PLAN, SCHEDULE & PLACE

By: Jack Guyler

One of the most overlooked aspects of building habits that stick in your life is the actual process or practical way we put these habits into action in our lives. We have good intentions about dropping old habits and starting new ones. But often we get discouraged when we fail to create new habits and then we quit. We often think we were lazy or unmotivated. However, how we create new habits is essential.

To create a new habit, you first need to write down (or put it in your phone or laptop) what you want to do. Then you need to schedule it – actually put it in your calendar or put it somewhere you can see it. And then finally, you need to find a place to execute your habit. Let’s look at a few examples. How many times do we bump into an old friend and say, “It’s good to see you…It’s been awhile…maybe we can get together some time.” While this sounds good, it will probably never happen. Why? Because you really don’t want to see them? No, because you didn’t plan for it. However, if you agree to a date and a place to meet, then it will probably happen. Let’s take creating the habit of getting healthier. Wanting to get healthier is a good goal, but just wanting to won’t get you healthy. You have to make a plan as to what you want to do (what foods you’ll eat, what type of exercise you will do, etc.) initially. Then you have to schedule times to eat the foods you prepare and to go to the gym to workout. What you have done is plan, schedule and designated a place. This gives you a far greater chance of getting healthier and developing healthy habits than just wishing or hoping you’ll get healthy.

James Clear states, “No behavior happens in isolation. Each action becomes a cue that triggers the next behavior.” [1] I have friends who tell me, in order for them to work out early in the morning, they have to put their work out gear right next to their bed. This gear serves as a cue so when they wake up, they see it and it prompts them to get up, get dressed and go the gym. Without this cue that prompts them, they would just roll over and go back to sleep. It’s not discipline alone that gets them out the door but rather they have put a plan, schedule and place into their life. These serve as cues to remind them what they are to do, when to do it and where to do it - this is the birth of a new habit.

The cues to help us must stand out. They need to be obvious and in our face. For example, if you want to eat healthy, then you must surround yourself with healthy food options and reduce or eliminate the unhealthy foods. Part of any plan we make to create new habits must be creating a space, place or environment for that habit to grow because ENVIRONMENT MATTERS!

It’s not by accident that productive workers usually work in positive environments. Clear says it this way, “the most common form of change is not internal, but external: we are changed by the world around us. Every habit is context dependent.”[2] In other words, if we are going to create habits that stick in our lives that will benefit us, then we need to plan for them, schedule them and find a place to execute them. One final example, if you are planning to pass an important exam, then you need to plan what and how you will study, then schedule it in your calendar and then find a place in your house (preferably not where you sleep or watch TV) that says “this is where I study and don’t do anything else.”

TAKE AWAY: Habits are born when we are intentional about making a plan, scheduling the time to work on the habit and find a place to do it.

1 – Atomic Habits, p. 73

2 – Atomic Habits, p. 83