Every morning, I wake up, brush my teeth, make a pot of coffee, shower, and get ready to start my day. I do it in that order, every single day. It is my routine. Now, think about your daily routine. Do you check your phone first? Wake up your children? Make breakfast? We all have routines, and I think it is what keeps me grounded. As human beings in the twenty-first century, we do everything at a very fast pace. Our brains encode the things we do each day into something referred to as habits. We get tangled into the cycle of habits, and it hinders us from noticing what is going on around us and it puts our imagination on time out. Now you’re probably thinking, “Well, I like my routine.” And trust me, so do I, but I think we get a little too caught up in them.
Recently I watched a TED talk with Tony Fadell where he dove deep into this “routine talk,” which he refers to as a process called “Habituation.” He gives an insightful talk about how we need to fight back the human tendency of transforming our patterns and day-to-day behaviors into habits, and recognizing the “little idiotic details” we encounter every day. He explains how as a designer he is always trying to improve the everyday things he sees, and encourages the audience to do the same.
Tony Fadell gives 3 tips on how to fight habituation:
1. Look Broader: look at all the steps forward and backward and identify problems that need solutions!
2. Look Closer: the smallest details give us the greatest meaning
3. Think Younger: have young minds! We get use to the things we are exposed often. As Tony mentions, we need to be as kids in which they haven’t been around much and question everything.
I think Tony makes an excellent point. We need to look beyond our habits to truly experience the world better. Therefore, I challenge you to open your eyes, pay attention to what is going on around you, and break out of your everyday routine. Try to see the world as it really is, not just through our lens we put on each morning.
You can watch Tony Fadell’s TED talk here.