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I’m a fan of big audacious goals, jumping in with both feet and zagging off into a new direction at the drop of a hat - but that doesn’t mean I’m particularly good at it, or will stick to a big change for very long. But hey, it’s fun while it lasts.
I’m not alone, with around 80% of New Year’s resolutions or big change habits being dropped or forgotten about after around 40 days (even less for bigger lifestyle changes). Considering it takes around 66 days (2 and a bit months) for a new habit to form and become part of our daily routine, this does not bode well for our life changing decisions at the start of the year. Or any time of year - why be restricted to big events to think about making changes or improvements.
Does this mean we should give up on turning our bad habits around or just start to accept things are the way they are?
Sure, if we want to repeat the same year over and over again. Otherwise, we might want to change the scale we’re thinking at - using micro habits.
Long Term Consistency vs Short Term Intensity
One of the issues facing a new habit taking root is time. The time it takes to organise or partake in the new habit, which we could use to do something more fun, relaxing or work related. We’re simply too busy to add in an hours workout or find an afternoon to sit down and start writing that book.
If we’ve planned an hour’s session in the gym but can only free up 30 mins on the day (after traffic, getting out of work late, or sitting around working up the motivation to go in the first place), most of us will just sack it off. What’s the point doing just half the work? Might as well skip it and try again the next day. Then something else comes up and we’ve only got 40 mins, but we haven’t eaten much today… and you can see the pattern emerging.
Here, the intensity is too high to realistically maintain over a long period of time. We’re sacrificing long term consistency (building the habit through repeated practice/action) because the short term action is unachievable or too difficult to repeated do (high intensity). It might work as a one off, but regular practice isn’t quite doable.
However, instead of asking “what’s the point” in a half hour session, what if we asked why do we need to workout for a full hour? Why do we need a whole afternoon to write? Are these the minimum effective doses for productiveness, or just an arbitrary number plucked from some Instagram post?
What if we thought much smaller, committing to writing just a few sentences, reading one paragraph, or going all out for a couple of sets of one exercise? That’s way easier than carving out hours of the day! And if that’s all we get done, well it’s more than we started with so progress has been made.
As a bonus, once we’re there and have gotten the ball rolling, it becomes much easier to stay in that work or focused zone - so more often than not, that one sentence becomes 3 or 4. That one exercise becomes 2 or 3. That 5 mins of reading becomes 15mins.
I’ve seen this linked to Newton’s First Law of Motion (an object at rest will stay at rest, and an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by a force), but despite being succinct, it feels like a bit of a stretch to apply to human behaviour. In reality, it’s just tricky to get started and into the swing of something for a number of reasons. By setting the bar super low, we take the pressure off and can get out of our own way to get some work done. Yes it might not be much (at first), but it’s better than nothing - progress is progress, and we can always build upon it as we go.
That is the magic of the micro habit, it gets us started. We still have to actually do it of course, no amount of reading or thinking about them is going to do it for us, but with the lowered expectation it’s much easier to do so. Once we’ve gotten into the rhythm of it, and the habit has become a more natural part of our life, it becomes much easier to find ways to scale it up or do more of it - at least easier than when we started and were trying to get used to the change in the first place.
But how can we maximise the effectiveness of this lil’ chunk of work done? Do we do a bit of just anything, or can we be more strategic for some extra gains? That is where the Pareto Principle comes in.
Just Do Anything?
To optimise the efficiency, we need to be doing something that will have a big payoff for the effort put in. Thinking about fitness, consider a big multi-joint compound exercise (squats, bench press, etc) and a single joint isolation exercise (hamstring curl, bicep curl, etc). A set of squats (compound) will work the quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves, back and core muscles, whereas a set of hamstring curls (isolation) will only work the hamstrings. Squats work more muscles, burn more energy, and build stronger bones and our sense of coordination, so squats offer a far bigger payoff than hamstring curls.
Hamstring curls and other detail work do have their place in the grand scheme of things, but generally speaking just aren’t as effective on their own as the big moves are.
This “big payoff vs small payoff” ties in with the Pareto 80/20 Principle - the idea that 80% of the effects are a result of 20% of the causes (“the vital few and the trivial many”). For example, 80% of a business's income may be from 20% of the total customers, or the majority of our progress comes from a small number of habits or actions. This is obviously an estimation, but the idea holds true in almost all areas - some actions will generate greater effects than others, and by focusing on these big return actions (instead of the small return actions) we can make big progress with less energy or resources spent. Of course, by adding on the little things we can increase our total gains, but only by small amounts after the big foundation moves have been made. Here we need to ask ourselves if the extra time/effort is worth the small additional reward - is the juice worth the squeeze.
This applies to sore spots too - the majority of hassle (80%) will often be from a small number of sources (20%), one obstacle preventing us from doing many things or something that is sucking up a lot of time (80% of our time/energy) is only giving us a small payoff (20% of total gains). Here we may be able to sacrifice some of the small additional rewards and just remove it from our life/business altogether - getting some sleep instead of trying to fit in extra meetings that we’re not thinking clearly in, or letting go of a demanding client - or focusing on sorting out the issue so that it doesn’t take up as much time/resources before moving forward with anything else.
Continuing with the fitness example, if we want to increase our squat and we follow a workout that uses squats, shoulder presses, hamstring curls, calf raises, and wrist curls, what exercise is going to help us increase our squat the most? The squat. It has specificity to the goal (we can’t learn Spanish by taking Chinese classes), and it hits way more relevant muscle groups than the others, all at the same time. Thinking about the Pareto Principle, the squat is our 20% that is going to give us the greatest return. Thinking about micro habits, going into the gym and hitting a few sets of squats each week (maybe 15-30mins at the gym?) is going to let us get enough work in to make some progress on our goal. Maybe we won’t make as much progress as someone spending 2hrs training multiple times a week, but progress is progress, and we can use the extra time for other endeavours.
For other activities, we can apply the same principle. In the lead up to an exam, should we spend time on something we’re pretty confident on or something we’re confused about? Spending more time on something we’re comfortable with means we might get an extra mark, but focusing on our weak area means there could be several marks up for grabs in the exam - but more importantly, developing greater knowledge in other areas (for pub quizzes). In developing a business, should we focus most of our time on the colour/font of the logo or developing a great product/service? If it works, and works well, people aren’t going to be that fussed about how the logo looks (Facebook is a blue square with an F on it, Microsoft Windows is 4 coloured squares, even my own logo is just words in a circle on a black background - the majority of time spent elsewhere).
To combine the Pareto Principle with a micro habit, we just need to ask ourselves how can we do a little of the high return activity. Couple of words written, couple of sets completed, maybe a few paragraphs read, repeat over a period of time and we’ll be done before we know it. Yes, we will probably need to adjust or step things up somewhere along the way, but once we’ve got the ball rolling it becomes far easier to do so.
So go ahead, take the first step towards a new goal or habit. No one ever said it had to be a big step…
If you’d like to learn more about the Pareto 80/20 Principle, I’d recommend the book “The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More With Less” by Richard Koch. It fully explains the history and applications of the principle, in far greater detail than I can in a wee blog post. Clicking the link below will open a new window, taking you to the Amazon.co.uk page for the book to see different purchasing options.