Your environment affects your thoughts and behavior mostly through repetition. What you see every day, without paying attention to it, shapes your mood, your focus and your habits.
The hospital window study
In 1984, Roger Ulrich published a study in Science with a very simple design. He compared surgical patients whose hospital windows faced a group of trees with patients whose windows faced a brick wall. The patients with the tree view went home sooner and needed less pain medication. Nothing about their treatment was different. The only difference was what they looked at while they recovered.
What other research shows
The finding applies far beyond hospitals. Marc Berman, John Jonides and Stephen Kaplan found that a walk among trees measurably restored attention and working memory compared with a walk in the city. Busy surroundings tire the mind, and calm ones let it recover. Wendy Wood’s habit research shows that about forty percent of daily behavior is triggered by familiar settings rather than decisions. The room you are in affects what you think, feel and do next. It is also why willpower is a poor tool for changing who you are.
Why your surroundings work on you
All these studies share one mechanism: things you see again and again without paying close attention. The patients didn’t concentrate on the trees. Nobody decides to be influenced by their kitchen. Your surroundings affect you because you aren’t guarding against them. You see them hundreds of times a day while your attention is somewhere else, and the effect adds up.
Your screen is your biggest environment
Most advice about surroundings stops at your room: clear the desk, add a plant, put the guitar where you can see it. That is all good advice. But what most people look at most is a screen, for more hours a day than any window. Your screen is also the one part of your surroundings you can fully control. With SOMOTE, you decide what it shows you all day.
Your surroundings are shaping you whether you choose them or not, so choose them. Put your own phrases on the screen you look at all day, and let the repetition work in your favor. Download SOMOTE free for Windows or Android.