I will be perfectly open about the ulterior purpose of this blog post: I’m cheating a little bit so that I can maintain my streak of writing a blog post every work day.
In the interests of strengthening my writing habit and to pump up my presence in social media, I last month resolved to make a big leap from 1-2 blog posts a week to 5, or one every work day. So far, this is my 23rd in a row—but it has not come easy.
The common wisdom is that it takes seven days to make a habit permanent. I’ve never found this to be true for myself. To me, the two most crucial times for a habit are the first day and the fourth week. The first day is critical because you have to start some time. How many times have you procrastinated on starting something you really wanted to do, to the point that you never got started at all? Once I start, initial enthusiasm easily carries me through the first seven days and beyond.
If that enthusiasm can carry you all the way to the point where your new activity is solidly entrenched as a habit, you’ve got it made. But old ways die hard, and enthusiasm may run out before habit kicks in. Sometimes you have to find a way to straddle that gap, and that’s where cheating comes in. By cheating, I mean doing the minimum that technically meets your goal. Let’s say you’ve decided to exercise every day, but maybe you’re under the weather and don’t feel like dragging yourself to the gym: why not do a set of push-ups or sit-ups at home? It will only take a minute or two, and it’s only a small fraction of a full workout, but it’s an infinite multiple of nothing.
Sometimes, you might even find that the little bit you do is enough to overcome inertia and then you keep going. That’s actually what has happened with this post. I thought of the topic this morning only after this sequence of steps:
- I have no idea what to write about today.
- I go through my list of ideas that I’ve stored, but find all kinds of reasons against each one.
- I think it may not be so bad to miss a day; maybe it was a dumb idea anyway.
- I remember that I use the cheating trick with my workouts, and try to decide how I can apply it here.
- I’m not quite sure how this ties in to persuasive communication, sales, or clear thinking, but I figure it’s close enough.
- I begin this article, hoping I can get out a paragraph or two.
- Once I get this far, I’m actually starting to get into it, so I start digging a little further…
Charles Duhigg, in his excellent book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
I wrote previously about personal kaizen, and it’s great to constantly improve a little every day. But some days it’s victory enough not to regress, even if you have to cheat a little to win. Of course, I’m not advocating cheating every time, because all that will instill is a habit of mediocrity. But keep in mind that you can’t win the game unless you’re in it.
For years, I have habitually purchased office equipment and supplies from Office Depot. Whenever I needed something, rather than comparison-shopping or thinking carefully about my choices, I would automatically get into my car and drive to their nearby store. I also have other purchasing habits as well. You’ve probably figured out by now that I buy lot of books, and my habit is to log on to Amazon, place my order, and either read it immediately on my Kindle or, if I prefer a hard copy, get it within two days with free shipping.
It’s probably the same for you, regardless of the store or the category of goods. Once you get into the habit, you tend to stick to it. And, as Charles Duhigg tells us in his fascinating book, The Power of Habit, forward-thinking businesses invest a lot of research into finding ways to change our habits to their benefit. They look for ways to create self-reinforcing habit loops, in which a cue (low on office supplies), triggers a routine (get in car and drive to store), that leads to a reward (customer satisfaction).
Yet, those who live by habits can also die by habits, if they don’t pay attention to the details that can cause their customers to stop acting automatically and take a moment to think for themselves. Another powerful psychological phenomenon is that Bad Is Stronger than Good: and one bad experience (negative reward) can undo a lot of good ones. That’s what happened to me at Office Depot today.
I went to buy ink for my printer, not because I had an immediate need, but because I received a cue in the form of a $15 coupon in the mail towards printer ink. Unthinkingly, I performed my usual routine and drove to the store, expecting my reward (peace of mind of knowing I won’t run out of ink in the middle of a major project). Instead, what I got when I came to the checkout counter was:
“I’m sorry, you can’t use this coupon.”
“Why not?”
“It’s only good for printer ink, not toner.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Ink is liquid, toner is powder.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“No.”
“I’ll buy it somewhere else, then.”
So, I came home and activated my other habit loop, which I had never done before for office products, and logged on to Amazon. I found the brand name cheaper even than if I had been able to use the coupon; but, since I was now in a thinking mode, I decided to break another habit and buy a remanufactured cartridge, saving much, much more. Then, I figured while I was on there to look at other office supplies. It never occurred to me that I can also buy pens and paper there, too!
Companies pay the big bucks to the smart people on the front end to figure out how to entice customers, and then forget to take care of the person who actually talks to the live customer. Customer loyalty is the Holy Grail of business, yet it is one of the most fragile assets you can have, and one that retail companies entrust to poorly paid workers who receive little or no customer service training and have zero power to exercise their own judgment.
So I’m not upset with the clerk. Actually, I’m not upset at all, because I now have a new habit which will save me a lot of money; so thank you, Office Depot, for ticking me off! (And thanks for suggesting a topic for today’s blog post)
