You can disrupt a behavior you don’t want by removing the prompt. This isn’t always easy, but removing the prompt is your best first move to stop a behavior from happening.

If you want to successfully change a behavior, don’t try to change the behavior by itself. Change the structure that influences or supports the behavior, and the behavior will change. If you don’t want to eat ice cream, don’t buy it in the first place.

EXPLORE WAYS TO STOP A HABIT The Fogg Behavior Model applies to all types of behavior change. In this exercise, you’ll explore simple ways to stop a habit. Step 1: Write down three habits that you’d like to stop. Try to be specific. For instance, write “Stop buying soda for lunch” rather than “Stop drinking soda.” Step 2: For each habit, think of ways you might remove (or avoid) the prompt. If you can’t think of anything, that’s okay. Move on to the next step. Step 3: For each habit, think of ways to make it harder to do (ability). Step 4: For each habit, think of ways to reduce your motivation. Step 5: For each habit, select your best solution from steps 2, 3, and 4. Extra Credit: Put your solution into practice.

The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change:

What gets rewarded, gets repeated. What gets punished, gets avoided.

Don't reward behavior you don't want to see repeated.

EXERCISE #1: EXPLORE WAYS TO STOP A HABIT The Fogg Behavior Model applies to all types of behavior change. In this exercise, you’ll explore simple ways to stop a habit. Step 1: Write down three habits that you’d like to stop. Try to be specific. For instance, write “Stop buying soda for lunch” rather than “Stop drinking soda.” Step 2: For each habit, think of ways you might remove (or avoid) the prompt. If you can’t think of anything, that’s okay. Move on to the next step. Step 3: For each habit, think of ways to make it harder to do (ability). Step 4: For each habit, think of ways to reduce your motivation. Step 5: For each habit, select your best solution from steps 2, 3, and 4. Extra Credit: Put your solution into practice.

Using Anchors is a great approach to designing prompts because anyone can do it. There’s no need for fancy watches or whizzy apps to prompt new habits. You can do it yourself more effectively, and you will discover how transformative a simple design hack can be. The power of after is not magic, it’s closer to chemistry. Combine the right behaviors with the right chronology, and, poof, a new habit is created.

Make the behavior so tiny that you don’t need much motivation.

Interrupt your thoughts of "I should", with your action of doing.

I experimented with keeping negative distractions more than twenty seconds away with a lot of success. For example, I noticed that as soon as I moved unhealthy snacks to more than twenty seconds away from where I worked, I stopped impulsively snacking almost immediately.

Here’s the punch line: You can break a habit, but you’re unlikely to forget it. Once the mental grooves of habit have been carved into your brain, they are nearly impossible to remove entirely — even if they go unused for quite a while. And that means that simply resisting temptation is an ineffective strategy. It is hard to maintain a Zen attitude in a life filled with interruptions. It takes too much energy. In the short-run, you can choose to overpower temptation. In the long-run, we become a product of the environment that we live in. To put it bluntly, I have never seen someone consistently stick to positive habits in a negative environment.

In dog obedience school we learned that if you want an undesirable behavior to go away, you stop paying attention to it.

every habit is made up of a cue, a routine, and a reward. The cue is a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use. Then there is the routine — the behavior itself — which can be physical or mental or emotional. Finally, there is a reward, which helps your brain figure out if this particular habit is worth remembering for the future.

How to Break a Bad Habit Inversion of the 1st law (Cue): Make it invisible. Inversion of the 2nd law (Craving): Make it unattractive. Inversion of the 3rd law (Response): Make it difficult. Inversion of the 4th law (Reward): Make it unsatisfying.

• writing style → prompt
• coding style → prompt
• color system → prompt
• design system → prompt
• brand guidelines → prompt
• a11y requirements → prompt
• compliance & legal → prompt
• vendor preferences → prompt
• product requirements → prompt
• customer preferences → prompt
• institutional knowledge → prompt

On a long enough timeline, everything gets subsumed by the (system) prompt and integrations that populate it