Routine Machine by John Lamerton is chock full of ideas and tips to help you improve your habits in all facets of your life, especially business and health. Here are the 17 key takeaways I got from reading it.
1. The Monkey and the Computer
The author simplifies the human mind, to help us picture how it works, how habits form and what drives us. There is the human – us, our thinking mind. There is also the monkey and the computer, which both act unconsciously. The monkey will make us act if it perceives danger or opportunity (delicious food). The monkey mind will keep us safe but is rooted in our evolutionary past; it is usually inappropriate.
If our monkey mind is reactionary, then our computer mind is like a pre-programmed script. Our task then is to use the computer to help us form good habits. If we use our human mind to decide what needs doing and put work in to form a good habit, the computer will eventually take over. This good habit will then be done automatically.
Stop and think of every decision you make today, is it the human, monkey or computer who was in charge?
2. Changing large unhealthy habits
If you want to change a large unhealthy habit such as drinking alcohol, we can use re-framing to help us make the good decisions when we need to. For instance, the author says he doesn’t drink alcohol now, he used the reframe method to tell himself that ‘Alcohol is just another drug that he doesn’t take.’ In his mind alcohol is just like any other drug that he would never take, rather than a social norm. I’ve written a post on what I call Chemical Habits, which goes into how things like removing alcohol use is different from removing other habits.
3. Swap negative routines for positive ones.
Rather than trying to eliminate an negative routine, it is easier to change it to something more positive. For instance, do you listen to talk radio stations in the car? Why not change this to listening to business podcasts instead?
4. Focus on not losing first.
When we are starting out on any new venture, we will be inspired to act big. In fact, a lot of modern-day gurus will say things like ‘go all in’. Sometimes this is poor advice, for instance if you are starting a new business, it would be unwise to quit your job and ‘go all in’ until you have a proven concept and regular income. Yes, the positive thinking crowd would say, ‘be positive and trust yourself’, but it would be advisable to start small on the side, i.e., focus on not losing first.
5. Do a time audit.
This is a great exercise that I’ve done many times in the past and is recommended by a lot of authors. As usual, with anything useful, it is worth repeating. Here, Lamerton shows us how to track what we do, during a normal week, at 15 minute intervals. You can set an alarm to remind you every quarter of an hour to write down what you are doing. At the end of the week, add up and list in descending order what type of activities your were doing . Did each activity move you towards or away from your goals? You can then give yourself a score of what percentage of your activities are helping you achieve your goals. With this knowledge you can aim to improve your score.
6. The cure for shelf-help
After each non-fiction book, don’t start another one until you’ve written a report on it and implemented at least one idea. This report could even be a blog post and is a recommendation, I’ve just started, hence this post. I sometimes feel that I can rattle through hundreds of non-fiction and self-help books, but I sometimes wonder if I would get more benefit from slowing down and allowing myself to put into practice what I learn.
7. Compounding actions.
We all are aware of the positive effects of compounding on your wealth. This is where you can build a big net worth by starting to save early in your life and being consistent. Your money will increase slowly at first, but over time will start to increase exponentially. The same can happen with good habits. Adding small, good habits consistently will, at first, show little reward, but over time will provide massive improvements. Therefore, what can you do in each area of your life to start this compounding?
8. One page marketing sheet.
Here the author shares how he has been able to build up his online marketing business. Get an A4 piece of paper and list what daily/weekly actions you can do consistently, that will compound over time. For instance, sending a weekly ‘make friends’ email to your mailing list won’t achieve much, but over the months and years, if you are consistent, your recipients will come to expect and enjoy your emails, if they provide value. When it comes to the time they are in the market for your product, guess who will be front of mind? The person who provided consistent value and is liked and trusted, will be more likely to win the business.
9. How to change a negative habit no.2.
Get a normal wall calendar and some sticky dots, you can buy at a stationery shop. Every day you refrain from the bad habit, place a sticky dot on that day’s box. Consecutive days, where you were successful, will form a chain of dots on your calendar. You have another visual incentive to keep the chain going. Don’t break the chain. Also give yourself a reward for achieving a milestone, such as 7, 20, 100, 1,000 days etc.
10. Create more friction for bad habits and remove visual triggers.
This is another simple thing you can do to help you remove bad habits. Let’s say you have a weakness for snacking on biscuits and your goal is to not eat them. Every time you go to the kitchen, however, there is the biscuit barrel. Its too tempting for your monkey mind, which is more powerful than your human mind. The human mind says ‘no’ but the monkey mind says ‘sugar-sweet-survival-eat’. It’s a visual trigger for a chain of micro events that result in weight gain. There is also little on no friction involved, if repeated day in day out.
What if you removed the visual trigger by throwing away your biscuit barrel and all the biscuits with it? You subsequently enter the kitchen and there is no visual trigger. Even if you were desperate for a biscuit, you would have to visit the shop to buy some. Too much friction and the result – no biscuits eaten.
11. The Magic Ingredients for personal development.
a) Goals
Have goals and know where you are heading.
b) Why
Know your why and have a compelling reason to achieve the goal.
c) Knowledge
Do you know how to achieve the goal? If not then find out.
d) Environment
Create an environment conducive to achieving your goal. For example, you want to lose weight, then remove all junk food from the house and have your exercise kit ready and easy to use.
e) Action
Take some action every day, however small to move towards your goals. Consistency is key.
12. Goals
Once a year, sit down when it is quiet and set your goals for the following year. Most people do this at new Year, but it could be at any time of the year. I like doing this in the week between Christmas and New Year as it is naturally a time when not a lot else happens. To help you, use the following guide:
a. What do I want to:
- Start doing
- Stop doing
- Keep doing
- Do more of
- Do less of
- Try new
b. Next, get pictures of your goals and make a vision board.
Put this up somewhere prominent. You can also scan this and use as screen saver on your pc or phone. The aim here is for you to be looking at this unconsciously as much as possible. Our mind will subliminally take in the information.
c. Draft up a could-do list of things that are not a priority, but you would like to have.
I use the GTD someday-maybe list for this. As you move on through the year, if you think of more things to add, then go ahead and add them to this list. Consult this list to see what you could do next.
d. 90 Plan.
Consult your could-do list and pick 3 big goals for next 90 days. Set a reminder to repeat your 90-day review.
e. Monthly plan.
Now choose 3 smaller projects that can be done in the next month. These could be from your Could-Do list or they could be steps to the Big 3 on your 90 plan. You will therefore have 9 projects in 3 months. Set a reminder to repeat this the following month.
f. Weekly plan.
Once a week choose your One Thing. Pick just one action or small project you can complete this week that will move you towards completion of one of your monthly projects. Set a reminder to do this once per week. I love to do this on Friday afternoon, so I can enjoy the weekend knowing that I’ve set my intention for the following week. Lamerton recommends printing out a weekly calendar and marking off the time when you will focus on this One Thing. Read my post on the weekly and daily targets, where I show you how to make sure you are moving towards your goals every day.
g. Rocks, Pebbles, Sand and Water.
At the end of each day plan your calendar, first with work on your One Thing. This is non-negotiable. Then what else must you do – appointments, family etc. These are the Rocks your put in your metaphorical jar first, or commitments. Then once you’ve added your One Thing and Commitments, if you have any spare time, add other stuff from your Could-Do list. In the Jar Analogy these would be the pebbles. The gaps in the calendar you can fill with sand and water, for example, checking emails, returning calls etc.
13. Marketing.
I really like how the author simplifies his models. In marketing, building an email list is one of the most important things you can do. The author gives us 3 simple steps to follow:
1. Build a list.
In your marketing, your first job is to build your list. Create content around your offering that adds value for free. Give something away in exchange for their email address.
2. Make friends with the list.
Once you’ve started gaining followers, its tempting to start selling to them. However, refrain from this. Your next task is to make friends with your list so they know, like and trust you. You do this by sending, for example, a weekly email which again offers some information the recipient values, for free. Make it engaging by adding stories and your personality. An example could be to share what bad practices you see in your industry.
3. Sell to your list.
Only after you’ve made friends with your list can you sell to them and not before.
Conclusion
The key message in this book is to try to get as much of your activity done by the Computer Brain as possible, by forming good habits. The book describes how you can do this across many areas of your life from Health and Fitness to Business. You are also looking for constant improvement, by making small incremental changes. You will then become a Routine Machine. Read my article about the importance of forming good habits, after you’ve removed bad habits.