Make It Easy
One of the books that has continued to shape how I think about work and life is "Thinking, Fast and Slow." I’m always fascinated by how people, myself included, make decisions, and I think a lot about our two systems—System 1 and System 2:
System 1: This is our fast and automatic mode of thinking. It is often driven by habits and immediate reactions.
System 2: This is our deliberate and analytical mode of thinking. It is used for more complex decision-making.
When you’re working and making decisions—thinking, prioritizing, building, debating, etc.—decision fatigue can set in. Research has shown that decision-making depletes mental energy, and people who make many decisions show lower self-control in subsequent tasks.
For example, in one experiment, participants who made a series of choices (e.g., selecting consumer products) exhibited were more likely to opt for unhealthy snacks, procrastinate, and perform poorly on cognitive tasks.
Over the past few years, I’ve focused a lot on designing for System 1, specifically on how to enable myself to build habits that align with my priorities. I focused on two aspects:
How can I minimize draining my energy
How can I set up my surroundings to make it easier to do what I want when my energy is low
One of the key lessons I've learned from studying behavioral economics and designing products is the importance of creating environments that make the desired choices easy.
Here are some things that have worked well for me:
Keep water next to the bed and in my office to stay more hydrated.
Set up automatic savings and investments. make it more work to withdraw from savings/investments.
Have a donation box to easily put things that I no longer need
Listen to a short song while you brush to teeth or use a built in timer to make sure you brush for the recommended minutes.
Get furniture with ergonomic support to encourage better posture.
Keep reusable shopping bags near the front door to use them.
Set up Google Calendar reminders to remember to tell my friends happy birthday
These are a few examples, but the underlying principle applies to many areas. The more I think about what is difficult for me and identify my barriers, the more I can create environments that support my goals, making it more likely for me to follow through with what I want. This is still a work in progress for me, but it is something I plan to continue pursuing and experimenting with.
My goal is not to over-optimize for the sake of efficiency. Instead, I want to show up in a way that feels right for me, feel rested, and conserve my mental energy for things that matter to me—building, writing, creativity, and community.
If you are curious and want to experiment with this, consider asking yourself:
What behaviors do you want to encourage, and how can you make them easier?
What behaviors do you want to avoid, and how can you make them harder?