If you want to build better habits you need to study your environment, not your willpower. Willpower is finite, depletes with use, and varies dramatically with sleep, stress, blood sugar, and emotional load. An approach to habit change that depends primarily on willpower is an approach that is most likely to fail on exactly the days when change matters most, the hard days, the stressed days, the days when everything is slightly off. Environment, by contrast, is constant and doesn't get tired.
The book on the pillow gets read more than the book on the shelf. The running shoes by the door get worn more than the ones in the closet. The phone in another room gets checked less than the phone on the desk. These are not minor differences in outcome. They are often the entire difference between a habit that sticks and one that doesn't. Designing your environment to make the right behavior require less decision-making is not laziness. It is the most sophisticated approach to behavior change the research has found.
