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📚 Book Summary:

This week's book is “How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” by Katy Milkman.

Katy Milkman has devoted her career to studying human behavior. Through case studies and engaging stories, you’ll learn how to create new habits and keep them going.

Here are 3 lessons from the book:

📖

1) Become A Flexible Fernando

In the book, Milkman talks about a study she ran with 2,500 Google employees.

The goal was to help them develop a lasting gym habit.

The employees were randomly assigned into two groups: Routine Rachels and Flexible Fernados.

Routine Rachels were paid to exercise at the same time each day, while Flexible Fernados were paid to exercise at any time during the day.

Milkman had a feeling that having a strict, regular routine would help build a more powerful exercise habit, but when she looked at the data, she was surprised by the results.

The big surprise was that Googlers who were encouraged to hit the gym at the same time essentially built a habit of exercising only at that precise time.

If they couldn’t make it to the gym at their regular time, they were unlikely to go at all. They had turned from Routine Rachels into Rigid Rachels.

The Flexible Fernandos however, learned how to go to the gym even when their original plans fell through, and overall, produced a “stickier” exercise habit.

Milkman describes this as one of the most important discoveries of her research career:

“Yes, forming stable routines is key to habit formation. But if we want to form ‘stickier’ possible habits, we also need to learn how to roll with the punches, so we can be flexible when life throws us a curve ball. Too much rigidity is the enemy of a good habit.”

So if you’re trying to develop a new habit, be flexible and get your new habit done no matter the circumstance, even if it isn’t done during your usual time.

📖

2) Use This Trick To Exercise 55% More

Another study that the author ran involved giving college students iPods with entertaining audiobooks (the students got to choose a book of their choice).

The catch, however, was that their iPods were kept in a locker at the college’s gym and they could only listen to the audiobooks if they came to exercise.

A second control group of students was also encouraged to workout but weren’t given iPods with audiobooks.

Milkman and her researchers found that students who were given iPods exercised 55% more than students in the control group!

And the benefits lasted for several weeks after the study ended.

But the most interesting discovery in the study was that the people who found it the hardest to schedule a workout, increased their exercise the most when they were able to bundle gym visits with a tempting audiobook.

This concept of combining a fun activity with a not-so-fun activity is called “temptation bundling,” and has been proven over and over again to help people achieve their desired goals.

So if you want to spend more time exercising or reading, add an audiobook to your workout routine.

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3) Giving Advice > Getting Advice

A lot of times we think we need more advice to change our lives and achieve our goals.

But what if the opposite is true?

What if instead of getting advice, giving advice made you more successful?

In 2018, Milkman ran a study with nearly 2,000 students across 7 Florida high schools.

Instead of giving the students advice on how to do well in school, half of the students were asked to offer guidance to younger students through a 10-minute online survey.

They answered questions such as “What general tips would you give someone hoping to do better in school?” and “What helps you avoid procrastinating?”

After completing the survey, students were left to their own devices for the remainder of the term.

Then at the end of the semester, Milkman and her team downloaded the students’ grades to analyze the results.

As you can probably guess, the students who were asked to give advice got better grades than the control group of students who didn’t.

Interestingly, all students who gave advice benefited from the exercise: strong students, weak students, students in free lunch programs, and even students from wealthier families, all saw improvements in their grades.

Scientists call this the “Saying-is-Believing” effect–after you say something to someone else, you’re more likely to believe it yourself. And you’re more likely to do it, otherwise you’ll view yourself as a hypocrite.

So instead of asking others for advice on a situation, pretend you’re giving advice to a friend.

✅ Actionable Advice:

1) When developing a new habit, create a routine but be flexible with it. If you can’t do it in the morning, try doing it in the afternoon or later in the day.

2) If you want to exercise more, tell yourself that you can only listen to audiobooks or podcasts while working out.

3) Instead of seeking advice, pretend you’re advising a friend, and then follow your own advice.

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Thank you for your support, read on everyone!

-Alex W.