I’ve been reading lately about habits; how to get rid of bad ones, how to encourage good ones. The author, James Clear, seems to be a master of…well…mastering habits. He used a specific example that I love and wanted to pass along. He said he used to be a non-flosser. He said that he wanted to change that habit and make a habit of daily flossing (hooray!) so what he did was to change his environment.
Rather than keep his dental floss tucked away in a drawer or in the medicine cabinet, he placed a bowl next to his toothbrush and filled it with flossers. He attached the new habit he wanted to start (flossing daily) to an existing habit (brushing teeth). That way, whenever he brushed his teeth before bed, he saw the flossers next to his toothbrush and voila! He always remembered to floss after that because he was already in the habit of brushing his teeth.