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| Source: Mission to Learn |
We can learn a great deal about setting and achieving goals by studying how people engage in physical exercise. That's precisely what University of Pennsylvania scholar Katy Milkman has done very successfully in her career. She features some of that insightful research in her terrific new book,
In one study, Milkman examined the behavior of approximately 2,500 employees at Google. She studied their exercise habits. In this NPR interview, Milkman explains the motivation for and structure of the study:
And we had this insight from research on habits that it seems like the kinds of people who form the stickiest habits have a really consistent routine. They do it in the same time, at the same place over and over again. And so we thought, OK, what if we sort of adopt that insight and build it into our program? One group was basically encouraged to go to the gym at a really consistent time. Then we have a second group, and this is the comparison, where they also told us their ideal time, say, 9 a.m., and we reminded them to go at that time, but we encouraged them to go whenever it was convenient for them. And as a result, that group went at about the same frequency but in a more varied manner. So half of their gym visits were at this consistent time and the other half were all over the place.
What do you think? I bet you think that the group committed to always going to the gym at 9am would adhere to their exercise goal more successfully. Well, that's what I thought before I read the results too. However, that did not turn out to be the case! She explains why:
But the big surprise to me was that it was actually the group who had gone at the same frequency but in a more varied way. And when we dug into the data, we figured out why. The answer seems to be that the people who had formed those routines that were really consistent were really rigid. So more often than not, they're going to the gym at that time if they're going, and they actually did form a slightly stickier habit after the end of our program around visiting the gym at that usual time. But if they don't go at that time, they don't go at all, right? So you miss your 9 a.m. slot? Oh, I'm not going to the gym today. Whereas the other group, they go to the gym at 9 a.m. a lot. But if they missed 9 a.m., they have a fallback plan. So then they make it at noon or at 5. And as a result, net net, they're going to the gym more. And so what this taught us was that a really important component of habit is actually having some flexibility. It needs to be I have a first best plan, but when that doesn't work, I'm going to get there anyway.
The lesson here regarding flexibility seems especially important as we navigate unpredictable and turbulent circumstances in our external environment these days. However, remember that the flexible group still aimed for that 9am gym visit. They didn't leave their goal completely wide open. However, they did have a contingency plan - a commitment to get to the gym whenever convenient if they could not visit at 9am. That combination of a routine coupled with some flexibility seems to be the sweet spot when it comes to successfully achieving our goals.
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