Reframing is free

There’s so much power in breaking down big goals into small chunks. 

In 2017, a group of researchers discovered how to get more people to sign up for a savings program: by reframing the amount of money being saved. 

Specifically, these researchers (Hal E. Hershfield, Stephen Shu, and Shlomo Benartzi) were interested in behavior differences between high-income groups and low-income groups. As you might predict, people in the high-income group were more likely to participate in a program that asked them to save “$150 per month.” Unpredictably, that divide vanished when the reserachers reframed the ask. 

Instead of asking people in the low-income group to save “$150 per month,” the researchers asked them to merely save “$5 per day.” Even though it’s the same amount, this had a profound effect. “Among thousands of new users of a financial technology app,” they wrote, “we find that framing deposits in daily amounts as opposed to monthly amounts quadruples the number of consumers who enroll.” 

Saving money is a lot less exciting than spending it—but by breaking a big goal into a smaller, daily goal, it becomes four times easier. 

How can we take this strategy into our own lives, to increase our own success in things we know we should be doing (but really don’t want to)? By reframing. What’s a different way you can look at things? Don’t think of training for a marathon. Think of running three times each week. Don’t think of writing a book. Think of writing 500 words per day. Don’t think of creating a gallery. Think of painting for 30 minutes every day. 

Reframing is free. It changes nothing—but it could change everything for you.