To unravel this apparent paradox, Achor asked one client to detail his workday, hour by hour: Arriving at his desk, Ted first checks the news. Without thinking, he also opens investment websites to check his stocks. After that, he wades through his email inbox, clicks on some links and attachments, fires back some responses, and finally gets to work. After about 30 minutes of real work, he takes a coffee break. Returning to his computer, his attention is drawn to all the new notifications, so he takes a look. Ted then gets about 10 minutes of writing in the next interruption. And so on.

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The final tally showed five email checks per hour, three checks of stock portfolio, hourly news check, and miscellaneous interruptions. By day's end, Ted had finished less than two hours of "real work." How does that compare to your morning? Granted, as a graduate student, you may be checking social media rather than investments, but with the same effect: You feel exhausted by the end of the day with little to show for it. You fret under a perpetual dark cloud of missed deadlines and stress.

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Once upon a time, the options for killing time were limited to sharpening pencils or getting a drink at the water cooler. Nowadays, with electronic temptations bombarding us all day long, focusing on work becomes more challenging than ever. All those distractions and interruptions do double damage, Achor observes. First, you lose the time elapsed during the detour, and then you need extra time to recover the focus and flow required to do your best work. How much energy can you afford to waste in this way?

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Would you like to know the secret to regaining control of your time? Achor offers an evidence-backed, simple way to flip the habit switch and make productivity your default setting. And it only takes 20 seconds.

 

Once you understand that habits can change, you have the freedom and the responsibility to remake them. ~ Charles Duhigg

 

The Fastest Cure for Distractions

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How can you shift from habitual procrastination or underperforming to productivity? The key is simple: Lower the costs of the desired behavior while you simultaneously raise the costs of the undesired one.

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For example, successful dieters learn to purchase healthy snacks instead of junk food during grocery runs. They know that once they get home, indulging a craving requires the burden of another trip and do the easier thing of fixing a nutritious snack.

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To leverage this technique, consider how to devise obstacles that impede mindless distractions while you simultaneously clear the path to productivity. Or as Ted told Achor, you need to make checking your email "a pain in the ass," but make getting started on your real goal as easy as rolling off a log.

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In short, make it easier to be productive than to procrastinate.

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How much of an obstacle do you need? How much extra bother would persuade you to pass up a temptation?

 

Achor found a 20-second delay was sufficient to get him to forget watching TV and instead pick up his guitar daily—a long-delayed intention. He created the delay by hiding the TV remote batteries in another room while at the same time leaving the guitar in a stand in the living room. Suddenly the guitar became easier and more alluring, while the thwarted TV impulse waned.

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In a mere three weeks, he had cultivated a solid new guitar habit.

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I can testify that this works because I've used it myself in various areas. Following Achor's example, I first stopped the mindless habit of switching on the TV by placing a lush green houseplant to hide the TV screen while hiding the remote behind it. Then I strategically placed a good book on the coffee table, and voila! I found it easier to pick up the book than turn on the TV. In 10 days, I had reestablished my evening reading habit with a bonus of a good night's sleep, which set me up for success the next day.

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I continued to challenge myself to find more opportunities to make it a breeze to get in a productive mode. I turned off all pings and most notifications and started putting my phone in silent mode when working. Also, I redesigned my office space to make it easy to sit down and get writing, keeping the space neat so I don't have to clear clutter to get going. I also keep a list of "next actions," so I avoid going in circles trying to decide what to do next. My Alexa app now reminds me when it's time to wind down and starts playing the Spotify sleep playlist, so I get to bed on time more often. I've also streamlined meal prep.

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Over time, I realized how much better I felt at the end of the day when my "plan to reality" score would be close to 100. The 20-second delays were just what I needed to switch from mindless behavior to asking myself what really matters. Or as addictions researcher Judson Brewer might say, it was the nudge that reminded me to bypass the short-term reward in favor of "the Bigger, Better Offer."Of all habit change approaches I've tried and witnessed, this has been the easiest and most successful.

 

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Put the 20-Second Rule to Work for You

 

The steps for implementing the 20-second rule are very straightforward.

 

Step 1: Notice what distractions (or temptations) get in the way