Behaviour Change: Make It Easy & Anchor The Trigger
Don't rely on motivation — make the behaviour effortless and bolt it onto a habit you already have
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 90%
Chatterjee credits his three-year streak of daily 5-minute workouts not to willpower but to two rules of behaviour science. Rule one: if you make something easy, you'll do it — no equipment to buy, no changing, no lookups (Amazon's one-click reportedly added $300M/yr; Netflix and YouTube autoplay exploit the same principle). Rule two: every behaviour needs a trigger, and the best trigger (per BJ Fogg) is anchoring the new behaviour onto an existing habit. His coffee brews for exactly five minutes, so the workout rides on the coffee. He also keeps kettlebells visible in the kitchen — out of sight is out of mind — and plans behaviours for when motivation is low, because the 'motivation wave' always falls.
Origin
Chatterjee applies to health the behaviour science that tech companies use ruthlessly, arguing we throw the same principles out of the window when trying to change our own habits.
Core principles
- 01If you make it easy, you'll do it.
- 02Every behaviour needs a trigger; anchoring to an existing habit is the strongest.
- 03Plan behaviours for when motivation is low, not high.
- 04Keep cues visible — out of sight is out of mind.
How to run it
- 1
Make it frictionless
Strip every barrier — no equipment to buy, no changing clothes, no plan to look up — so the behaviour needs no thought.
- 2
Anchor it to an existing habit
Bolt the new behaviour onto something you already do reliably (Chatterjee's workout rides on his 5-minute coffee brew).
Pro tip A reliable existing habit is a far better trigger than 'I'll remember' or a notification.
- 3
Keep the cue visible and plan for low motivation
Leave the kettlebell in sight, and design the habit small enough that you'll still do it when the motivation wave is down.
Watch out Relying on lasting motivation is why people fall off in the third week of January.
In the wild
Chatterjee weighs 15g of coffee, sets a 5-minute timer, and does a kitchen workout in his pyjamas while it brews — the coffee habit triggers the workout with zero willpower.
→ A near-unbroken three-year daily-movement streak.
Common mistakes
Betting on motivation
Assuming motivation will last leads to overambitious plans (run an hour, four times a week) that collapse when the motivation wave inevitably falls.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone trying to build a durable health or work habit.
Not ideal for
Goals that genuinely require large, non-negotiable blocks of effort that cannot be shrunk.
From the transcript
“if you stick on your new behaviour onto an existing habit it's much more likely to happen”
From the episode
Dr Rangan Chatterjee: 3 Steps To "Core" Happiness
Dr Rangan Chatterjee