Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything(85)

By the time she reached sixth grade, Rachel was no longer in Special Ed classes. Not only did she integrate well into mainstream classes, she went on to take advanced placement courses, and she graduated with honors.

When she had started using Tiny Habits to help Rachel, Amy did not expect or even dream about that kind of transformation. She just wanted her daughter to find a way to use the gifts that she was born with. While it wouldn’t have been a crisis if Rachel had gotten held back in the fourth grade, it would have been an abiding source of pain for Amy if she hadn’t helped her daughter reach her full potential. And Amy had been careful about how she did that. If she had gotten heavy-handed with Rachel, the effort would have been a constant source of anxiety and tension, and it might have ultimately failed.

Amy found so much joy in the process of changing together and Rachel found so much success that Amy wishes she had known about Tiny Habits earlier so her older two children would have had the same benefits.





Workplace Challenge: Reducing Stress in the Hospital


I was hired a few years ago by a major research hospital to tackle the problem of nurse burnout. I invited Linda, who had become a Tiny Habits coach and trainer, to help me. The project brief from hospital leaders said that the aspiration was to “help nurses form new habits that make them more resilient.” “Resilience” was the positive frame for this effort, but everyone understood this was really about employee burnout, a large and growing problem among nurses, doctors, and other medical staff.

I understood that working in a hospital was stressful. Nurses care for people who are ill. Despite excellent care, some patients die, and doctors, patients, and family members can make unreasonable demands. However, as I learned more about the nurses and the reality of their jobs, I was floored to see how deeply stressful each shift could be and what effect this stress had on every nurse and how it continued to affect their time away from work.

As Linda and I taught the courses via live video conferencing, I was able to see each nurse on my screen. Some were in their pajamas at home, bleary-eyed and flopped on the couch eating takeout. They didn’t look like nurses at all—they looked like college students after an ill-advised night of partying. Others sat at desks during the lessons, staring into their computer cameras with faces full of fatigue.

Linda and I deeply wanted to help them, and Linda was an ideal coteacher because she was an expert in using Tiny Habits to reduce stress. The nurses fully understood that by taking care of themselves (and one another) they could better care for their patients, but they didn’t know how to put that aspiration into practice.

We trained them in the Tiny Habits method an hour a week over the course of a month, and during the week, they practiced making behaviors tiny, creating recipes, rehearsing the Anchor-habit sequence, celebrations, and troubleshooting.

We got to know the nurses as people. We learned about some of their existing habits at work. They almost never took breaks. They used computer software that was old and aggravating. And most surprising to me, they typically wouldn’t drink any water during a twelve-hour shift. The nurses knew this wasn’t a healthy behavior, but something in the culture of the hospital pushed them to their very limit. If they didn’t drink water, they wouldn’t need a restroom break. And in that way, they thought they could help more patients and also believed their colleagues would admire their devotion.

But this devotion had a high price. Many would return home after a long shift unable to engage with their spouses and kids. They had headaches, and some had trouble sleeping.

To make the Tiny Habits training easier for them, I created the Recipe Maker tool. Linda and I had the nurses write a list of Anchors (routines they did every day at work) on the left side of a worksheet.

After I park my car . . .



After I log on to the computer . . .



After I meet each patient . . .



After I do an EKG . . .



After I answer the call light . . .



After I wash my hands . . .





Then Linda and I worked with the nurses to discover what tiny behaviors they could do to reduce stress. We came up with a long list, and we put some of the items into the recipe format on the right side of the worksheet.

I will take a deep breath.



I will smile at the closest person.



I will take a sip of water.



I will ask for help.



I will say, “Thank you.”





With those two parts, the nurses could mix and match. By pairing an Anchor on the left with a Tiny Behavior on the right, the nurses quickly created recipes that they could try out during their shifts. Helping each other, the nurses then shared what recipes were working.

Here are some recipes they created.

After I park at work, I will close my eyes and take three relaxing breaths.



After I clock in, I will think, Today I’m helping people who really need me.



After I meet each patient, I will make eye contact and give them a smile.





My Recipe—Tiny Habits Method


After I . . .

I will . . .

To wire the habit into my brain, I will immediately:



park at work,