Coaching practices for Add Friction to Bad Habits

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Add Friction to Bad Habits, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• My bad habits run on autopilot but the good one I’m trying to build never feels automatic
• The thing I’m trying to cut is just too easy
• Every time I try to break this habit I just try to white-knuckle it away and grit my teeth through the craving
• It’s not that I don’t want to do the thing
• I know exactly what I should do, but every time there’s some little hassle in the way

Practices that may help

1. Build a craving deliberately to cement a new habit
   Create an anticipatory craving for the reward of a new behavior before the reward arrives.
   The Habit Loop, Made Practical
2. Add friction to unwanted behaviors
   Inserting even a small obstacle between you and an unwanted behavior meaningfully reduces how often it happens.
   Environment Design for Behavior Change
3. Keep the cue and reward, swap the routine
   Duhigg’s “golden rule”: change a habit by inserting a new routine between the same cue and reward.
   The Power of Habit, Made Practical
4. Reduce friction on desired behaviors
   Make the healthy choice two fewer steps than the unhealthy one.
   Nudge Theory, Made Practical
5. Remove one small obstacle at a time
   Eliminate tiny points of friction so the good behavior becomes the path of least resistance.
   Kaizen: Change by Tiny Steps
6. Recognize the premonitory urge — the signal before the signal
   Most repetitive habits are preceded by a distinct physical sensation; learning to feel it gives you the earliest possible intervention point.
   Habit Reversal Training, Made Practical
7. Choose between carrots and sticks based on your goal type
   Sticks (loss-framed penalties) work better for stopping behaviors; carrots (rewards) work better for starting new ones.
   Commitment Contracts, Made Practical
8. Reduce friction for good behaviors to near zero
   Make the healthy behavior the path of least resistance by removing every avoidable obstacle between you and starting.
   Environment Design for Behavior Change
9. Use effort pacts
   Add friction that makes distraction harder to slip into without thinking.
   Indistractable, Made Practical
10. Use differential reinforcement to increase desired behavior while reducing unwanted behavior
    Reinforce the behavior you want while withholding reinforcement from the one you don’t — at the same time.
    Operant Conditioning and Schedules of Reinforcement

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