The Hawthorne Effect

This is the single biggest hack I’ve ever come across in behavior change. It’s timeless and probably the #1 thing experts recommend to do if you want to improve anything about your life.

It’s called the Hawthorne Effect.

Basically, the Hawthorne Effect is a behavioral principle where performance improves when it’s being observed. That’s a lot of fluff so let me put it plainly - The best thing you can do to change anything about your behavior is track it.

If you want to eat healthier, sleep more, or exercise consistently? Track it. Want to be a better spouse, partner, parent, or daughter? Track it.

But here’s a caveat. You need to be actively tracking it! Your watch telling you how many steps you took in a day doesn’t work if you don’t look at it. Tracking how much time you spend on social media doesn’t help you spend less time on the app if you don’t observe your performance. 

If you know me well, you know I’m a huge advocate for this. Tracking is the one thing that has most transformed my life and I have never come across anything that can’t be improved by implementing some form of tracking it.

And here’s the psychology. When you are actively tracking something, you bring a moment of awareness to it. A lot of our bad habits or underperforming happens unconsciously without our choice. Tracking interrupts the unconscious pattern and brings consciousness to it, creating space to reflect on what might have caused it.

Your consciousness enables two things. First is it plants a message into your subconscious so that you become more aware of it moving forward. It makes you less unconscious about it when you’re doing it. And second is it gives you the ability to make better choices. You cannot make a choice without awareness, and often we make the wrong choices simply because we’re not in control of them, and they’re being made without us even realizing it.

Do not underestimate how powerful this is. I’ve seen it work hundreds of times and I know it can work for you. In fact, tracking is the most fundamental component to what I call your Super Habits System.

First you use tracking to create awareness, then you implement the 9 Super Habits to become ridiculously consistent with life-changing health, productivity, and mindset habits, and then you layer on the one question that accelerates everything you want to improve.

If you’re ready to take things to the next level, I run a 21 day challenge to walk you through the 3 step process to installing the Super Habits System for yourself and on the other side of it, you become an unstoppable force in this world!

Want to learn more about it? Click here!