A Whole Field of Psychology Research May Be Bunk. Scientists Should Be Terrified. →

Yikes. I don’t quite know where to begin on this one. 

It’s scary for me because a lot of my theories on behavior change on this blog rest upon Baumeister and his experiments. The idea of conservation of willpower, of working on habits individually, lowering thresholds of willpower in order to facilitate habituation with Bj Fogg’s Tiny Habits….

As the article says (despite the sensational title) it could be that his theories are still correct. But we don’t know yet based on this problem with reproducibility in psychology.

The chance that it might be wrong can also be quite freeing - if willpower isn’t depleteable or acts differently than I thought it does, it could open the gateway for change that’s much more rapid. Rather than working on one or two habits, I could work on a dozen.

But my initial hunch is that it is true, at least with respect with willpower across times. This whole project started with the question - how come highly motivated people aren’t good at more than one thing? Baumeister’s theories explain this pretty well.

Also, every single time I’ve bitten off more than I could chew my entire project fell a part. I’ve never been good at doing things long term for myself even when I was in very structured conditions, even when I didn’t assume that willpower was depleteable. And this project has allowed me to concretely change this based on this theory.

I guess we’ll just have to see.

Day 169 & Click Training

Day 169 Record Keeping SRHI = 84
Day 137 Fixed Meditation SRHI = 83
Day 83 Bodyweight Exercise SRHI= 80 (3 bridges, 15 sec 1-legged planks)
Day 10 Writing = 12 
Day 183 Eating SRHI = 56
Great sleep, great wakeup. Irritable yesterday, but getting better at controlling it.

Clicker Training

Yesterday I was talking to a friend who is trying to counter a bad habit he has. I’ve previously counseled him on forming implementation intentions whenever the urge arises in order to distract him. I also suggested that he record when the urge arises, and a brief statement like if he indulged or if he held it at bay, and what the circumstances are so he can later look for patterns. This is similar to what I did when I first started my dynamic meditation.

He made an off hand remark about wishing he had a clicker to easily count the times per day and it reminded me of clicker training - used to train a wide array of animals. As I understand it the theory is based on operant conditioning. But the clicker helps in identifying the precise moment of the behavior to cement the action-reward mechanism, which allows for better training. It reminds me of BJ Fogg’s quote about how habits, when properly formed, have a “crispness” to them.

For me crispness is related to having a clearly defined trigger. Doing pushups as soon as I get out of bed is much better than doing pushups “sometime in the morning”.  It’s more about the trigger-response mechanism rather than the behavior-reward of clicker training - but I wonder if clicker training can be used to help habits structure more efficiently.

When I first researched this I laughingly told my roommate that I was going to train him. But when I researched “clicker training humans” I did find that there were coaches that used the technique in gymnastics, and that it worked pretty well.

It bears further research because that crispness seems to have a big effect on all this.

Day 137 & Coaching Friends

Day 137 Record Keeping SRHI = 77
Day 105 Fixed Meditation SRHI = 76
Day 51 Burpee SRHI= 68 (1x8)
Day 151 Eating SRHI = 43  
Good sleep, ok wakeup. Depressed last night.

Coaching Friends
Lately I’ve been coaching two friends through some behavioral changes. It’s very intimidating being put in a position where you have the potential to help. And because I care for them I worry about the opposite - messing up.

One friend is trying to cut back on drinking - she gets withdrawals and she really needs to stop. Her doctor told her to cut back without any other advice. An old friend of mine recently died from alcohol-related problems (he had severe withdrawals and was put on medication to help him with it) and to see this happen again is gut wrenching. It also makes me feel incredibly pissed off at the doctor.

Another close friend is going through a really bad breakup. Actually, calling it a bad break up is mild - he’s in an immense amount of pain and is trying to get over what amounts to an addiction to the girl he was in a relationship with.

For the former, I’ve advocated record keeping, a la the quantified self - the idea being that if you can note your patterns you will naturally start to reduce the negative activity. My own project was revitalized with record keeping, and it’s a much better and more effective step than simply going cold turkey - something she can’t really do anyway due to her severe withdrawals.  It has worked so far - she still drinks quite a bit, but has been cut back through her diligent record keeping. I’m now advocating making a small change, like BJ Fogg talks about with his TinyHabits. I’d position this by suggesting that she reduce the number or amount of her alcohol consumption by one unit.

For the latter, I’ve advocated an implementation intention strategy. He tends to obsess and then engage in the standard negative breakup activities that aren’t really conducive to recovery  -  so we brainstormed a list of 8 or 9 activities to do to get him over the emotional hump. Things like doing a crossword, progressive meditation, listening to music and podcasts, taking a walk, and writing. I feel that such a strategy would work well for “negative habits” or “habits of omission”  - things like not smoking or not eating clean or whatnot - because often enough it’s a rising emotion that leads to a splurge - and simply distracting oneself and waiting until the emotions subside is enough to get over the potential negative behavior.

I want to later include more advanced meditation techniques - I’ve already advocated Vipassana, but understandably, it hasn’t been taken up. I myself was incredibly skeptical about it until I tried it, and I think walking through a meditation so he experiences it himself would be much better than just talking about the theory. Gratitude is something that’s talked about a lot in terms of mindfulness, impulsivity, and self-control training. It’s also something I approached with extreme skepticism until I actually tried one exercise (List and describe 10 things you are grateful for) and found that it jolted me out of my depression.

These are both circumstance that make me realize the importance of this project - not only for myself, but for those I care about. I can’t count how many times I’ve been asked for advice about such things and had no real answers to give. Now that I have implemented and researched these strategies in depth, I have something worthwhile to offer up. But teaching it and getting people to do it is in additional step, one I’m still working on. Being able to clearly elucidate these ideas and work with them in a way that they start changing is hard.

Today I did just that for the friend going through the breakup and I think I did a good job. However it’s interesting to note I didn’t do this earlier - before I just talked about generalities thinking that he would go through the details himself.

Today I worked with him to come up with an effective if-then protocol.  We started with brainstorming activities - well it was mostly me brainstorming as he was in a state of mind where he was incapable of coming up with anything. Having concrete steps, assignments, and commands seemed to work better than gentle suggestions.

But sometimes when a person is in such a frail state going that extra distance is exactly what is called for to engender real change.

Day 95 & The Zeigarnik Effect

Day 95 Record Keeping SRHI = 71
Day 63 Fixed Meditation SRHI = 75
Day 9 Burpee SRHI= 45
Day 109 Eating SRHI = 59
Good night sleep, great wakeup. Continuing to have bouts of depression.

The Zeigarnik Effect

Found a great article on this recently.

http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2014/05/work-smarter-use-the-zeigarnik-effect.html?mid=facebook_nymag

Now I’ve heard this term bouncing around self improvement blogs for awhile, but never actually looked it up. Basically the ideas is that procrastination doesn’t really come from laziness, but from fear. This is something I definitely feel strongly about, especially in my writing. If I just open up the word processor and start the task, it finishes, but I can delay doing a task for ever.

I think the same thing occurs with habits. Often times the habits we really want are the ones we can’t be bothered to start. Which is why I like BJ Fogg’s notion of TinyHabits - it’s a great way to bypass the fear of doing a task. And hopefully, when doing it repeatedly, the fear not only passes, but the task becomes automatic.

Day 93 & Crispness

Day 93 Record Keeping SRHI = 67
Day 61 Fixed Meditation SRHI = 70
Day 7 Burpee SRHI= 39
Day 107 Eating SRHI = 56
Good night sleep, great wakeup.

Crispness
While my Burpee habit and Fixed Meditation seem to be enjoying a solidity, I feel that for some reason my record keeping isn’t, despite the fact it’s an old (temporally) habit. It feels somehow lax, especially with respect to automaticity questions on the SRHI.  Do I think about the habit - yeah - but I think about meditating less and less and I’m feeling the same progress in burpees.

Why?

I think it has to do with the specificity of the trigger.

I’m reminded of clicker training, where a sharp click sound is used to mark the action to be rewarded. I feel this specificity needs to be set in order to achieve automaticity in a habit. 

For example, as I wake up, I perform my meditation. After I shut down my tumblr and my google spreadsheet where I record my SRHI scores for the day, I do my burpees. But there is a certain vagueness as to when I record things. 

Sure I record things before burpees and after meditation, but there’s no specific trigger. I sort of sludge my way towards it. And though I know I’ll record keep after meditating, I usually plunk around on the internet first.

I just followed BJ Fogg on Twitter, and he said

 

 Fogg‏@bjfogg

Hmm. It seems “crispy” will become a technical term in behavior change. The process to get crispy behaviors? Crispification, of course

He currently has a new batch of “habiteers” and I wonder if this is a description from them..In any case “crisp” is a really good descriptor. I want the trigger and subsequent action to be crisp. I think it’s the only way to really iron out problems in automaticity.

So, I’m going to try it. Here’s my implementation intention:

As soon as I’m finished meditating, I will immediately begin record keeping

This seems obvious, but since I’m just waking up, I’ve already made it a daily habit to plunk around on the internet and laze for a while. That’s not going to cut it. I think it’s going to be difficult, but it should be interesting to see what this change will do to my automaticity scores.

Day 91, Eating and Burpee Status Update

Day 91 Record Keeping SRHI = 70
Day 59 Fixed Meditation SRHI = 72
Day 5 Burpee SRHI= 42
Day 105 Eating SRHI = 58
Good night sleep, great wakeup.

Eating and Burpee Status

I feel generally back on track with eating. Will monitor carefully, because now I’m in uncharted territory - I’ve done eating habits and diets for 3 months, never for more, so this is really quite exciting. Yesterday I was thinking of habits that would help. I had in mind BJ Fogg’s Tinyhabits. Tinyhabits seem to work by lowering the threshold needed to endure a habit until it reaches full habituation. Hence his “brush one tooth” mentality.

What are some individual habits that make up eating right? I came up with several - making a salad or an omelette every morning. Cutting out anything but water. A shopping habit, since a lot of cheating involves not having material for cooking on hand. A cooking habit. Eating one clean meal a day. 

I’m thinking of these because, if my theory is correct, I’ll be sorely tested in these next three months. My theory that the universe conspires to throw a wrench in habits seems to be true for this one as I will be traveling for three weeks and will have to have a “travel protocol.” Again, the point isn’t perfection - the point is just surviving this period.

Also, I can’t help thinking about an ideal - if I were to do it again or teach someone else how to eat right, I’d definitely start with smaller steps - eating right is just way too complicated and is made up of many small habits. Doing it all it once seems highly untenable. But I’ve gotten this far, might as well charge on ahead.

I initially thought that I’d have to only do one habit at a time. And I still think this is generally a good idea. But with Tinyhabits, I have a sense that it’s not necessary. Which is why I’m continuing my burpee habit.

Lally’s graph extension indicated 250 days for a basic exercise habit. But employing implementation intention combined with the lightened Endurance load, I really feel it’s going to take a lot less time to achieve automaticity.  Which brings up another issue…

If these techniques change the full lifecycle of a habit, then it’s just one more variable that’s on a sliding scale. We’ll see, but it might be just that much more difficult to come up with a concise equation.

Day 87, Walking, Burpee Habit, and TinyHabits

Day 87 Record Keeping SRHI = 68
Day 55 Fixed Meditation SRHI = 73
Day 15 Walking = Total Implosion!
Day 101 Eating SRHI = 61
Day 1 Burpee SRHI = 12
Good night sleep, great wakeup.

My walking habit has totally imploded. And it makes sense - as I said in my last post, I neglected to have a good implementation intention and it was way too much.

I’ve decided to scrap it for something that’s easier and able to be done anywhere. I’m thinking this because I want the ability to do exercise anywhere in the world since I travel so much. I’m also going around Brazil and Argentina for 3 weeks during the up coming World Cup, so walking for an hour everyday would’ve been imploded anyway. 

Not that I’m opposed to it at a later point. But I feel burpees are a good, whole body habit that would be great for me. Fogg states to implement them at a certain time, so here’s my protocol:

After I  finish blogging on tumblr, I will do 2 burpees.

Yesterday I was trying to figure out what Fogg’s protocol was for increasing the load of the habit. At what point do you push yourself from one tooth, 2 burpees, 2 pushups, to a real set that will actually give you a result. In his TedX speech he put up a slide that said “plant a tiny seed in the right spot and it will grow without coaxing”

My assumption is that when the load is so low, you’ll want to spontaneously increase it on your won. He himself stated that his original habit of doing 2 pushups increased so that now he’s doing around 70 a day.

I want to join the next group TinyHabits project - it believe it starts next week. In it you choose three habits to begin and get coached on them for 5 days. My previous concern was that doing more than one habit leads to the collapse of them all. But if you lower the daily load, perhaps you can do more than one. I’ve decided to go ahead and try it and see where it leads. My habits will be burpees, backbends, and another one I haven’t quite decided on. 

In my rudimentary ideas of a habit formation equation, I’m thinking that Willpower over Time = Endurance. If the Willpower of an action is decreased, and Time stays the same, then presumably the Endurance needed for a habit will decrease as well, thereby cementing it easier into a habit. I’m curious if such TinyHabits react with respect to my Quarter Mark Theory - will they even enter a danger zone? Does habit formation occur quicker?

EDIT** Damn! I just missed the signup which closed on Friday. The reason I want to do this is because getting a certification requires you to do one basic session.

Day 86 & Walking and Tiny Habits

Day 86 Record Keeping SRHI = 68
Day 54 Fixed Meditation SRHI = 72
Day 15 Walking SRHI = 16 
Day 101 Eating SRHI = 58
Bad night sleep, good wakeup

BJ Fogg is often quoted when it comes to habit formation and flossing. If you lower the basic dose to something incredibly easy, you’re more likely to succeed at creating a habit. So, instead of saying to yourself “I’m going to floss every morning” tell yourself that you’re going to floss one tooth every day.

My walking habit has hit a wall - My initial protocol was that I’m was going to walk every day for an hour and I’ll do a kettlebell workout if it’s not raining. But after reading more of Fogg’s stuff, I’ve realized I’ve left out a lot.

For one, an hour is a big change. I should say I’m going to walk out to the beach (which takes me 2 minutes) and back every morning. Or, I’m going to get out and walk around the block.

Second, I don’t have it set up as an implementation intention. That is to say - I don’t have an if-then set up for the time I should do it. I should have it chained to a series of daily events. Like “After I post my habit blog, I’ll go walk around the block.”

Lastly, I don’t incorporate a reward - even if it’s just a mental “atta boy!”

I’m still looking at Fogg’s stuff, and here’s some links I’m looking through.

Success magazine did what I think is a good summary of his work.

A link with his work and a video on the Fogg Method.

TinyHabits, where you can earn a certificate in his method and join in with others in creating habits.