because it demands small effort on our part.  A task will likely get done if it requires lesser effort.  The idea Dr. Fogg is trying to get across is that if a task is big then we should break it into smaller tasks so that it requires lesser motivation (unless of course you already have that big motivation.)

Dr. Fogg made an example of breaking a big task of daily planning to just writing one to-do item in an index card since that is a very easy thing to do.  I would add an example to this by breaking down a dreaded activity that most students would dislike, that of studying for an exam or doing a school project.   

I would recommend to students to break their study period to 25 minutes chunks and 5-to-10-minute rest in between.  This is also known as the Pomodoro technique, a management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980’s.  Instead of letting your mind focus on the need to study 2 hours straight or work 3 hours on a project, your mind will relax because 25-minute study or work is very much doable.  Focus then in doing the 25-minute chunks until your reach the allotted study hours needed or once your project is finished.  

Dr. Fogg’s second step is the so-called action prompt.  He says that there are three kinds of habit prompts that reminds us to do already our planned task: (1) external prompt such as post-it notes, phone notifications or alarms, (2) internal prompts or personal prompts such thoughts or sensations that remind us to act, like a grumbling stomach, (3) action prompts: the completion of one behavior reminds us to start the next behavior. 

For example, loading the dishwasher can be a prompt to clean the kitchen countertops.  He says that the most effective prompt is the action prompt because it gives us the momentum to move to our next task.  Both the external and internal prompts are distracting and de‐motivating. If you use an alarm to prompt your task, you’ll need to stop what you’re doing and pivot to your task.  

Dr. Fogg gives us an example of action prompt that he practices to be able to exercise daily.  When he arrives at home from work, he uses the action prompt of entering his room to get his gym clothes to start exercising.  To make him plan well his day, when he sits down on the train going to his workplace, he opens his smartphone.  We too can choose from the many actions we do every day to designate it as an action prompt to accomplish our task.  

Lastly, his third recommendation is to always celebrate your accomplished task since it will boost your confidence and motivation to do the habit and build success momentum.  

Time spent on social media, watching a film, or chit chat time with friends can be used as a reward for having completed our job.  Often times these are the activities that could make us waste our time but we can turn it into something good by making these as an action prompt to celebrate.  In this way rest becomes more satisfying for having done what we are duty bound to do, which brings us to a good motto in life to have: duty first before pleasure.