In Tiny Habits, Dr. BJ Fogg tells us:
“Prompts are the invisible drivers of our lives. A prompt says ‘do this behavior now.’ No behavior happens without a prompt. If you don’t have a prompt, your levels of motivation and ability don’t matter. Either you are prompted to act or you’re not. No prompt, no behavior. Simple yet powerful.”
Dr. Fogg tells us that “Person, Action, and Context are fundamental for understanding human behavior.” For this reason, he created the Prompt PAC Person model.
Person Prompt – “…isn’t a good solution because our memories are notoriously faulty… Relying on yourself to remember to do a new behavior every day is unlikely to lead to meaningful change… Person Prompts are not reliable.”
Context Prompt – “This prompt is anything in your environment that cues you to take action: sticky notes, app notifications, your phone ringing, a colleague reminding you to join a meeting. This kind of prompt is best suited for a one-time behavior (like making a doctor’s appointment), yet it’s not a great way to create a habit.”
Action Prompt – “An Action Prompt is a behavior you already do that can remind you to do a new habit you want to cultivate. You already have a lot of reliable routines, and each of them can serve as an Action Prompt for a new habit. Action Prompts are so much more useful than Person Prompts and Context Prompts that I’ve given them a pet name: Anchors. When talking about Tiny Habits, I use the term Anchor to describe something in your life that is already stable and solid. The concept is pretty simple. If there is a habit you want, find the right Anchor within your current routine to serve as your prompt, your reminder. I selected the term ‘anchor’ because you are attaching your new habit to something solid and reliable.”
When troubleshooting installing and deleting behaviors, the first place to start is with prompts.
Do you have a reliable prompt or anchor?
Remember: “No prompt, no behavior.”
