How can i change my habits

Ways to Change Bad Habits I Psych Central

Changing habits you’ve had for years can be hard — but not impossible.

We all have those habits we wish we didn’t, but just can’t seem to break.

You might think you spend too much time on social media or playing games, or that your time streaming videos might be better spent reading that classic novel you’ve always wanted to try.

Though you’ve tried numerous times to break these habits, it might seem like nothing works.

Even when you think you’ve finally bested it, you might find yourself back to doing the same habit weeks, or even hours, later.

So, how can we stop? How long does it take to break a habit?

It can be a challenge, but with some time and effort, habits can be changed.

Every year, New Year’s Eve rolls around and we make a list of our resolutions — or rather, habits we want to change or get rid of for the year.

Spend less time on social media. Eat better. Exercise more. Quit smoking. Stop biting your nails.

Making a list of your habits is not meant to make you feel bad about yourself, but to make you more aware of the things you want to change.

This list can seem overwhelming, especially if it keeps growing and growing each year.

You’re not alone. We all have habits — old and new — that we want to change. Instead of trying to change them all, just pick one or two.

Now that you’ve made a list of your habits, try to find what prompts them.

Maybe you reach for that carton of ice cream or bar of chocolate when you’re stressed or are having a bad day. Maybe you spend so much time scrolling on social media because you’re bored.

Nervousness or anxiety in stressful situations might drive you to bite your nails.

Learning what puts your habit in motion might help you come up with ideas to stop or change the behavior.

Once you know the cause, removing it or finding ways to ease those feelings in the moment might help you break that habit.

If you tend to reach for foods you don’t want to be eating, consider throwing them away (or donating them). If the first thing you do when you wake up is check your phone, try leaving your phone outside your room or in another area not as close to your bed.

This doesn’t have to be forever — just until you’re confident that you’ve broken the habit.

Just knowing the habit and cause behind it isn’t enough to make it go away.

Research in 2011 suggests that replacing a habit with an alternate behavior is a good way to change or break a habit.

Instead of reaching for a cigarette when you’re stressed, try stress management techniques — such as taking a walk or meditation — to find relief.

When anxiety has you chewing on your nails again, some deep breathing exercises might help ease your feelings.

Try not to replace your new behavior with something that’s similar to the old one. For example, if you want to stop scrolling through social media so much, try not to use another streaming app as a replacement.

Try these replacement ideas:

eating fruit when you think about a processed sweet
journaling when you’re stressed or anxious
reading a book when you’re bored
chewing a piece of gum when you want a cigarette

Experts believe that habits are hard to break because they’ve become an automatic part of our day-to-day routines and patterns. In fact, our habit-forming behaviors have been historically linked to the basal ganglia — the “autopilot” part of our brain.

Making simple changes — such as moving your phone from your nightstand before bed — can make it easier for the new behavior to become part of your autopilot routine.

It’s natural to have slips ups.

Rather than beat yourself up about it, remind yourself that you’re only human and it’s OK.

If you fall back into the habit, remember that it might take more than one trial to change it.

Motivate yourself to change your habits by using incentives or rewards.

It doesn’t have to be anything expensive or elaborate. It can be something as simple as a bubble bath or a favorite meal.

Consider setting a goal for the week, and if you reach it, treat yourself. Knowing there’s a reward in the future might motivate you to stick with your plan to break that habit.

Habits are hard to break. Habits aren’t formed overnight, so they won’t change overnight, either.

It takes time and patience for new behaviors to become routine. Habits can take several weeks to change. But don’t give up!

If you keep at it, you can turn those new behaviors into habits, too.

It’s not easy breaking or changing a habit that you’ve had for a long time.

It might take some trial and error and a bit of time to make that change. But with a plan and a lot of patience, your new behaviors can soon become second nature.

If you need help ending a habit, consider reaching out to a mental health professional. A trained mental professional can offer guidance and support if you want to address a deeper issue — such as substance use, compulsions, or addiction.

Changing Habits – Learning Center

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

–Aristotle

Introduction

Have you ever stopped to think about your habits or how they impact your daily life? Have you ever needed to change your habits because of a new environment like online learning or campus life? According to experts with Psychology Today, habits form when new behaviors become automatic and are enacted with minimum conscious awareness. That’s because “the behavioral patterns we repeat most often are literally etched into our neural pathways.”

Think about that last quote for a moment. Now, think about habits you do automatically. For example, how many times a day do you pick up your mobile phone to read text messages, wander on Facebook, or check your Instagram account? Did you actively think to yourself, “It’s time to check Instagram now?” Or did it just happen without much conscious effort?

While some habits can be detrimental, such as wasting an hour on Twitter when you should be studying, others can be great to have around. Learning to brush your teeth when you were young helps you have good dental health when you’re older. Another example is shutting off the lights when you leave a room. That habit helps save on your energy bill.

In this handout we are going to provide an overview of strategies that can help you better understand habit formation and how to create and maintain beneficial habits. Along the way we are going to provide some activities that can help you start putting these strategies into practice.

Understanding habit formation

In the Power of Habit, Duhigg (2012) explains that MIT researchers discovered a three-step neurological pattern that forms the core of every habit (see figure 1). The first step is cue. It is a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and prompts the behavior to unfold. The second step is routine, which is the behavior itself and the action you take. The last step is reward. It helps your brain determine if a particular habit loop is worth remembering or not. Generally, habits have immediate or latent rewards. Habits with immediate rewards are easier to pick up and condition, whereas those with delayed rewards are more difficult to commit to and maintain. Think about how easy it is to check your iPhone compared to exercising more.

Let’s use the Instagram example to explain further how the habit loop works.

Cue: Your cell phone receives a push notification that someone likes or commented on one of your photos. The notification serves as a cue (or trigger) that tells you to check your account.

Routine: This is the actual behavior. When you receive the push notification, you automatically check your Instagram account.

Reward: This is the benefit you gain from doing the behavior (e.g., finding out who likes or commented on one of your photos). Recall that the reward helps the brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future.

Because some habits are beneficial, let’s take a closer look at the example of turning out the lights when you leave a room.
Cue: The light tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use when leaving the room.
Routine: The actual behavior of turning out the light.
Reward: A lower utility bill and better overall home energy budget.

Changing the habit loop

Now that you have an understanding of how habits form, let’s turn attention to changing them. Consider the following scenario:

Every day after class you go to Starbucks to hang out with friends instead of going to the library to study. You know that you need to spend a couple hours each day studying but socializing with friends makes you happy. Your goal is to implement a routine that accounts for more study time and yields the same happy feeling of hanging out with friends. But how might you do that?

One way would be to convince your friends to meet in the library and spend a couple of hours studying together. Afterward, you could treat yourselves at Starbucks. Another routine would be to study on your own and then meet your friends at Starbucks.

In either case, you replace a negative routine (going to Starbucks before studying) with a healthier one (studying before going to Starbucks). By changing these routines, you keep the reward of socializing with your friends while gaining new ones: earning better grades. By changing your routine, you increase your chances of earning multiple rewards.

Let’s plug this new routine into the habit loop to see how it works.

Cue: The time your class ends tells your brain which habit to employ. If you want to be extra ambitious, you could create a calendar notification on your computer or mobile device.
Routine: Studying after class with friends or alone.
Reward: Socializing with friends at Starbucks after studying; earning better grades.

Putting what we know into practice

The next step is to think about a habit you want to change. That begins by first describing the habit. Below are a few questions to help get you started. They were developed by Claiborn and Pedrick (2001), authors of The Habit Change Workbook.

Identify a habit you would like to change.
When did the habit begin, or when do you first remember doing it?
Has the habit changed over time? If so, describe the changes that you have noticed.
When do you typically engage in the habitual behavior (day and time)?
Do you engage in the habit in a specific location?
What else is usually happening in your life when the habit occurs?
Does your behavior affect other people or facets of your life?
What does the habit do for you?
How happy (or unhappy) are you as result of your habits, or what are the rewards.

Second, you need to understand how the habit operates by diagnosing its cue, routine and reward. This will help you to gain power over it and begin making changes you seek to make.

What is the Habit? _________________________

What is the Cue? __________________________

What is the Routine? _______________________

What is the Reward? _______________________

Because a habit is a formula that the mind automatically follows, you need to re-engineer that formula by creating a new habit loop. In the spaces below, think of a healthy routine by planning for the cue and choosing a behavioral pattern that yields the reward you want. You may provide a list of multiple routines before settling on one. In addition, the reward does not need to be overly elaborate. The goal is to establish a positive association with putting the habit into practice.

What is the Habit? _________________________

What is the Cue? __________________________

What is the Routine? _______________________

What is the Reward? _______________________

It is important to note that telling yourself there is a reward is not enough for a habit to stick. According to Duhigg, one way to get a habit to stick is to repeat it. In other words, repetition is important if you want your brain to crave the reward. He notes that “countless studies have shown that a cue and a reward, on their own, aren’t enough for a new habit to last. Only when your brain starts expecting the reward—craving the endorphins or sense of accomplishment—will it become automatic” (p. 51).

Anticipating pitfalls

In a two-year study that examines the rate of self-change attempts of New Year’s resolvers, Norcross and Vangarelli (1988) note that 77% of resolution-makers maintained pledges for one week. However, only 19% of them kept their resolutions after two years. If this statistic is indicative of habits in general, “at least 8 times out of 10, you are more likely to fall back into your old habits and patterns than you are to stick with a new behavior” (Clear, 2015).

So the question is: how do you make new habits stick when the odds are not in your favor? You learned that repetition is an important factor, but that is only one piece of the puzzle. Experts agree that maintaining healthy habits require you to anticipate pitfalls. Listed below are a few common mistakes that people make and some solutions that can help you navigate around these hazards and toward healthy behavior patterns.

Pitfall 1: Trying to change everything at one time.

Solution: Try to pick one thing and do it well.

The following scenario is one you know too well. You start creating a new habit by first generating a list of things you hope to change or adopt. You tell yourself you have the willpower to succeed and you start off doing quite well. Then life responsibilities start piling up or the persistent urge to indulge in old habits kicks in. Before you know it, you feel overwhelmed and slowly revert to old behavior patterns. For example, if you suddenly shift to working from home when you’re used to working in the library or going to a coffee shop, you might slip into old habits like watching TV or going to the kitchen to grab a snack.

So, how do you avoid this “overwhelmed” feeling? In “The Power Less,” Leo Babauta (2009) suggests changing one habit at a time and focusing on doing it well before moving on to the next one. He recommends creating a list of behavioral changes you want to make and then chunking them based on which one you want to accomplish first. The key is focusing on the one goal, and after it becomes a ritual you move on to the next one.

If you find yourself struggling to pick a habit from the list of changes, try asking the following questions:

Which goal is going to pull the rest of your life in line? This is referred to as focusing on a “keystone habit” (Clear, 2015; Duhigg, 2012).
Focus on the small steps and take your time.

What is the ripple effect of the keystone habit? In other words, what are the primary and secondary benefits of changing the habit? For example, exercising regularly leads to more energy (primary) and results in better sleep and focused study habits (secondary).

Pitfall 2: Trying to begin with a large habit.

Solution: Try to make the habit “so easy you can’t say no” (Babauta, 2013, qtd. in Clear, 2015).

You know that starting a new habit is difficult. And when you try to achieve the result you want right away with max effort, you tend to increase that difficulty and set yourself up for failure. Take the goal of developing a habit of exercising regularly. You start off by working out an hour or two everyday. After a week or so you discover that devoting a large amount of time to a new exercise regimen, when the body is not used to a workout routine, is too difficult to maintain. Ultimately, you give up. Most everyone has experienced a situation like that before.

According to habits experts, the goal should be to start small and easy, build up to thirty minutes and then to an hour or two. Babauta explains that “actually doing the habit is much more important than how much you do.” He says:

If you want to exercise, it’s more important that you actually do the exercise on a regular basis, rather than doing enough to get a benefit right away. Sure, maybe you need 30 minutes of exercise to see some fitness improvements, but try doing 30 minutes a day for two weeks. See how far you get, if you haven’t been exercising regularly. Then, if you don’t succeed, try 1-2 minutes a day. See how far you get there.

If you can do two weeks of 1-2 minutes of exercise, you have a strong foundation for a habit. Add another week or two, and the habit is almost ingrained. Once the habit is strong, you can add a few minutes here and there. Soon you’ll be doing 30 minutes on a regular basis—but you started out really small.

Let’s now put this situation in the context of establishing stronger study habits, using the example of studying before hanging out with friends at Starbucks.

Cue: The time your last class ends tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to employ once class is over (i.e., going to the library).

Routine: Studying after class with friends or alone.

Reward: Socializing with friends at Starbucks after studying; earning better grades

It is important to ask how much time is needed for studying. Thirty minutes, one hour, two hours, more? Remember, this is a new routine and you want to avoid failure. If your goal is to study two hours after class, you might start out studying for thirty or forty-five minutes and then lead up to that. Remember, you want to make the habit “so easy you can’t say no” (Babauta, 2013).

Pitfall 3: Not changing your environment.

Solution: Create an environment that promotes accountability and healthy lifestyle.

According to Clear (2015), “if your environment doesn’t change, you probably won’t either.” That means habits are part of your physical and social environment. For example, smelling delicious food is a cue to eat or seeing your television when you get home from work is a cue to sit down and relax for the evening (Jackson, Morrow, Hill & Dishman, 2004). Similarly, receiving a notification on your iPhone everyday at noon or a text message from a friend could be a cue that it is time to study.

You could take this example one step further by filling your environment with motivational posters or post-it notes with inspirational quotes like this: “every journey begins with a single step” (Confucius, philosopher). You could also keep a running record of your results and make it visible. For example, you could report progress in a journal or in social media or a blog. You could even tell your family, friends and colleagues what your goals are and have them send you reminders and encouragement via Twitter, Facebook or text messaging.

Once again, let’s put this situation in the context of establishing stronger study habits. Think about how you might change your physical and social environment. Keep in mind how others might help to hold you accountable. As experts contend, encouragement from friends, family and colleagues provides accountability and support for achieving successful goals (Jackson, Morrow, Hill & Dishman, 2004; Dolan, 2012; Oliveira, 2015). They can keep you on track and provide reminders and, more importantly, the necessary enthusiasm and support for when you feel like you’re going to falter. For example, if you have a hard time staying on task when you work on a larger project, you might decide to have a Zoom meeting with a friend where both of you check in with each other briefly and remain on the call while you work independently. As you work, you can periodically check in with each other to offer support and encouragement.

Creating a plan

Below are four simple steps for changing one habit at a time (Oliveira, 2015):

Choose one keystone habit and do it well. It is ideal to select one goal that will bring your life in line. Be sure to start with something easy to achieve and then slowly enhance the degree of difficulty.
Write down your plan: Try to create a habit loop: cue, routine and reward. Make visible what you will do each day. Remember to start off slow, focusing on creating ritual first and results second. Also, define success in measurable terms.
Make your goal public and develop a support team: Ask your family, friends or colleagues to help hold you accountable. Be sure to report your progress each day, either within a journal or through your favorite social media outlet.
Make a plan for when you falter. Write down what caused you to stumble. You want to be as honest as possible. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to start over with a revised plan.

How can technology help?

Need some help changing your habits? Technology can help you with various steps in the habit-formation process:

Calendars as Cues. Using an online calendar like Google Calendar, iCal, or Outlook 365 Calendar can help you schedule the habits you want to build. You can make events that recur monthly, weekly, or daily, and set reminders to let you know it’s time to get started on a task.

Checklists for Chunking Large Projects. Project management websites like Trello and phone apps like Color Note can help you break down large projects into smaller, more manageable tasks. Use these tools to write down small steps, and check each step off as you work. You can even write a step for rewards, so you remember to reinforce good habits!

Habit Trackers.There are also apps designed specifically to help you form good habits, including Streaks, Habitshare, and Habitica. Many of these apps help you assess your habits, break them into small pieces, stay accountable, and reward you for completing your goals.

Testimonials

Check out what other students and writers have tried!

Keeping Motivated With Rewards: Read more about how peer tutor Caleb uses rewards to stay motivated.

Optimizing Attention: A Learning Center Peer Tutor shares her experience using the Learning Center’s Optimizing Attention worksheets.

How I Use the Pomodoro Technique: A Writing Coach shares his experience using the Pomodoro Technique to build a routine/reward system.

Works consulted

Babauta, L. (2013, February 13). The four habits that form habits. Zen Habits: Breathe. Retrieved from http://zenhabits.net/habitses/

Claiborn, J., & Pedrick, C. (2001). The Habit change workbook: How to break bad habits and form good ones. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.

Clear, J. (2015). The 3 R’s of habit change: How to start new habits that actually stick [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://jamesclear.com/three-steps-habit-change

Dolan, S. (2012, January, 20). Benefits of group exercise. American College of Sports Medicine. Retrieved from https://www.acsm.org/public-information/articles/2012/01/20/benefits-of-group-exercise

Duhigg, C. (2014). The Power of habit: Why we do what we do in life and business. New York: Random House.

Habit Formation Basics. (2015). Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/habit-formation

Jackson, A.W., Morrow, J.R., Hill, D.W., & Dishman, R.K. (2004). Physical activity for health and fitness. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Norcross, J. C., & Vangarelli, D. J. (1988). The resolution solution: Longitudinal examination of New Year’s change attempts. Journal of Substance Abuse, 1, 127–134.

Oliveira, R. (2015, August 25). Change your life – one habit at a time. UC Davis Integrative Medicine Program. Retrieved from http://www.ucdintegrativemedicine.com/2015/08/change-your-life-forever-one-habit-at-a-time/

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A scientific way to change our habits

Applying other people's recipes in the hope that they will help us, we are like a caged dove that flaps its wings to get food, because one day after this session its feeder is full. If we do not know exactly how this or that regularity will operate in our case, we cannot be sure that we are acting effectively. Maybe we will lose weight if we fast for half a month. But what will happen to the body at this moment? Will we get new problems trying to deal with the old ones?

Try a systems approach. Scientists set up experiments to establish a connection between phenomena. You can also experiment. Many professionals use this technique to ensure that they achieve the desired results. Athletes and bodybuilders are constantly experimenting with diets and training regimens to find the perfect program for them. You just don't have to approach self-experimentation with the rigor that scientists do.

If you want to create a customized - and most effective - program of change, follow these steps:

1. State your goal in objective, measurable terms. Let's say "good sleep" is a subjective concept. But “7 hours of uninterrupted sleep” and “falling asleep within 5 minutes after going to bed” are clearer and more measurable goals.

2. Be prepared to record each of your results. Get yourself a notepad and a spreadsheet to record the results. Measure your performance daily, make a graph - so you will clearly see how far you have progressed towards your goal. If it doesn't, ask yourself why? Maybe you are not following the regimen diligently enough? Or did you miss something from the very beginning?

3. Make a program that will change your rhythm of life . Set how often and how intensely you will do what you want to establish as a habit. Set yourself a checkpoint after which you sit down, analyze the results and understand what to do next. All this is important to think carefully before getting down to business.

4. State the hypothesis to be tested . What is influencing your behavior right now, causing you to overeat, forget to pay bills, prevent you from falling asleep? What actions can you take to make a difference? What should your life be like so that you can beat the habit and never return to it? What can prevent this?

5. Get started by regularly writing down your results . Keeping records is just as important as sticking to a routine. Being honest with yourself is a guarantee that you will get an objective picture and be able to understand what works and what does not. If you don't trust yourself, ask a friend or partner to watch you.

6. Analyze the results. Look at the graph. Did you observe a moment of significant change in your indicators during the entire period? Most likely, periods of rise and fall will follow each other. Try to understand what the climbs were about and why you fell off. Review your notes: what did you do, what did you eat, what mood were you in? If there is progress, great! If not, make changes to your program, revise your hypothesis, and try again.

Main: Don't be afraid if your expectations are not met. Scientists get negative results all the time. But they help to find the right path. Remember the words of Thomas Edison in response to the question of why he was wrong so often: “I did not have any failures. I've successfully identified five thousand ways that don't work. As a result, I'm five thousand ways closer to the way that works."

To change your life, change your habits

July 5, 2021 Inspiration

Start small and in time it will pay off.

American writer and historian William Durant said: “We are what we do day by day. In this case, mastery is not an action, but a habit. This is true not only for mastery, but also for its opposite. Ordinary is the result of ordinary habits. So, you can develop to the level of mastery by changing your habits. However, they do not guarantee success. If you just copy Elon Musk's habits, you won't become another Elon Musk. You need to completely change your behavior.

Entrepreneur Darius Foroux blogged about how to develop and stick to the habits that are right for you.

1. Decide what habits you need

We hear about a useful habit and immediately decide to incorporate it into our lives. But think about whether you really need it. Do you really need to wake up at five in the morning, run or eat raw vegetables?

It might really be good for you to get up early. Or maybe you feel angry and grouchy in the morning, and it ruins your whole day. So ask yourself if this habit will improve the quality of your life.

In addition, there must be a compelling reason for the change. For example, you want to read one book a week, but why do you need it? What will it give you? What goal will it help you achieve? Think about it and choose those habits that will bring you closer to the desired result.

2. Work on habits one by one

Sometimes you want to change everything in yourself at once. You decide to read more, work more productively, eat right, exercise. In this case, it is better to reduce enthusiasm. If you take on a lot of habits at once, you will only create unnecessary stress for yourself.

We overestimate ourselves. We think we can achieve a lot in a short time. This is not true. But for a long time it is quite doable. So focus on one habit, reinforce it. And then move on to the next one.

3. Don't set the bar too high

Don't try to change quickly. Start small:

Interested in running? Start with walking.
Do you want to write a book? Write one sentence at a time.
Do you want to start your own business? Find at least one client.
Would you like to read two books a week? Start with one page a day.
Do you want to save money? Don't buy clothes that you will only wear once.

4. Use checklists

It also happens that you start developing a new habit, but soon forget about it. There are many unforeseen situations in life. It doesn't seem to be a big deal if you miss a day or two. But it's not that simple. If you neglect regularity, the habit will never form. Use checklists to remind yourself of what you're aiming for and track your progress.

Remember, you develop habits to improve yourself.

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