Concept
Self-nudging
Self-nudging is becoming your own choice architect: for decisions you make repeatedly, setting the default, the friction and the order you would choose on your best day, so that the design decides instead of your willpower.
Thaler and Sunstein show that defaults, friction and placement move behaviour more reliably than intention. Turned inward, the same tools replace repeated decisions with a single good one. Automatic transfer to savings on payday means never deciding to save. Meetings that default to twenty-five minutes mean never deciding to end early. The phone charging in the kitchen means never deciding not to scroll in bed. Fruit at eye level and cake at the back is the original cafeteria, run for yourself. The test of a good self-nudge is that three months later the behaviour no longer requires a decision at all.
A real-life example
He cancels seven subscriptions, moves the pension with one form and orders the week's lunches on Monday from somewhere he chose while not hungry. Three months later none of these require a decision; the architecture makes them.
How to use it
- 1Find one decision you make repeatedly and set the default you would choose on your best day.
- 2Add friction to what you want less of and remove it from what you want more of.
- 3Check in three months whether the behaviour still needs a decision.