Lesson 6 of 11
Prime Your Environment to Make Future Habits Easy
Sometimes readers ask me if it’s better to focus on one habit at a time or to build multiple habits. My answer is nearly always to focus on one habit. Not only is this simpler, but it also addresses an often overlooked aspect of habit formation: when you’re building one habit, you’re often building multiple habits.
Take the habit of eating healthier. There are actually a variety of habits involved in this process. You have to build the habit of going to the grocery store and shopping for new items, the habit of meal planning and deciding what to eat each week, the habit of chopping and prepping food each night, the habit of cleaning up after the meal, and so on. Eating a healthy meal is actually the easiest part. It’s often the preparation that causes you to quit.
This is true for many habits – not just eating healthy. One way to increase the odds that your habits will be performed is to walk into an environment that is ready for the habit.
I call this strategy “priming the environment.” That is, creating an environment that favors the habit that you’re trying to build.
Environment design, as we discussed in Lesson 4, makes the cues of good habits more obvious. Reducing friction, as discussed in Lesson 5, makes performing habits in the moment easier.
Priming the environment adds one more layer: it’s a way to make your future habits easier.
Here are some examples:
- Want to meditate more? Set up a comfortable, quiet place in your home where you practice meditation.
- Want to encourage your children to read more? Help them make a reading nook in their bedroom with some comfy pillows and plenty of age-appropriate reading material.
- Want to paint more? Set up your easel, paints, and brushes beforehand so you can walk in and get straight to work.
- Want to sleep better and develop a wind-down routine? Move your phone charger out of the bedroom and place a white noise machine, your favorite candle, and a couple of books on your nightstand.
Whenever you organize a space for its intended purpose, you are priming it to make your future actions easy. Now your environment is ready for immediate use the next time around.
Whether we are approaching behavior change as an individual, a parent, a coach, or a leader, we should ask ourselves the same questions: “How can we design a world where it’s easy to do what’s right? How can we prime our environments so our future habits are easier?”
Ideally, the actions that matter most should also be the actions that are easiest to do.
Week 2 Summary
- If you want to make a habit a big part of your life, you need to make the cue a big part of your environment.
- The less friction associated with a habit, the more likely it is to occur. Create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible. You want to make your good habits the path of least resistance.
- One way to increase the odds that your habits will be performed is to walk into an environment that is ready for the habit. Whenever you organize a space for its intended purpose, you are priming it to make your future actions easy.
Week 2 Progress Check-In
- It is now the end of the second week. At this point, you have a two-minute habit, a clear plan for where and when to add that habit into your life, and a series of small environmental changes that make it easier to stick to your habit each day.
That's all for Lesson 6. See you in the next lesson,
James Clear
Author of the million-copy bestseller, Atomic Habits
Creator of the Atoms: the official Atomic Habits app
p.s. If you want to tell a friend about 30 Days to Better Habits, you can use the sharing links below, or just copy and paste this URL to send to them: https://jamesclear.com/30-days
Helpful bonuses and downloads
- Workbook – This 18-page PDF includes an action checklist (including templates for key strategies) for each lesson of the course, plus lesson summaries and a key terms dictionary.
- Examples Database – The examples database is a Google Sheet of 140+ examples of how to implement each strategy covered in this course for dozens of different habits.
- Atoms. The Official Atomic Habits App – The digital companion to help you form new habits that stick. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
References and further reading
- For more on priming the environment, see Chapter 12 of Atomic Habits.
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How to use Atoms Focus Mode to prime your environment:
- Open Atoms and navigate to “Focus”
- Select a time and hit start
- You can toggle “Log habit instance at the end of a session” on and select a habit to automatically track your habit
- You can also add your own music while you focus
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