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Warning: May Be Habit Forming

Nickolas Means
April 26, 2017
130

Warning: May Be Habit Forming

As presented at RailsConf 2017.

Nickolas Means

April 26, 2017
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Transcript

  1. WARNING:
    MAY BE HABIT FORMING
    Nickolas Means
    @nmeans

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  3. 40%
    of Americans make
    New Year’s Resolutions.

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  4. Of those who make
    resolutions,
    keep them.
    8%

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  6. But first, a disclaimer.

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  7. My Story

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  8. August 2015

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  9. The Cycle of Non-Finishers
    1. Get super motivated.
    2. Start doing things.
    3. Realize it’s harder than you thought.
    4. Lose your motivation.
    5. Give up.

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  10. Dr. Roy Baumeister

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  14. Attempts Time Spent
    Radish
    Cohort
    Cookie
    Cohort
    19.4 8:21
    34.3 18:54
    The Baumeister Experiment

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  15. Lesson #1:
    Your willpower will fail
    you every single time.
    Plan accordingly.

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  16. The Cycle of Non-Finishers
    1. Get super motivated.
    2. Start doing things.
    3. Realize it’s harder than you thought.
    4. Lose your motivation.
    5. Give up.

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  17. The Cycle of Non-Finishers
    1. Get super motivated.
    2. Start doing things.
    3. Realize it’s harder than you thought.
    4. Lose your motivation.
    5. Give up.

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  18. Dr. B.J. Fogg

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  19. Motivation Wave

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  20. Motivation Wave
    1. Be honest with yourself.

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  21. Motivation Wave
    1. Be honest with yourself.
    2. Pick your goal.
    3. Make a plan.

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  25. My First Goal
    Drink a green smoothie 

    for breakfast every day 

    for one month.

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  26. 1 cup spinach

    1 cup water

    1 banana

    1/2 cup frozen pineapple

    1/2 cup frozen mango

    1 scoop vanilla whey protein

    Beginner’s Luck Smoothie

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  27. Why It Worked
    1. A well-structured goal.

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  28. Lesson #2:
    Your initial goal should
    be so small you’d feel silly
    not doing it.

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  29. Why It Worked
    1. A well-structured goal.
    2. A plan that made it easy.
    3. All the ingredients of a habit.

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  30. Charles Duhigg

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  31. Charles Duhigg

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  38. 1. Cue
    2. Routine
    3. Reward

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  39. 1. Cue 2. Routine 3. Reward

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  40. Lesson #3:
    Deliberately building a habit
    is far more effective that just
    deciding to make a change.

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  44. Habits are just simple systems.
    Lesson #4:

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  45. Sam Carpenter

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  46. Sam Carpenter

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  48. Where I Went Wrong
    1. A choice that required willpower.
    2. An unrealistic commitment.

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  51. February 2017

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  52. April 2017

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  53. How To Hit Big Goals
    1. Take a long-term view.
    2. Set goals along the way that let
    you snowball success.
    3. Build habits and then optimize
    them with a systems mindset.

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  54. August 2015 April 2017

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  55. WARNING:
    MAY BE HABIT FORMING
    Nickolas Means
    @nmeans

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