Environmental Dependency Syndrome

Put a pen in some people's hands and they begin to write; put a glass before them and they drink — not from thirst or intention, but because the object suggested the act and the suggestion was obeyed. In its extreme clinical form this is a syndrome; in its mild everyday form it is all of us.

The principle: behaviour is triggered by the environment far more than by the plan. The room is a list of instructions. The couch commands rest, the desk commands work, the phone commands scrolling — and the will, that proud commander, mostly ratifies what the furniture decided.

This is the most useful weakness you have. It means you can change your behaviour without changing yourself, by changing the room instead.

So arrange the triggers like a careful stagehand. Guitar on the stand, not in the closet. Fruit in sight, sweets out of the house. Phone in another room. Do not fight the environment. Hire it.