12 The Law of Least Effort

最小努力法则

IN HIS AWARD-WINNING BOOK, Guns, Germs, and Steel, anthropologist and biologist Jared Diamond points out a simple fact: different continents have different shapes. At first glance, this statement seems rather obvious and unimportant, but it turns out to have a profound impact on human behavior.

人类学家兼生物学家贾里德·戴蒙德在他的获奖著作《枪炮、病菌与钢铁》中指出了一个简单的事实:不同的大陆有不同的形状。乍一看，这种说法似乎相当明显和不重要，但事实证明，它对人类行为产生了深远的影响。

The primary axis of the Americas runs from north to south. That is, the landmass of North and South America tends to be tall and thin rather than wide and fat. The same is generally true for Africa. Meanwhile, the landmass that makes up Europe, Asia, and the Middle East is the opposite. This massive stretch of land tends to be more east-west in shape. According to Diamond, this difference in shape played a significant role in the spread of agriculture over the centuries.

美洲的主轴线从北到南。也就是说，南北美洲的大陆倾向于又高又瘦，而不是又宽又胖。非洲的情况大体上也是如此。与此同时，构成欧洲、亚洲和中东的大陆却恰恰相反。这一大片土地的形状往往是东西走向的。戴蒙德认为，这种形状上的差异在几个世纪以来农业的传播中扮演了重要的角色。

When agriculture began to spread around the globe, farmers had an easier time expanding along east-west routes than along north-south ones. This is because locations along the same latitude generally share similar climates, amounts of sunlight and rainfall, and changes in season. These factors allowed farmers in Europe and Asia to domesticate a few crops and grow them along the entire stretch of land from France to China.

当农业开始在全球范围内传播时，农民沿着东西向的路线比沿着南北向的路线更容易扩张。这是因为同一纬度上的地点通常气候相似，阳光充足，降雨量相似，季节变化也相似。这些因素使得欧洲和亚洲的农民能够驯化一些作物，并沿着从法国到中国的整片土地种植它们。

THE SHAPE OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR

人类行为的形态

FIGURE 13: The primary axis of Europe and Asia is east-west. The primary axis of the Americas and Africa is north-south. This leads to a wider range of climates up-and-down the Americas than across Europe and Asia. As a result, agriculture spread nearly twice as fast across Europe and Asia than it did elsewhere. The behavior of farmers—even across hundreds or thousands of years—was constrained by the amount of friction in the environment.

图13:欧洲和亚洲的主轴是东西方向。美洲和非洲的主轴是南北轴线。这导致美洲上下的气候范围比整个欧洲和亚洲都要广。因此，农业在欧洲和亚洲的传播速度几乎是其他地区的两倍。农民的行为——甚至经历了数百或数千年——受到环境摩擦程度的限制。

By comparison, the climate varies greatly when traveling from north to south. Just imagine how different the weather is in Florida compared to Canada. You can be the most talented farmer in the world, but it won’t help you grow Florida oranges in the Canadian winter. Snow is a poor substitute for soil. In order to spread crops along north-south routes, farmers would need to find and domesticate new plants whenever the climate changed.

相比之下，从北到南的气候变化很大。想象一下佛罗里达和加拿大的天气是多么的不同。你可以成为世界上最有才华的农民，但是在加拿大的冬天，它不会帮助你种植佛罗里达州的橘子。雪不是土壤的可靠替代品。为了沿着南北向的路线传播农作物，农民需要在气候变化时寻找并驯化新的植物。

As a result, agriculture spread two to three times faster across Asia and Europe than it did up and down the Americas. Over the span of centuries, this small difference had a very big impact. Increased food production allowed for more rapid population growth. With more people, these cultures were able to build stronger armies and were better equipped to develop new technologies. The changes started out

因此，农业在亚洲和欧洲的传播速度比在美洲的传播速度快两到三倍。在几个世纪的时间里，这个小小的差异产生了巨大的影响。粮食生产的增加使人口增长更加迅速。随着人口的增加，这些文化能够建立更强大的军队，并且能够更好地发展新技术。这些变化开始了

small—a crop that spread slightly farther, a population that grew slightly faster—but compounded into substantial differences over time.

这种作物的种植面积较小，种群增长速度较快，但随着时间的推移，种群之间会产生巨大的差异。

The spread of agriculture provides an example of the 3rd Law of Behavior Change on a global scale. Conventional wisdom holds that motivation is the key to habit change. Maybe if you really wanted it, you’d actually do it. But the truth is, our real motivation is to be lazy and to do what is convenient. And despite what the latest productivity best seller will tell you, this is a smart strategy, not a dumb one.

农业的普及在全球范围内提供了第三行为变化法则的一个例子。传统观点认为，动机是改变习惯的关键。也许如果你真的想做，你就会真的去做。但事实是，我们真正的动机是懒惰和做方便的事情。不管最新的生产力畅销书会告诉你什么，这是一个聪明的策略，而不是一个愚蠢的策略。

Energy is precious, and the brain is wired to conserve it whenever possible. It is human nature to follow the Law of Least Effort, which states that when deciding between two similar options, people will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work.* For example, expanding your farm to the east where you can grow the same crops rather than heading north where the climate is different. Out of all the possible actions we could take, the one that is realized is the one that delivers the most value for the least effort. We are motivated to do what is easy.

能量是宝贵的，只要有可能，大脑就会保存能量。遵循最小努力法则是人类的天性，该法则规定，当人们在两个相似的选择中做出决定时，他们自然会倾向于选择那些需要最少工作量的选择。例如，将农场扩大到东部，在那里你可以种植同样的作物，而不是向气候不同的北部迁移。在所有我们可能采取的行动中，实现的行动是以最少的努力提供最大价值的行动。我们有动力去做简单的事情。

Every action requires a certain amount of energy. The more energy required, the less likely it is to occur. If your goal is to do a hundred push-ups per day, that’s a lot of energy! In the beginning, when you’re motivated and excited, you can muster the strength to get started. But after a few days, such a massive effort feels exhausting. Meanwhile, sticking to the habit of doing one push-up per day requires almost no energy to get started. And the less energy a habit requires, the more likely it is to occur.

每一个行动都需要一定量的能量。需要的能量越多，发生的可能性就越小。如果你的目标是每天做一百个俯卧撑，那可是很大的能量！开始的时候，当你充满动力和激情的时候，你可以鼓足勇气开始工作。但是几天之后，这么大的努力让人感到筋疲力尽。与此同时，坚持每天做一个俯卧撑的习惯几乎不需要精力就可以开始。习惯需要的能量越少，它发生的可能性就越大。

Look at any behavior that fills up much of your life and you’ll see that it can be performed with very low levels of motivation. Habits like scrolling on our phones, checking email, and watching television steal so much of our time because they can be performed almost without effort. They are remarkably convenient.

看看那些占据了你生活大部分时间的行为，你会发现它们可以在非常低的动力水平下完成。像滚动手机、查收邮件、看电视这样的习惯占用了我们大量的时间，因为它们几乎不费吹灰之力就能完成。它们非常方便。

In a sense, every habit is just an obstacle to getting what you really want. Dieting is an obstacle to getting fit. Meditation is an obstacle to feeling calm. Journaling is an obstacle to thinking clearly. You don’t actually want the habit itself. What you really want is the outcome the habit delivers. The greater the obstacle—that is, the more difficult the habit—the more friction there is between you and your desired end state. This is why it is crucial to make your habits so easy that you’ll do

从某种意义上说，每一个习惯都是你得到你真正想要的东西的障碍。节食是保持健康的一个障碍。冥想是感觉平静的障碍。写日志是思维清晰的障碍。你实际上并不想要这个习惯本身。你真正想要的是习惯带来的结果。障碍越大ーー也就是说，习惯越困难ーー你和你想要的最终状态之间的摩擦就越大。这就是为什么让你的习惯变得容易并且你会去做是至关重要的

them even when you don’t feel like it. If you can make your good habits more convenient, you’ll be more likely to follow through on them.

即使你不想这么做。如果你能让你的好习惯变得更方便，你就更有可能坚持到底。

But what about all the moments when we seem to do the opposite? If we’re all so lazy, then how do you explain people accomplishing hard things like raising a child or starting a business or climbing Mount Everest?

但是，当我们似乎在做相反的事情的时候，我们该怎么办呢？如果我们都这么懒，那么你如何解释人们完成艰难的事情，比如抚养孩子、创业或攀登珠穆朗玛峰？

Certainly, you are capable of doing very hard things. The problem is that some days you feel like doing the hard work and some days you feel like giving in. On the tough days, it’s crucial to have as many things working in your favor as possible so that you can overcome the challenges life naturally throws your way. The less friction you face, the easier it is for your stronger self to emerge. The idea behind make it easy is not to only do easy things. The idea is to make it as easy as possible in the moment to do things that payoff in the long run.

当然，你有能力做非常困难的事情。问题在于，有些时候你想做艰苦的工作，有些时候你想放弃。在艰难的日子里，让尽可能多的事情对你有利是至关重要的，这样你就可以克服生活自然而然给你带来的挑战。你面对的摩擦越少，你就越容易变得更强大。让事情变得简单背后的想法不仅仅是做简单的事情。这样做的目的是尽可能简单地在当下做一些长期回报的事情。

HOW TO ACHIEVE MORE WITH LESS EFFORT

如何用更少的努力实现更多的目标

Imagine you are holding a garden hose that is bent in the middle. Some water can flow through, but not very much. If you want to increase the rate at which water passes through the hose, you have two options. The first option is to crank up the valve and force more water out. The second option is to simply remove the bend in the hose and let water flow through naturally.

想象你正拿着一根中间弯曲的花园软管。有些水可以流过，但流量不大。如果你想提高水通过软管的速度，你有两个选择。第一种选择是打开阀门，迫使更多的水流出。第二种选择是简单地移除软管的弯曲部分，让水自然流过。

Trying to pump up your motivation to stick with a hard habit is like trying to force water through a bent hose. You can do it, but it requires a lot of effort and increases the tension in your life. Meanwhile, making your habits simple and easy is like removing the bend in the hose. Rather than trying to overcome the friction in your life, you reduce it.

试图激发你坚持一个硬习惯的动力，就像试图用一根弯曲的水管把水挤过去一样。你可以这样做，但是这需要很多努力，增加你生活中的紧张感。与此同时，让你的习惯变得简单和容易就像移除软管的弯曲部分一样。与其试图克服生活中的摩擦，不如减少它。

One of the most effective ways to reduce the friction associated with your habits is to practice environment design. In Chapter 6, we discussed environment design as a method for making cues more obvious, but you can also optimize your environment to make actions easier. For example, when deciding where to practice a new habit, it is best to choose a place that is already along the path of your daily routine. Habits are easier to build when they fit into the flow of your life. You are more likely to go to the gym if it is on your way to work because stopping doesn’t add much friction to your lifestyle. By comparison, if the gym is off the path of your normal commute—even by just a few blocks—now you’re going “out of your way” to get there.

减少与你的习惯相关的摩擦的最有效的方法之一就是实践环境设计。在第6章中，我们讨论了环境设计作为一种使线索更加明显的方法，但是你也可以优化你的环境使行动更加容易。例如，当决定在哪里实践一个新习惯时，最好选择一个已经在你日常生活路径上的地方。当习惯适应你的生活流程时，它们更容易养成。如果你在上班的路上去健身房，你更有可能去健身房，因为停下来不会给你的生活方式增加太多摩擦。相比之下，如果健身房偏离了你平时上下班的路线——哪怕只隔了几个街区——现在你就要“想尽办法”去那里了。

Perhaps even more effective is reducing the friction within your home or office. Too often, we try to start habits in high-friction environments. We try to follow a strict diet while we are out to dinner with friends. We try to write a book in a chaotic household. We try to concentrate while using a smartphone filled with distractions. It doesn’t have to be this way. We can remove the points of friction that hold us back. This is precisely what electronics manufacturers in Japan began to do in the 1970s.

也许更有效的方法是减少你家里或办公室里的摩擦。很多时候，我们试图在高摩擦环境中养成习惯。当我们和朋友出去吃饭时，我们尽量遵守严格的饮食规定。我们试图在一个混乱的家庭里写一本书。我们在使用充满干扰的智能手机时努力集中注意力。事情不一定非得这样。我们可以消除阻碍我们前进的摩擦点。这正是日本电子制造商在20世纪70年代开始做的事情。

In an article published in the New Yorker titled “Better All the Time,” James Suroweicki writes:

在《纽约客》上发表的一篇题为《更好的一切》的文章中詹姆斯•苏罗韦基(JamesSuroweicki)写道:

“Japanese firms emphasized what came to be known as ‘lean production,’ relentlessly looking to remove waste of all kinds from the production process, down to redesigning workspaces, so workers didn’t have to waste time twisting and turning to reach their tools. The result was that Japanese factories were more efficient and Japanese products were more reliable than American ones. In 1974, service calls for American-made color televisions were five times as common as for Japanese televisions. By 1979, it took American workers three times as long to assemble their sets.”

“日本企业强调所谓的‘精益生产’，坚持不懈地从生产过程中消除各种浪费，甚至重新设计工作场所，这样工人们就不必浪费时间扭曲和转身去拿工具。结果是，日本工厂更有效率，日本产品比美国产品更可靠。1974年，美国制造的彩色电视机的服务需求是日本电视机的5倍。到1979年，美国工人花了三倍的时间来组装他们的设备。”

I like to refer to this strategy as addition by subtraction.* The Japanese companies looked for every point of friction in the manufacturing process and eliminated it. As they subtracted wasted effort, they added customers and revenue. Similarly, when we remove the points of friction that sap our time and energy, we can achieve more with less effort. (This is one reason tidying up can feel so good: we are simultaneously moving forward and lightening the cognitive load our environment places on us.)

我喜欢把这个策略称为减法加法。日本公司在制造过程中寻找每一个摩擦点，并消除了它。当他们减去被浪费的努力时，他们增加了客户和收入。同样地，当我们消除了耗费我们时间和精力的摩擦点，我们可以用更少的努力取得更多的成果。(这就是为什么收拾东西的感觉如此之好的原因之一:我们在前进的同时减轻了环境给我们带来的认知负担。)

If you look at the most habit-forming products, you’ll notice that one of the things these goods and services do best is remove little bits of friction from your life. Meal delivery services reduce the friction of shopping for groceries. Dating apps reduce the friction of making social introductions. Ride-sharing services reduce the friction of getting across town. Text messaging reduces the friction of sending a letter in the mail.

如果你看看那些最容易形成习惯的产品，你会发现这些产品和服务最擅长的事情之一就是从你的生活中消除一些小摩擦。送餐服务减少了在杂货店购物的摩擦。约会应用程序减少了社交介绍的摩擦。拼车服务减少了穿城而过的摩擦。发短信可以减少邮寄信件时的摩擦。

Like a Japanese television manufacturer redesigning their workspace to reduce wasted motion, successful companies design their products to automate, eliminate, or simplify as many steps as possible. They reduce the number of fields on each form. They pare down the number of clicks required to create an account. They deliver their products with easy-to-understand directions or ask their customers to make fewer choices.

就像一个日本电视制造商重新设计他们的工作空间以减少浪费运动，成功的公司设计他们的产品自动化，消除，或简化尽可能多的步骤。它们减少了每个表单上的字段数。他们减少了创建账户所需的点击次数。他们以简单易懂的方式提供产品，或者要求客户做出更少的选择。

When the first voice-activated speakers were released—products like Google Home, Amazon Echo, and Apple HomePod—I asked a friend what he liked about the product he had purchased. He said it was just easier to say “Play some country music” than to pull out his phone, open the music app, and pick a playlist. Of course, just a few years earlier, having unlimited access to music in your pocket was a remarkably frictionless behavior compared to driving to the store and buying a CD. Business is a never-ending quest to deliver the same result in an easier fashion.

当第一批声控扬声器——比如谷歌家居(GoogleHome)、亚马逊回声(AmazonEcho)和苹果homepod——发布时，我问一个朋友，他喜欢他购买的这款产品的什么地方。他说，说“播放一些乡村音乐”比拿出手机、打开音乐应用程序、选择播放列表要容易得多。当然，就在几年前，与开车去商店买CD相比，在口袋里无限制地听音乐还是一种非常低摩擦的行为。商业是一个永无止境的追求，以一种更简单的方式提供相同的结果。

Similar strategies have been used effectively by governments. When the British government wanted to increase tax collection rates, they switched from sending citizens to a web page where the tax form could be downloaded to linking directly to the form. Reducing that one step in the process increased the response rate from 19.2 percent to 23.4 percent. For a country like the United Kingdom, those percentage points represent millions in tax revenue.

各国政府也有效地使用了类似的战略。当英国政府想要提高税收率的时候，他们从把公民发送到一个可以下载税收表格的网页转变到直接链接到表格上。在这个过程中减少一个步骤可以将响应率从19.2%提高到23.4%。对于像英国这样的国家，这些百分点代表了数百万的税收。

The central idea is to create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible. Much of the battle of building better habits comes down to finding ways to reduce the friction associated with our good habits and increase the friction associated with our bad ones.

中心思想是创造一个环境，让做正确的事情尽可能容易。养成良好习惯的斗争大多归结于找到减少与好习惯相关的摩擦和增加与坏习惯相关的摩擦的方法。

PRIME THE ENVIRONMENT FOR FUTURE USE

为日后使用环境作好准备

Oswald Nuckols is an IT developer from Natchez, Mississippi. He is also someone who understands the power of priming his environment.

是来自纳奇兹的IT开发人员。他也是一个懂得启动环境的力量的人。

Nuckols dialed in his cleaning habits by following a strategy he refers to as “resetting the room.” For instance, when he finishes watching television, he places the remote back on the TV stand, arranges the pillows on the couch, and folds the blanket. When he leaves his car, he throws any trash away. Whenever he takes a shower, he wipes down the toilet while the shower is warming up. (As he notes,

纽克斯用一种他称之为“重置房间”的策略来调整他的清洁习惯例如，当他看完电视后，他把遥控器放在电视机架上，把枕头放在沙发上，然后叠毯子。当他离开他的汽车时，他把所有的垃圾都扔掉。每当他洗澡的时候，他都会在淋浴升温的时候把马桶擦干净。正如他所说,

the “perfect time to clean the toilet is right before you wash yourself in the shower anyway.”) The purpose of resetting each room is not simply to clean up after the last action, but to prepare for the next action.

“最好的时间是在你洗澡之前清洗马桶。重置每个房间的目的不是简单地在最后一个动作之后清理，而是为下一个动作做准备。

“When I walk into a room everything is in its right place,” Nuckols wrote. “Because I do this every day in every room, stuff always stays in good shape. . . . People think I work hard but I’m actually really lazy. I’m just proactively lazy. It gives you so much time back.”

纽克斯写道:“当我走进一个房间的时候，所有的东西都放对了地方。”。“因为我每天在每个房间都这样做，所以东西总是保持良好状态.....。人们认为我工作很努力，但实际上我很懒。我只是主动地懒惰。这样你就有很多时间回到过去。”

Whenever you organize a space for its intended purpose, you are priming it to make the next action easy. For instance, my wife keeps a box of greeting cards that are presorted by occasion—birthday, sympathy, wedding, graduation, and more. Whenever necessary, she grabs an appropriate card and sends it off. She is incredibly good at remembering to send cards because she has reduced the friction of doing so. For years, I was the opposite. Someone would have a baby and I would think, “I should send a card.” But then weeks would pass and by the time I remembered to pick one up at the store, it was too late. The habit wasn’t easy.

无论何时，只要你为预期目的组织一个空间，你就是在启动它，使下一个行动变得容易。例如，我的妻子保留了一盒贺卡，这些贺卡是按照生日、慰问、婚礼、毕业等场合预先准备好的。只要有必要，她就会抓起一张合适的卡片寄出去。她非常擅长记住寄卡片，因为她这样做减少了摩擦。多年来，我一直是相反的。如果有人生了孩子，我会想，“我应该寄张卡片。”但是几个星期过去了，当我记得去商店买一个的时候，已经太晚了。这个习惯并不容易。

There are many ways to prime your environment so it’s ready for immediate use. If you want to cook a healthy breakfast, place the skillet on the stove, set the cooking spray on the counter, and lay out any plates and utensils you’ll need the night before. When you wake up, making breakfast will be easy.

有许多方法可以启动您的环境，所以它可以立即使用。如果你想做一顿健康的早餐，把煎锅放在炉子上，把烹饪喷雾放在柜台上，然后在前一天晚上把你需要的盘子和餐具摆出来。当你醒来的时候，做早餐会很容易。

Want to draw more? Put your pencils, pens, notebooks, and drawing tools on top of your desk, within easy reach.

想画更多吗？把你的铅笔、钢笔、笔记本和绘画工具放在你的桌子上，放在你能够到的地方。

Want to exercise? Set out your workout clothes, shoes, gym bag, and water bottle ahead of time.

想要锻炼吗？提前准备好你的运动服、鞋子、运动包和水瓶。

Want to improve your diet? Chop up a ton of fruits and vegetables on weekends and pack them in containers, so you have easy access to healthy, ready-to-eat options during the week.

想改善你的饮食吗？在周末把大量的水果和蔬菜切碎，装在容器里，这样你就可以很容易地在工作日获得健康的、即食的选择。

These are simple ways to make the good habit the path of least resistance.

这些都是使好习惯成为最少阻力的简单方法。

You can also invert this principle and prime the environment to make bad behaviors difficult. If you find yourself watching too much television, for example, then unplug it after each use. Only plug it back

你也可以颠倒这个原则，改变环境，让不良行为变得困难。例如，如果你发现自己看了太多的电视，那么每次使用之后就拔掉它。只需要把它插回去

in if you can say out loud the name of the show you want to watch. This setup creates just enough friction to prevent mindless viewing.

如果你能大声说出你想看的节目的名字。这种设置只会产生足够的摩擦力来防止无意识的观看。

If that doesn’t do it, you can take it a step further. Unplug the television and take the batteries out of the remote after each use, so it takes an extra ten seconds to turn it back on. And if you’re really hard-core, move the television out of the living room and into a closet after each use. You can be sure you’ll only take it out when you really want to watch something. The greater the friction, the less likely the habit.

如果这还不够，你可以更进一步。每次使用后拔掉电视的插头，取出遥控器的电池，这样就需要额外的10秒钟来重新打开电视。如果你是真正的铁杆粉丝，每次使用后把电视机从客厅搬到壁橱里。可以肯定的是，只有当你真的想看的时候，你才会把它拿出来。摩擦越大，习惯的可能性就越小。

Whenever possible, I leave my phone in a different room until lunch. When it’s right next to me, I’ll check it all morning for no reason at all. But when it is in another room, I rarely think about it. And the friction is high enough that I won’t go get it without a reason. As a result, I get three to four hours each morning when I can work without interruption.

只要有可能，我都会把手机放在不同的房间直到午饭。当它就在我身边的时候，我会毫无理由地检查一上午。但是当它在另一个房间的时候，我很少去想它。摩擦力很大，我不会无缘无故去拿它。因此，每天早上我有三到四个小时可以不受干扰地工作。

If sticking your phone in another room doesn’t seem like enough, tell a friend or family member to hide it from you for a few hours. Ask a coworker to keep it at their desk in the morning and give it back to you at lunch.

如果把手机放在另一个房间里看起来还不够，告诉你的朋友或家人把它藏起来几个小时。让你的同事早上把它放在办公桌上，午饭时还给你。

It is remarkable how little friction is required to prevent unwanted behavior. When I hide beer in the back of the fridge where I can’t see it, I drink less. When I delete social media apps from my phone, it can be weeks before I download them again and log in. These tricks are unlikely to curb a true addiction, but for many of us, a little bit of friction can be the difference between sticking with a good habit or sliding into a bad one. Imagine the cumulative impact of making dozens of these changes and living in an environment designed to make the good behaviors easier and the bad behaviors harder.

值得注意的是，防止不必要的行为只需要很少的摩擦。当我把啤酒藏在冰箱后面看不见的地方，我就会少喝一点。当我从手机上删除社交媒体应用程序时，可能需要几周时间才能重新下载并登录。这些技巧不太可能抑制一个真正的上瘾，但是对于我们大多数人来说，一点小小的摩擦就可以决定是坚持一个好习惯还是变成一个坏习惯。想象一下这些改变的累积影响，生活在一个旨在让好的行为变得更容易而让坏的行为变得更难的环境中。

Whether we are approaching behavior change as an individual, a parent, a coach, or a leader, we should ask ourselves the same question: “How can we design a world where it’s easy to do what’s right?” Redesign your life so the actions that matter most are also the actions that are easiest to do.

无论我们是作为个人、父母、教练还是领导者来接近行为改变，我们都应该问自己同样的问题:“我们如何设计一个容易做正确事情的世界?”重新设计你的生活，使最重要的行动也是最容易做的行动。

Chapter Summary

Human behavior follows the Law of Least Effort. We will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work.

人类的行为遵循最小努力法则。我们会很自然地倾向于选择那些需要最少工作量的选择。

Create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible.

创造一个环境，让做正确的事情尽可能容易。

Reduce the friction associated with good behaviors. When friction is low, habits are easy.

减少与良好行为相关的摩擦。当摩擦小时，习惯就容易养成。

Increase the friction associated with bad behaviors. When friction is high, habits are difficult.

增加与不良行为相关的摩擦。当摩擦很大时，养成习惯是困难的。

Prime your environment to make future actions easier.

为你的环境做好准备，让未来的行动更加容易。