The benefits of a flexible routine

The most effective habits create stability, but avoid rigidity

Excerpt: "The first time I visited Google’s sprawling corporate headquarters was to attend a retreat for its human resources directors in 2012. The company was eager to help its employees form better habits around wellness and, in particular, to encourage more employees to use its on-site gyms. Research shows that healthier employees are happier and more productive. Not long after my visit, I called my friends at the tech behemoth and pitched a low-cost strategy that I and my longtime collaborator, Harvard Business School professor John Beshears, were convinced could help.

John and I wanted to understand how people’s tendency to take the path of least resistance (what you might call laziness) could be harnessed to help improve important daily decisions that they can’t just “set and forget” with a clever default. For example, we hoped to find ways to improve choices about technology use, diet, exercise, sleep, and daily spending. We suspected that Google might be a perfect test bed for an idea we’d developed about how to kick-start long-lasting habits more effectively. Our idea had to do with the consistency of people’s routines."