Summary

> One day I decided to cook every day so that my wife could spend more time on other things
> I have always been horrible at managing my time and burnt the food regularly
> After cooking for a few months I realised that the food never burned anymore
> Somehow I had manifested a timer in my mind that always got me back to the stove on time
> Cooking every day made me form a habit for managing my time which has a positive effect on everything else in my life
> In his book The power of habit, Charles Duhigg introduces ‘The Habit Loop’
> Companies like Pinterest, Google and Apple create user habits to keep their customers focused on their products

For a long time, I was convinced that I had some level of ADD. I often felt unable to manage my time well and was late for almost every meeting. Time was too slippery a thing for me to keep hold of so I tried to stop caring about it all together.

But it drove me crazy that I always underestimated the amount of time that I needed for a job and overestimated my ability to get the job done in time.

And then everything changed.

one day I decided to take care of the groceries and cook every day.

I focused on one cookbook from one cook that I liked: ‘PLENTY’ by Yotam Ottolenghi.

At first, I would lose track of time as I would in any other aspect of my life and the meal would fail. The more I repeated the same recipe, however, the better I got at getting the timing right. I noticed that I was getting better at ‘guessing’ how long it would take to prepare an ingredient. I understood which ingredient I had to prepare first, which one second, which one third and how to keep it warm.

And then I noticed something else.

I noticed that I got better at ‘guessing’ other things too. It was like I had a timer in my head that gave me a ‘warning’ when and ingredient was about to be ready:

• I got better at guessing how long it would take me to arrive at a certain location.
• I got better at planning my days
• I got better at remembering birthdays and other events.
• I developed a ‘Peter tingle’ for a deadline, which means that I intuitively feel how far away I am from the deadline (which is brilliant since I never let the my food burn anymore).

Heck, I was becoming good at managing my time! Without realising it, I formed a habit for timing events.

As i looked into it I found out that forming user habits is something that companies use to keep us focused on their products.

Following de rules of habit-forming can make it easier for visitors to navigate your website. Example: a visitor who goes to your website regularly will after some time know where to click so that she ends up where she wants to go. Now imagine the UX department feels that their website has poor findability and the information architecture needs an update. What you do at that point is mess with people’s habits.

Habit-forming UX design

When you start to develop an intuition for something, it often means that you are forming a habit for it. Habit-forming is a powerful tool that you can use to ‘program yourself’ (or others) to be a master at any task.

Simply put, forming a habit means that a person or animal does the same thing consistently over a set period of time. The sooner in life, we start the better we become. (Which is why there are loads of puppy courses but we don’t see many ‘senior dog’ courses).

According to a 2009 study* by Phillippa Lally at University College London, the time time to form a habit is between 18 and 254 days depending on the individual. The study examined the habits of 96 people over a 12-week period. Each person chose one new habit for the 12 weeks and reported each day on whether or not they did the behaviour and how automatic the behaviour felt. On average, Lally found, it took 66 days for people to form a habit. When you do the same thing consistently—and every day—for 66 days, you reprogram yourself so that the task feels natural. Like brushing your teeth.

Charles Duhigg’s habit loop

Charles Duhigg, the author of the book ‘The Power of Habit’, describes a habit loop as follows:

• 1. There is a cue (the bell) that triggers the mouse (or any other animal) to perform a routine.
• 2. When we repeat this action many times the mouse associates the sound of the bell with getting a reward.
• 3. After a period of time, every time that the bell rings the mouse unconsciously expects to get the reward.

Atomic Habits

In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear identifies ‘5 Triggers That Make New Habits Stick’:

1. Time,
Time-based cues can be used to stick with routines over and over again.

2. Location,
Location-based triggers help you to get ready and start. It’s a simple habit cue that helps prompt your routine.

3. Preceding Event,
Many habits are a response to something that happens. An example of this is the bell in the habit loop above.

4. Emotional State &
A certain emotion triggers a certain response. A person who is frustrated with a website (trigger) displays a negative response

5. Other People.
People you surround yourself with can play a role in your habits and behaviours.

His model looks like this:

There is much more to say about habit loops and how to apply them that goes way beyond this post. And if you want to know more about it and how to use habit loops in your designs (and when you shouldn’t), then go to this page where I do a user habit deep-dive.