USING THE POWER OF HABIT TO
TRANSFORM YOUR ADVISING
Hollie Heintz, M.S., Ed. – Academic Advisor
Jenni Kotowski, M.A.– Assistant Director for Admissions
Division of General Studies
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INTRODUCTIONS
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GOALS OF THIS PROGRAM
Demonstrate one very successful method to change any habit
Introduce The Habit Loop
Discuss benefits of using “Habit Looping” both personally and professionally
Provide examples of ways you can use this in your own professional development
and/or when working with students
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THE POWER OF HABIT
BY CHARLES DUHIGG
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THE SCIENCE
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THE HABIT LOOP
Cue – a trigger that tells your brain
to go into automatic mode and
which habit to use
Routine – can be physical or
mental or emotional
Reward – helps your brain figure
out if this particular loop is worth
remembering for the future
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CHANGING A HABIT
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THE POWER OF HABIT
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THE FRAMEWORK
Identify the routine
Experiment with rewards
Isolate the cue
Have a plan
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STEP 1 – IDENTIFY THE ROUTINE
This is the behavior you want to change
Examples –
Eating a cookie everyday at 3pm
Reading email instead of doing work
Having too many adult beverages when you watch sports
Biting your nails when you are stressed
Swearing
Insert your item here _______________
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STEP 2 – EXPERIMENT THE REWARDS
Rewards are powerful because they satisfy cravings.
To figure out which craving are driving particular habits, it’s useful to experiment with
different rewards.
Choosing what to do instead of (your routine here) isn’t important. The point is to test
different hypotheses to determine which craving is driving your routine.
By experimenting with different rewards, you can isolate what you are actually
craving, which is essential in redesigning the habit.
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STEP 3 – ISOLATE THE CUE
Can be difficult to identify
the cues that trigger our
habits because there is too
much information
bombarding us as
behaviors unfold.
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STEP 3 – ISOLATE THE CUE
Experiments have shown that almost all habitual cues fit into one of five
categories:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Location
Time
Emotional state
Other people
Immediately preceding action
So when trying to determine a cue – write down these five things the
moment the urge hits to help you determine the trigger.
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STEP 4 – HAVE A PLAN
A habit is a choice that we deliberately make at some point, and then
stop thinking about, but continue doing, often every day.
A habit is a formula our brain automatically follows:
When I see a CUE,
I will do ROUTINE
In order to get a REWARD
To re-engineer that formula, we need to begin making choices again.
The best way to do that is to have a plan.
Plans are known within psychology as “implementation intentions.”
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HOW DO WE USE THIS IDEA WHEN
WORKING WITH STUDENTS?
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LET’S PRACTICE
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WHAT DID YOU LEARN?
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POWER OF HABIT AT WORK –
JENNI’S STORY
From January 2012 – July 2013 lost 108
pounds
Dropped 7 dress sizes
Have run 5 half-marathons
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RESOURCES PAGE
http://personalsuccesstoday.com/the-habit-change-worksheet/
http://duhigg-site.s3.amazonaws.com/wpcontent/uploads/2012/04/How-to-Change-a-Habit.jpg
http://charlesduhigg.com/
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