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USING THE POWER OF HABIT TO TRANSFORM YOUR ADVISING

Hollie Heintz, M.S., Ed. – Academic AdvisorJenni Kotowski, M.A.– Assistant Director for Admissions

Division of General Studies

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INTRODUCTIONS

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GOALS OF THIS PROGRAM

Demonstrate one very successful method to change any habit

Introduce The Habit Loop

Discuss benefits of using “Habit Looping” both personally and professionally

Provide examples of ways you can use this in your own professional development and/or when working with students

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THE POWER OF HABIT BY CHARLES DUHIGG

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THE SCIENCE

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THE HABIT LOOP

Cue – a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use

Routine – can be physical or mental or emotional

Reward – helps your brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future

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CHANGING A HABIT

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THE POWER OF HABIT

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THE FRAMEWORK

Identify the routine

Experiment with rewards

Isolate the cue

Have a plan

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STEP 1 – IDENTIFY THE ROUTINE

This is the behavior you want to change

Examples – Eating a cookie everyday at 3pm Reading email instead of doing work Having too many adult beverages when you watch sports

Biting your nails when you are stressed Swearing Insert your item here _______________

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STEP 2 – EXPERIMENT THE REWARDS

Rewards are powerful because they satisfy cravings.

To figure out which craving are driving particular habits, it’s useful to experiment with different rewards.

Choosing what to do instead of (your routine here) isn’t important. The point is to test different hypotheses to determine which craving is driving your routine.

By experimenting with different rewards, you can isolate what you are actually craving, which is essential in redesigning the habit.

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STEP 3 – ISOLATE THE CUE

Can be difficult to identify the cues that trigger our habits because there is too much information bombarding us as behaviors unfold.

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STEP 3 – ISOLATE THE CUE

Experiments have shown that almost all habitual cues fit into one of five categories:

1. Location2. Time3. Emotional state4. Other people5. Immediately preceding action

So when trying to determine a cue – write down these five things the moment the urge hits to help you determine the trigger.

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STEP 4 – HAVE A PLAN

A habit is a choice that we deliberately make at some point, and then stop thinking about, but continue doing, often every day.

A habit is a formula our brain automatically follows: When I see a CUE, I will do ROUTINE In order to get a REWARD

To re-engineer that formula, we need to begin making choices again. The best way to do that is to have a plan.

Plans are known within psychology as “implementation intentions.”

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HOW DO WE USE THIS IDEA WHEN WORKING WITH

STUDENTS?

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LET’S PRACTICE

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WHAT DID YOU LEARN?

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POWER OF HABIT AT WORK – JENNI’S STORY

From January 2012 – July 2013 lost 108 pounds

Dropped 7 dress sizes

Have run 5 half-marathons

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RESOURCES PAGE

http://personalsuccesstoday.com/the-habit-change-worksheet/

http://duhigg-site.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/How-to-Change-a-Habit.jpg

http://charlesduhigg.com/