Setting Up Your Environment for Better Habits

Most people rely on motivation to build better habits—but that’s a trap. Motivation fades. Willpower runs out. What really shapes your behavior is your environment. The cues around you, the friction (or ease) of each decision, and even your digital spaces all quietly influence your daily actions. If you want your good habits to stick, you need to stop relying on discipline—and start designing your space for success.

When you are trying to develop good habits, the environment you have set up for yourself can make or break whether you succeed. You want to give yourself the biggest chance of success. It can really help when your surroundings are at their optimal settings.

Keep your environment clutter free. There is nothing worse than trying to focus on good habit development than having to fight through a wall of clutter. If you are looking to be more productive, for instance, it won’t help if you are spending a good portion of your day looking for where you put things. Clutter has a negative psychological effect on people. It limits your space.

It’s not just physical clutter that’s a problem. Virtual clutter can be just as problematic. If you are spending lots of time wading through emails or searching your disk for files that you saved weeks ago, this is just as limiting as sifting through papers on your desk. There is even such a thing as phone clutter where people spend too much time talking on the phone.

Organization is going to be a big help in reeling in clutter. Come up with a good system for both the physical and the virtual assets. There are plenty of books and seminars that exist to help you get a handle on the clutter problem. You can look at solving your clutter problem as developing a new habit.

Another important aspect of your environment is mental. If you are stressed out, this is going to take away from your ability to develop good habits. You’ll focus on what is stressing you out and it will become your central target. Without taking the proper measures to reduce that stress, it will be difficult to make any progress with your habit development.

There are several ways to reduce stress. The first is to take steps to resolve any situations that you have control over which are causing you to be stressed. If your bills are getting out of hand, imagine how you would feel if all your bills were paid. You can lower stress by imagining a good outcome instead of concentrating on the negative. For stress that is caused that is not within your control, consider such activities as exercise and meditation. While these won’t take away those stressful situations, it will make them much easier to manage them. Both of these activities have been proven to help your mind and body reduce the effects caused by stress.

You don’t need to overhaul your entire life overnight. Small shifts in your surroundings can quietly support massive personal change. Whether it’s removing a trigger, placing a positive cue in sight, or changing the flow of your routines, your environment is either working against you—or doing the heavy lifting. Make it your ally, and habit change gets a whole lot easier.

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