Bending time to your advantage

Sometimes we underestimate our adaptability.

We think we’re locked into our habits and it takes a Herculean effort to change our behaviour.

And to a degree that’s true. Habits can be difficult to break and buggers to make (which is why I wrote a book called The How of Habits).

But many of us are going to be changing our habits without much effort at all this weekend.

Many of us are going to get up an hour earlier for no reason at all except the clocks have changed.

Welcome to Daylight Savings 2015!

Daylight Savings is a masterclass in behaviour change en masse. In the early hours on Sunday morning we miraculously ‘lose’ an hour, resetting our watches one hour forward.

We do it because everyone else is (it’s the norm) and the path of least resistance is to conform.

And life goes on. Sure, we might feel a little weary for a day or two but then we recalibrate and adapt to eating, going to bed and getting up earlier.

The lesson from such a change is that time really is a construct and if we wanted, we could decide to get up an hour earlier at any time of the year.

I, for instance, have managed to fit an hour of meditation into my morning. How? By getting up at 5am rather than 6am. 

So your opportunity is this.  This weekend change how you want time to work for you.  If you have promised to make a change in your life – more time with loved ones, exercising, reading, relaxing, or cooking, then use this disruption to your advantage and make it happen.

P.S. For more on mistakes we make when trying to change our habits check out “The problem isn’t knowing why or why but how”.

Bri Williams runs People Patterns, a consultancy specialising in the application of behavioural economics to everyday business issues.