--- ---  # The Most Effective Way To Change Your Behavior and Improve Your Life ## 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/) The Most Effective Way To Change Your Behavior and Improve Your Life ```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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