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Habituation
is an Attention Savior

Do you have to set a reminder to brush your teeth? Do you focus so hard on tying your shoes that you sweat bullets? Probably not. These things are habits – things we do automatically.

Most tasks require our brains to focus. Answering a quick email, working on a project, or being present in a meeting requires our attention. And attention is a finite resource.

 

When we form habits, our brains no longer have to apply the same resources. There are no Task-Switching fees, Context-Switching fees, Attention Residue costs, and there’s no decision fatigue. In other words, you don’t waste energy deciding to do it. It just happens, as if you’re on autopilot.

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FACTS:

I remember one client, a well-known executive coach, who had been itching to write a book for 10 years, but hadn’t so much as written the title page – he didn’t have time or mental bandwidth for such a huge project.

 

We budgeted for him to write 200 words before breakfast. 200 words was doable, and it became a habit. 10 months later, he published his first book, and there’s a second one on the way.

I’m not a big fan of “hacks,” but habituation is one of the rare exceptions. In fact, habituation is the core of the Sherpa System.

 

It’s super powerful!

 

Climbers use habits all the time; for example, you instinctively build a redundant anchor every 50 meters, even on a 20,000-foot peak.

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SOLUTIONS:

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Use habit formation techniques to move from a chore to autopilot.

Adding a new behavior to your attention budget can kickstart the habituation process.

Track your budget week to week and watch as attention-hogging tasks become effortless habits

“You are what you repeatedly do.

Excellence, therefore is not an act, but a habit.”

- Aristotle

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