Do habits change you? Or do you change for habits?

I had an ultimate Frisbee tournament last weekend in Maine, and then my wife and I went camping in Acadia. It was hard to focus on work last week. In fact, after starting the year with the most productive quarter of my life (which led to a bit of burnout), I have struggled to stay consistent with my work.

I have worked hard to improve my productivity over the years and I’m generally happy with it, even during down periods like now. I use a wide variety of tricks and tools, from website blockers to point-based scrum boards that make work feel like a game each week. Today, I tried something different, and it raised a bigger question about habits in general:

Do habits change you? Or do YOU change in order to maintain habits (either good or bad?)

Here’s what happened. I was trying to figure out how I would get some much needed work done on the eve of my vacation. My typical plan is to wake up and go to a coffee shop. But this time I had another idea: what if I changed my perception of myself instead of changing my location?

I’ve been struggling to focus while working from home. I’ve always struggled with focus. I often think something like, “If I could just focus, all my dreams would come true.”

I don’t think of myself as a person who focuses well. But what if I did? What would change? I tried it.

Lots of research has found that when people alter the perception of their identities, their behaviors are more likely to change. In one study on voter turnout, the researchers asked one group of locals if they would vote in the upcoming election. They asked the other group if they were voters, turning the act of voting into part of their identity. The group that were asked if they were voters had higher turnout because they acted in a way that’s consistent with that identify.

Identify-driven change is wildly underrated, probably because it feels childish and really stupid to say “I’m someone who goes to the gym!” or “I’m a writer!” But it’s incredibly powerful.

This week, I decided to tell myself, “I’m someone who focuses well. I’m a focuser.” I thought about people I knew who were great focusers—namely my wife who seems to go into trance-like states when working. Then I thought about what a focuser would do to be productive on the eve of vacation. The answer surprised me: Just sit down at your desk and do the work!

For someone who wasn’t good at focus, just sitting down at the desk to get work done would be tough. But to a focuser, it’s just what you do.

And guess what? I was a focuser today. I had 5 hours of deep work, something I haven’t done in months. I took short breaks when I needed them, but I always got back into work… because that’s what a focuser does. 

So to answer our question: Do habits change you, or do you change your habits? I think both. At first it can be hard to believe in any identify change before you’ve done the work. At this stage, you need to commit to embarrassingly small habits to get the ball rolling. But then something cool habits: you become someone who can build habits. That’s the first and most crucial identify change. Then as your habits grow, you eventually change to suit them. At first you’re just going to the gym, but eventually you become a gym rat. At first you’re writing every day. Soon though, you’ll be a writer.

Our identities are more malleable than we think. You can speed up the process by imagining yourself as the thing you aspire to be. Say to yourself, “Imagine I was a writer. What would I do? How would I act?” Then do those things.

Soon enough, you won’t have to imagine. You’ll just be.