How to Change Habits: Practical Tips (and Digital Solutions)

Friday
April
 
2021

A habit is a disposition or attitude acquired through repeated actions over time; this mental disposition is inherent in human behavior. Habits apply to our everyday lives, including our work lives.

Creating, adopting, and reinforcing new habits in the workplace allows us to overcome the challenge of digital adoptionby developing new attitudes, learning new skills, reinforcing what we’ve learned, and working more effectively.

Habits & New Ways of Working

Over the past year, our work habits have changed significantly, as the Microsoft Work Trend Index report also reveals. In 2020, the number of minutes spent in virtual meetings increased by 200%, as did mobile usage.  

These figures alone are enough to show that we are moving toward a new era of work habits: one that is increasingly smart, digital, flexible, and interconnected. To navigate this transition, it is important not only to develop our soft skills but also to always maintain a focus on work-life balance. Today, the challenge of the New Ways of Working is to create and maintain new digital and mental habits that allow us to live better and work better.

5 Strategies for Forming a New Habit

But how can you develop a new habit, and how does it begin?

The Habit Model by Charles Duhigg 's habit model argues that to acquire and solidify a new habit, it is necessary to proceed through simple, individual steps to be put into practice every day.

Specifically, Duhigg states that to establish a new behavior, it is necessary to “install” a new habit through repeated actions: 

1. Start with small steps that require minimal effort; 
2. Find a "trigger": an existing habit to which you can link the new behavior; 
3. Repeat this behavior every day for at least 30 days; 
4. talk to someone about it and make sure to stick to that behavior; 
5. Get started right away, without putting it off.

 Our digital coach hi, a habit-inspiring platform is based precisely on this scientific theory, translating it into an algorithm that influences user behavior through personalized coaching guidance. hi is , in fact, a gentle voice guiding everyone’s digital habits!

 

Digital Solutions: A Platform That Inspires New Habits

But why use hi, specifically? What are the main benefits of hi as a digital solution for creating and fostering new habits?

1. It is made available to everyone in the company

2. It promotes the adoption of new behaviors through a personalized, on-the-job coaching program that reinforces these new skills and ensures they are sustained over time

3. It is based on an algorithm with a strong scientific foundation, rooted in an understanding of psychological, neuropsychological, and change management processes. In this way, the program can help people create, adopt, and maintain digital habits in a natural way, without requiring any special effort on their part;

4. It can provide real-time feedback with a high degree of personalization by identifying and processing data related to individual users' behavior patterns.

5. Leverage the principles of micro-learning to highlight the benefits of each action taken by the user, as well as its impact on the organization. Tips and nudges are presented in a way that aligns with the user’s preferences, interests, and abilities.