Loyalty cards for self-improvement
I came up with “habit cards” after researching how to support newly diagnosed diabetics.
Books on how to develop habits offer good advice but still have to compete with everyday life. When people are diagnosed with diabetes, they become stressed. Stress lowers our ability to take in new information.
By putting information “in the world” you take it out of your head, reducing effort for your brain.
Make your habit visible.
Some further reasons why people struggle with new habits.
Not making a new habit explicit.
Not making the new habit simple enough.
Not doing the habit routinely.
Underestimating the time it takes.
Lacking extrinsic motivation and support.
Fortunately, a simple solution exists - loyalty cards! OK, so it’s not exactly an espresso shot of willpower (we still need to provide that ourselves) but with a little science, it offers elegant, pocket-sized support.
Describe the habit.
Write your habit down as succinctly and specifically as possible. Describe the action, the effort and the frequency. “Practice playing the piano for 10 minutes every day”.
Track the habit.
Keep an honest record of doing the thing. Think of this as personal analytics - admin data that will allow you see what is happening over time.
Keep going.
Research suggests it takes months not weeks to build a new habit (66 days on average). I designed habit cards to track 3 “streaks” of 3 weeks (21 days) to make this manageable and provide pause for self-congratulation on progress.