--- title: The Most Effective Way To Change Your Behavior and Improve Your Life description: Look around you canonical: https://time.com/3953582/effective-way-change-behavior/ author: Eric Barker article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-16T04:01:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:18.320Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Most Effective Way To Change Your Behavior and Improve Your Life og:description: Look around you og:url: https://time.com/3953582/effective-way-change-behavior/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4994eade0eb5557c/69885a6e0b72e30d656e4de7/businessman-looking-out-city.jpg?branch=production&width=507&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 507 og:image:height: 285 og:image:alt: businessman-looking-out-city og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Most Effective Way To Change Your Behavior and Improve Your Life twitter:description: Look around you twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4994eade0eb5557c/69885a6e0b72e30d656e4de7/businessman-looking-out-city.jpg?branch=production&width=507&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Most Effective Way To Change Your Behavior and Improve Your Life > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Ask the Expert: Dealing With a Colleague's Gross Work Habits [Watch (HLS stream): Ask the Expert: Dealing With a Colleague's Gross Work Habits](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/R6hSAD1F.m3u8) (1:23)  _Published 2015-01-21. What do you do when your someone at your office regularly grosses you out at work? MONEY's Donna Rosato has tips on how to handle a co-worker with icky tendencies._ by [Eric Barker](https://time.com/author/eric-barker/) ## Eric Barker Jul 16, 2015 4:01 AM UTC  Businessman looking out over the city. Businessman looking out over the city. Getty Images by [Eric Barker](https://time.com/author/eric-barker/) ## Eric Barker Jul 16, 2015 4:01 AM UTC [Changing your environment](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/what-did-heroin-addiction-during-the-vietnam) is the easiest and most powerful way to change your behavior. Altering the [things in your home](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/whats-a-quick-and-easy-way-to-be-more-creativ) and [your office](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/does-the-way-an-office-is-decorated-affect-em) and carefully picking the [people you spend time with](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/whats-the-easiest-way-for-a-college-student-t) will bring you greater and more effortless results than anything else. But you’re an objective, self-determined, independent, unique snowflake, you say? [No, you’re not.](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/whats-the-main-thing-we-can-learn-from-harvar) * Those around you affect more of your behavior than you think. [Poor fitness](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/is-poor-fitness-contagious), [car purchases](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/if-your-neighbor-gets-a-new-car-do-you-buy-a), [lateness](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/what-is-the-key-reason-most-people-are-late-f), [having children](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/are-fertility-decisions-contagious), [charitable contributions](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/do-we-donate-more-when-others-can-see-how-muc), [divorce](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/is-divorce-contagious) and [stupidity](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/is-stupidity-contagious) are all contagious. * Your environment manipulates your decision-making more than you care to know as well. You act [warmer when it’s warmer and colder when it’s colder](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/are-we-warmer-or-colder-toward-others-when-th). Context [rules how you eat](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/does-your-mind-play-tricks-on-you-when-it-com); you consume more [when plates are bigger ](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/can-the-color-and-size-of-a-dish-affect-how-m)and [food is closer](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/how-to-easily-get-yourself-to-eat-less). When you see kindness, [you are kind](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/does-seeing-altruism-make-you-more-altruistic). [What you wear](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/does-what-you-wear-affect-how-you-act) affects how you act. * Sorry to squash the idea of soulmates but who you date is only [2% about what you want and 98% who is nearby](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/how-much-of-who-you-choose-to-date-is-determi). The boost from caffeine and the fun of a roller coaster [makes you think a date is more attractive that they really are](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/whats-the-key-to-a-fantastic-first-date). The happiness of relationships is often [more about the fun places you go and things you do together](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/what-simple-thing-kills-many-relationships) than the characteristics of the people in it. The reason you’re often so good a predicting other people’s behavior and so bad at predicting your own is because when forecasting other people’s actions [you always take context into consideration](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/why-can-we-predict-other-peoples-behavior-mor). With yourself, you assume you’re objective. We are often lazy [creatures of habit](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/how-much-of-the-day-do-we-spend-on-autopilot), strongly [influenced by the world around us](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/how-much-of-our-behavior-is-unconsciously-det). We don’t even use our leisure time to do what we really enjoy, [we do what’s easiest](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/what-do-we-do-with-our-leisure-time-what-trul). And without a prod we don’t do the ethical thing, [we do what’s convenient](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/when-faced-with-moral-dilemmas-do-we-do-what). But the predictability of our reliance on context points to [a remarkably effective method](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/how-can-we-resist-our-bad-habits) for improving one’s life: **_Manipulate your environment so as to_** [**_make what you should do easy and what you shouldn’t do hard._**](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/whats-an-easy-trick-for-quitting-bad-habits-a) **Join over 190,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email** [**here**](http://eepurl.com/o6uAD)**.** **_This piece originally appeared on_** [**_Barking Up the Wrong Tree_**](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2012/04/whats-the-most-effective-way-to-change-you-be/)**_._** Related posts: [How To Stop Being Lazy And Get More Done – 5 Expert Tips](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/08/how-to-stop-being-lazy/) [How To Get People To Like You: 7 Ways From An FBI Behavior Expert](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/10/how-to-get-people-to-like-you/) [New Harvard Research Reveals A Fun Way To Be More Successful](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/09/be-more-successful/) ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Clipping your nails in the office is one of the grossest things you could do at work. And surprisingly, it's one of the most common. Staffing agency at Deco did a survey on worker's top pet peeves. And clipping you toenails and your fingernails in the office apparently, is common and one of the top things that annoys workers which is totally understandable. So the best way to handle your clipping- nail colleague is to be direct, have a conversation. Do it in private. Maybe take him to a conference room and say, gee, you might not realize that this is kind of bothering me. Could you perhaps clip your nails in the bathroom or maybe do it at home? Kind of a tough conversation to have. That feels awkward for you. Go to your boss and ask the boss if they could send a memo out about work place etiquette and the behaviors that are not okay. And be specific. Make sure that they include nail clipping and other things. Believe it or not nail clipping isn't the only disgusting thing. That annoys people in the office. According to the Adecco survey, putting makeup on in the office, brushing your hair at your desk, and walking around without your shoes on are very common and among the top pet peeves for workers. Chances are, you're not the only one who notices these things, though, so if you do speak up, your colleagues are going to be happy that you did too. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3953582/effective-way-change-behavior/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3953582/effective-way-change-behavior/"},"headline":"The Most Effective Way To Change Your Behavior and Improve Your Life","datePublished":"2015-07-16T04:01:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:03:18.320Z","description":"Look around you","url":"https://time.com/3953582/effective-way-change-behavior/","keywords":["Psychology","behavior","Life"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4994eade0eb5557c/69885a6e0b72e30d656e4de7/businessman-looking-out-city.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eric Barker","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eric-barker/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4994eade0eb5557c/69885a6e0b72e30d656e4de7/businessman-looking-out-city.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"businessman-looking-out-city","caption":"businessman-looking-out-city","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/psychology/","name":"Psychology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3953582/effective-way-change-behavior/","name":"The Most Effective Way To Change Your Behavior and Improve Your Life"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Ask the Expert: Dealing With a Colleague's Gross Work Habits","description":"What do you do when your someone at your office regularly grosses you out at work? 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