The Magic Switch We’ve All Been Looking For

There’s been a lot of talk lately about Artificial Intelligence, or AI. It almost seems like magic. While artificial intelligence may have the ability to make our lives easier, we already have within our own minds a magic switch that’s existed for thousands of years. We just need to understand how that magic switch works. It’s called the Habit Loop.

Duke University researchers have indicated that over 40% of our day-to-day activities are habits. That means that nearly half of everything that we do every day is automated. It just sort of magically happens. It’s like there’s this magic switch in our brain that automates what we do. If we can figure out the details behind that magic switch, we can take back control of almost half our life which may currently seem like it’s out of our control.

One of my favorite books is called, The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg. In it, the author illustrates how habit loops are comprised of three things: a trigger, a response, and a reward. That’s the magic switch!

For example, we smell the tantalizing aroma of fresh coffee in the morning, that’s what triggers the switch. We pour ourselves a cup. That’s our response and how we flip the switch. We enjoy our freshly brewed cup of coffee. That’s our reward, or what happens when we flip the switch. That sort of thing happens over and over throughout the day, 365 days out of the year, for our entire life.

That’s why almost half our life is spent doing activities that are habits. We get triggered to flip the magic switch. Then we flip it. Then we get rewarded for flipping it. So, the best way to control the magic switch, and regain control of our life, is to unveil the details behind how that magic switch works.

One of the exercises I’ve found most useful in my career, and my clients have implemented this successfully as well, is something I call the activity tracker exercise. Here's how it works:

1. You set your timer to go off every 30 minutes from the time you wake up in the morning until the time you go to bed at night.
2. Each time the timer goes off, you write down with a pen and paper what you were doing for the previous 30 minutes.
3. Do this for 3 full days (or better yet, a week).
4. At the end of the 3 days, look at that notebook or paper and examine what exactly triggered you. You’ll see in black and white, on the paper how you responded to those triggers. 

This is a lot of work for three days, but I can guarantee you that it’s worthwhile. That’s because you’re investing three days of hard work to get back control of your entire life.

You’re delving into the details behind the magic trick of each habit loop in your life. Then you’re deciding if you want to keep using that switch in its current form, or not.

Once you figure out which habit loops are causing you the most stress, you can start to figure out how to set boundaries on them or swap out your response to them. This can be completely life-changing and super liberating. I hope you try it out!