The Immersion Effect
Let’s talk about something that nobody in their right mind does.
You’ve got a project that you need to get done. Everyone has. It might be a novel you’ve thought about since you were fourteen. Maybe it’s a sales page for a client or a website for a customer. You might be dying to finally start your lingerie company. Who knows?
We’ve all got stuff to do, and we’re probably not doing it. Right now you’re reading this article. I’m writing this article. We’re all going to feel guilty about it afterwards. (Just kidding.)
Multiple Selves
Let’s not turn into hippies here, but the truth is we’ve all got multiple personalities residing within us.
Your behaviour and outlook on life is not the same when you sit down to watch an episode of Game of Thrones as it is first thing on Monday morning. People can wake up determined to start the week off right, but when it comes to Monday evening, they slip into another zone and act like a completely different person.
Now, I’m not a drill sergeant. If you think you’re going to fix this basic truth with willpower, I’ve got bad news. It doesn’t work like that. Willpower is limited, and like a muscle, you can only use it for so long before it tires and bounces you right back to your original place.
If you want to master yourself, then you need to master your selves.
The way we’re going to do this is by manipulating our environment.
(This isn’t a hocus-pocus self-help article. You have to do stuff. )
Environment
When you have a project, create an environment that will propel you in your task.
You should change the music you listen to when you’re undertaking a project. Keep that music specifically for the type of projects you’re undertaking. Say you’re a copywriter (what a surprise) you should have music that helps you with copywriting. It might be ambient music or it might be some guy rapping about how much money he makes.
Whatever you pick, don’t listen to that music except when you’re copywriting. Over time, it works in the way any other classical conditioning does; you’ll hear the music and get into the mood to work.
Really, conditioning is all we’re doing here, but we’re roleplaying too until it becomes real. Other stuff you could try;
- Wearing different clothes
- Wearing jewelry/other trinkets
- Using a different room for work entirely
- Using different equipment
- Drinking and eating different things
- Styling your hair differently
- Working in a different place
There aren’t really any limits here, but make sure the following needs are met:
- You use this stimulus exclusively for the task
- You can do it repeatedly
Following that, you’ll want to keep some sort of record. Do you work better when you’re wearing a straw hat? Are your workouts at the gym more effective with dance music or heavy metal?
This is as close to being magical without believing in magic that you can get.
Targeted To Your Goal
The results will be best if you target the habit to your goal. Research the people who are successful at what you do – or the customers you want to serve – and steal their habits and environment. Below is an example.
If you’re writing a teen romance novel, I’ve got some bad news for the guys among you… it’s time to abandon your personality. If you listen to heavy metal, like watching horror films and hate pictures of kittens, then you’ve got nothing in common with a teenage girl.
Until that project is done (or at least the session) you have to get immersed into the reality tunnel of an eighteen year old girl. (Or your target market.)
That means listening to Justin Bieber songs and reading Twilight. It means getting a Pinterest account and pinning pictures of kittens and reading stupid discussions about which boy-band member is the cutest.
This sounds stupid and it’ll feel more stupid, but try it for month and see if it doesn’t give you the following benefits.
Benefits Of This System
Believe it or not, this process isn’t just for making everyone you live with think you’re a weirdo.
There are two major benefits to doing something like this, with an ancillary third benefit which is a bit murkier.
The first big benefit is that you’ll get better results. You’ll find that you have a better understanding of your project, you’ll slip into a flow state more easily and everything will be easier and more effective. If you’re doing a business project, then you’ll probably make more money too.
The second benefit is empathy and understanding. If you read romance fiction, you’ll understand women better. When you listen to black metal, you’ll understand the weird school shooters at the back of your class a little better. When you wander around the City of London listening to Holst’s Jupiter you’ll start to believe that rich people are actually humans after all.
The third benefit – which is admittedly vague – is that whenever you go through this process, you take a little bit of whatever you immerse yourself in with you.
Final Thoughts
This sort of approach will bring effectiveness and it’ll definitely give you an edge over your competition. Not many copywriters pretend to be middle-aged housewives and not many authors will jump into genres they don’t know by doing this heavy research. Hence the phrase, “Write what you know.”
It’ll feel silly, but the results will speak for themselves.
As always, let me know how you get on… after you’ve tried it.