Making Big Behavioral Changes Through Tiny Habits

by Lisa Frederiksen

I was listening to KQED Radio’s Quest Program this morning and found their January 9 show, “Resolutions and the Science of Changing Habits,” by reporter Lauren Sommer, very interesting.

It was based on an interview with Stanford Professor Dr. BJ Fogg, Director of the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, who is testing a new technique for making big behavioral changes by focusing on tiny habits. Dr. Fogg describes a “tiny habit” as something that “takes less than 30 seconds a day.” He explains in the interview that abstract goals that are not tied  to specific behaviors — for example, deciding that today I’m going to go to the gym —  don’t work. “Habits are things you do without deciding,” he explains. So Dr. Fogg believes that starting with tiny habits tied to specific behaviors is the way to achieve the bigger behavioral change a person is trying to achieve.

As someone who is always on the look out for ways to help drug addicts/alcoholics in recovery (talk about big behavioral changes) and family members working to change behaviors developed during the years of coping with secondhand drinking/drugging, I thought this program might provide readers with an excellent approach.

To listen, Download audio (MP3) or visit the Quest site, “Resolutions and the Science of Changing Habits,” and listen from there.