You may not realize it, but the environment you put yourself in dramatically impacts your actions and behaviors. All responses (or actions) are initiated through cues. These cues are laid out in the environment we put ourselves in.
The better part about this concept is that we can alter our environment and change these cues into something meaningful. We can change the fundamentals of our own environments—creating layouts that allow us to be successful in multiple areas of our daily lives.
The layout of an environment is a small, yet significant factor that plays into one’s well-rounded, healthy habits and overall well-being.
Obvious Environmental Cues
Again, cues are responsible for our actions and our actions are what lead us to any form of success; therefore, cues are the backbone of an environment.
So what exactly are cues? Cues are anything in an environment that triggers an action. For example, a book might be placed on your pillow so you trigger the action of reading before you sleep. A bottle of vitamins might be placed next to your bathroom sink so that you trigger the action of taking the vitamins in the morning.
Unfortunately, these same environmental cues aren’t always so clearly stated. If you were to place the book in your closet, you’re most likely going to leave it there. If you were to keep the vitamins in a closed bathroom cabinet, then you would probably forget to take them in the morning.
This method of environmental design is very powerful. During the energy crisis and oil embargo in the 1970s, Dutch researchers began to pay close attention to the country’s energy usage, specifically in a particular suburb near Amsterdam. In their study, they found that some homeowners in that suburb had used 30 percent less energy than their neighbors.
Although this was a mystery at the time, they eventually discovered that the cause of this energy gap was the location of the house’s electrical meter. Some houses had the electrical meter in the basement and other houses had the electrical meter in the main hallway.
As you may guess, the homes with the electrical meter in the hallway used less energy. This was because the amount of energy usage was clearly stated in the hallway rather than hidden in the basement.
Environmental change doesn’t have to stop at electrical meters. Quite frankly, it can be applied to anything. As you design your environment, you should design it in a way that benefits you:
- If you want to practice guitar more, then you should place the guitar stand in the middle of your living room.
- If you want to eat more fruit, then you should put fruit in a bowl on the kitchen counter.
- If you want to remember to do your homework, then you should keep your homework laid out on your desk.
- If you want to read more frequently, then you should place a book in a common location in your house.
The possibilities are endless. This is the power of obvious environmental cues.
Creating Connections With Context
Over time, your actions and behaviors become associated with certain environments. An action or behavior can appear not because of a single cue, but because of the entire context surrounding that cue.
For example, many people tend to drink more in social situations than they would ever drink alone. It’s important to note that the action of drinking more wasn’t because of a single cue, but rather the entire social aroma: the bar music, watching friends drink, seeing the beers on tap.
In this way, our behavior is not defined by the objects in the environment, but rather by the relationships we have with them. If you move into a new house, you will eventually begin to develop new relationships with the items on your desk, the objects on your kitchen counter, or the things in your bedroom.
For one person the couch might be the place where they read a book every night. For another, the couch might be the place where they play video games after work. It really just depends on the person and what connection they made with that certain context.
The good news is that you are able to link certain habits with certain contexts.
In one study, insomniacs were instructed to get in bed only when they were tired. If they could not fall asleep, then they were told to go to another room until they were sleepy.
The goal here was to get the insomniacs to associate the bed with the action of sleeping. The only action that was allowed in bed was sleeping.
Over time, the subjects developed a specific relationship with the context of their bed. Their bed had now meant sleep and nothing else. This allowed them to fall asleep quicker and rid of the label of an insomniac.
Again, this doesn’t only apply to sleep. You could associate any behavior and any action with any context:
- You could associate the context of a coffee shop with the action of studying
- You could associate the context of nature with the action of meditation
- You could associate the context of a particular desk with a more focused mentality
- You could associate the context of a music studio with a more creative mindset
As I said before, the possibilities are endless. This is the power of connections with context.