In chemistry and physics, activation energy is the minimum amount of energy required for a chemical reaction to occur. The burning of gasoline in the engine of a car, for instance, is caused by the turning of the key in the ignition. Without the spark of energy needed to catalyze the reaction, the combustion of gas won’t occur.
Like a well-oiled machine, we, too, need a kick-start to overcome the inertia of inactivity when it comes to building better habits. To do that, we can leverage a technique author Shawn Achor calls, “The 20-Second Rule.”
In his book, The Happiness Advantage, Anchor shares a problem he had with his guitar practice, a pastime he had once enjoyed but had neglected. “The guitar was sitting in the closet, a mere 20 seconds away, but I couldn’t make myself take it out and play it,” writes Achor. “What had gone wrong?”
Achor soon realized that his problem was not—to quote the Heath brothers in their book, Switch—a people problem, but rather a situation problem. In other words, to make a change, Achor had to redesign his environment to work with, rather than against, the new behavior he wanted to forge. [2]
To get back on track, Anchor bought a $2 guitar stand, set it up in his living room, and placed his guitar on the stand. “Nothing had changed,” writes Achor, “except that now instead of being 20 seconds away, the guitar was in immediate reach.” Three weeks later, to Achor’s astonishment, he hadn’t missed a single day of practice.
Achor’s 20-Second Rule echos James Clear’s 3rd Law of Behavior Change: Make it Easy. When we reduce the number of steps between ourselves and the habit(s) we’re trying to build, we lower the activation energy needed to jump-start that new behavior, and in doing so, make habit change easier and more enjoyable. [3]
Footnotes
[2] Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.
[3] Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad One by James Clear.
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