Self awareness

Recently I have been interested in understanding habits, how they are formed and how they can be changed.

I recently listened to the Self awareness is product management podcast on “This is product management” series with their guest Kelley Amdei founder of SparkShift.

What struck me was the steps Kelley described on how to discover your habits and how to change them. Below is my key takeaway from the podcast.

To change habit you need to Identify -> Track -> Experiment -> Script -> Do it with others -> Find reward.

• First step is to be aware (as a researcher) about your habits. Make a list of the habits but don’t work on all. Pick one think in your list that makes you cringe.
• Next step is to watch yourself, be curious not judgemental. Make notes for two weeks. Check mark when it is happening.
• Habits are automatic response to a trigger. You need to drive a wedge between trigger and response. Experiment with ideas to see what works for you.
• Script all the situations that trip you into the habit. Scripting will allow you to respond with the new response .
• Enlist the help of the community, not only will they help you verify the habit but also tell you when you are falling back to your old habit.
• Find a reward with you new habit. Without having a reward, Dopamine, your brain will not enlist the new habit as an automatic response.

Remember old habits don’t disappear. So plan for failure and bounce back.

There are other interesting areas covered in the podcast about Leadership and How to manage. Listen to the podcast to find out more. In addition to the podcast you might also find the following course and book interesting.

Coursera Course: Learning how to learn.

Book: The power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Originally published on LinkedIn.