“If we don’t see improvement in this tooth pocket at next year’s cleaning appointment, we’ll have to do an expensive procedure to address it. I recommend you floss daily.” The dentist’s dire directive spurred me to start a daily flossing practice I’d been halfheartedly trying to institute for the past 30 years.
We know the healthy habits that will help us; but we don’t follow them. Similar lapses permeate our work lives as well. We read another email, cajoling ourselves with promises to tackle that big presentation tomorrow, or indulge one more morning as a meeting jockey instead of a strategic thinker. We make deals with ourselves that justify our current actions and defer our eventual, virtuous changes.
The sad truth is we’re more likely to seek painkillers than vitamins. Yet adopting healthy habits is preventative and helps build a firm foundation on which to stack successes. Despite our fears that change takes time and effort, establishing more productive practices save time in the long run by avoiding wasted efforts and messes we would otherwise have to clean up.
I created a tool called the Yes List to help dozens of executives ditch bad behaviors and enhance their impact by embracing new routines. We use a Yes List to record whether we did (yes) or didn’t (no) practice the actions we’re working on. Tracking a Yes List takes 20 seconds a day and yields significant returns.
Here are six steps track your change commitments and turn results from leaden to golden.
1. Create a Yes List. Add no more than three new goals. Break them down into small actionable items. For example, for a goal of improved collaboration, your action might be to thank a colleague you worked with that day. Then create a table with the actions and dates against which you will track them.
2. State behaviors in the affirmative. It is easier to focus on doing than not doing something. For example, instead of saying: don’t procrastinate reading industry literature, say: read a paragraph from journal articles.
3. Use a substitute. You are more likely to successfully stop an action if there’s an alternative to deter you from your default. For example, if you want to stop raising your voice in meetings, convert your judgement to curiosity and set a goal to substitute asking an open-ended question instead. Rather than loudly declaring, “This doesn’t make sense, you clearly didn’t think through the implications,” try, “Would you help me understand the implications you considered?”
4. Get to the root of the matter. In his book, the Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg shares his story of gaining weight while writing it. He’d become accustomed to visiting the cafeteria every afternoon for a cookie. He could have substituted a piece of fruit for this indulgence. However, Duhigg realized the reason for his daily trek to the cafeteria was to have human interaction after the isolation of a day spent writing. This insight allowed him to find other ways to enjoy his afternoon break connecting with people while giving the cafeteria and its enticements a wide berth.
5. Use a format that will work for you. You can create your Yes List in a variety of ways: paper, a spreadsheet, an app on your phone, a voice recording. Choose the tool you’re most likely to use at the end of each day, not the one that’s trendy.
6. Track it daily. Don’t burden yourself with remembering what you did for a week; check items on your Yes List with a Y or N at the end of each day. Tack a reminder of this daily task to an activity you are guaranteed to perform. For example, if you’re a daily flosser, you can keep a sticky note on your floss container.
Spending less than a minute flossing daily has saved me money and a lifetime of dental issues. When we investigate what we might have become inured to that is injuring us, we can extricate ourselves from its grip by instituting a new daily practice that sets us up for success today and tomorrow.
A version of this article appeared on forbes.com, posted on November 9, 2020
EXPERD, Human Resources Consultant, Jakarta – Indonesia