I’ve written before about the surprising power of 20 seconds, also known as “The 20-Second Rule.”1 This is probably my favorite life-hack. The 20-Second Rule is simple:
- If you make something just 20 seconds easier to do, you’ll be much more likely to do it.
- And if you make something just 20 seconds harder to do, you’ll be much less likely to do it.
There’s nothing special about 20 seconds in particular – that’s just a memorable number to aim for. Any increase or decrease in convenience affects the likelihood of a behavior. To apply this principle, you might unplug your television to put a small obstacle between you and watching TV. You might declutter your home workout space to make exercising slightly less of a hassle. Or you might change the contents of your web browser’s favorites bar, replacing distracting temptations like Facebook and YouTube with educational websites like Duolingo or Coursera.
And, while I love this idea, I’ve come to realize that there’s another way to think about it entirely. The 20-Second Rule is actually a cognitive bias that we might overcome through self-awareness.
The human mind comes with many innate biases, such as loss aversion (fearing losses more than valuing gains of equal size), the fundamental attribution error (where we tend to ignore circumstances and blame people’s character traits), and liking something more just because it’s more familiar (while disliking things more when they are unfamiliar). This is just a small sampling; there are dozens of cognitive biases that routinely subvert rational thinking, wise decision-making, and ethical behavior.
There are two complementary approaches to overcoming these biases: cognitive therapy and mindfulness. In cognitive therapy, which can be self-administered with training, you learn to recognize, name, and argue against your innate biases. Instead of believing all of your thoughts, you evaluate them critically and try your best to consider all of the evidence. The four components of mindfulness help you recognize your habitual thoughts, detach from them, and then choose better behaviors.
You can recognize your bias toward convenience and choose to act in a way that runs counter to that bias, doing what’s right by your goals and values, even if the structure of the situation makes it challenging to do so.
For unhealthy or unproductive choices, the thought process might sound like this:
I’m just habitually doing/eating/drinking/watching this because it’s within arm’s reach/just a click away.
Upon realizing that convenience is driving you to engage in a behavior you’d rather not pursue, you can either apply The 20-Second Rule and make it more inconvenient, or, if this isn’t possible, choose not to engage in that behavior despite its convenience. By realizing that your bias toward convenient choices is resulting in sub-optimal behavior, you’ll at least have a chance to overcome this bias.
For example, your office might provide unhealthy snacks in the break room, which is a steady temptation. Let’s also assume that you’re not in a position to change the corporate provisions, and you need to access the breakroom because you store your lunch in the fridge. If you’re blind to the power that convenience has over your behavior, you might mindlessly eat the unhealthy snacks in the break room without understanding why. But if you know that The 20-Second Rule is partly to blame for your indulgence, you might think to yourself, Hey, I don’t have to eat this just because it’s right here. I can still choose not to.
A similar pattern applies to healthy or productive choices. For these, the thought process might sound like this:
I’m not doing that (insert positive behavior) because it’s inconvenient, and the extra steps involved makes starting seem too difficult.
As soon as you realize that inconvenience is one of the main reasons you’re not doing something, you’re in a position to exert free will. You can choose to do the things that are good for you even when there are obstacles in the way. The obstacles might make it difficult, but they don’t make it impossible.
For example, you might realize that you’ve been failing to go for bike rides because you have a flat tire. Fixing the tire might require patching it or even going to a bike shop and buying a new inner tube. Either way, you’re looking at a significant hassle every time you consider going for a bike ride. If you enjoy riding your bike, or if getting outside and exercising is valuable to you, it would be worth your while to overcome this inconvenience. It might help to consider that every time you think about biking, you’re paying the thinking cost of procrastination. It might also help to remember that, if you choose to fix your bike and get out for a ride in spite of the inconvenience, you probably won’t regret it.
Whenever you cannot improve the situation by applying The 20-Second Rule, you can still benefit from recognizing the power that convenience or inconvenience has over you. Becoming aware of this bias helps you overcome habitual patterns of behavior that would otherwise go unrecognized and unresolved (which reminds me of this brief parable about change).
The path of becoming better isn’t always easy. Uphill battles require that you harden your resolve and exert extra willpower, but these challenges are great opportunities for mental training. By all means, use convenience to your advantage when you can, but when you can’t, remember that you can still choose what’s best for you.
1 Achor, Shawn. The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work. Crown Business, 2010.