How to Form a Habit

We talk all the time about our habits.

We want to get into the habit of going to the gym,

or break the habit of hitting snooze...six times in a row.

But to actually change our habits, it helps to understand how scientists define them --

and what research can tell us about how to make and break them.

A habit is an action that we do automatically in response to some contextual cue,

because we’ve associated that cue with doing that thing.

Like buckling your seatbelt automatically when you get in the car.

Being in the car is the cue, and buckling up is the habit.

It might seem like an exaggeration, but the thing that scientists call a “habit” really

is automatic.

You just experience that contextual cue, and the habit happens without you having to devote

much conscious thought to it.

Those cues can be be pretty much anything,

from seeing a note on the fridge to having just done another activity.

And it’s the piece that’s often overlooked when people talk about habits.

A habit isn’t just a thing you do… it’s also the cue that makes you do it.

Psychologists believe we don’t always use the best strategy to change our behavior.

What seems like the obvious way to go isn’t always supported by the research into how

people actually form durable habits.

Like smartphone apps designed to remind you to do the thing.

Great idea, right?

Your phone reminds you until eventually, you just do it automatically.

But a 2015 study from researchers in the UK showed that reminders from an app can increase

the likelihood that you’ll do something in the moment,

but it’ll also work against that thing becoming an automatic habit.

Why?

Because you have the reminder to rely on!

There’s no reason for the habit to become automatic, because your phone will tell you

what to do and when.

But research says that there is stuff we can do to be better at making habits.

One strategy is known as piggybacking.

This is where you pile an activity on top of another habit that you’re already in

the…habit of doing.

That way, the habit you already have can serve as the cue to do the second one.

For example, a study published in the British Journal of Health Psychology

found that people trying to get into the habit of flossing their teeth

could piggyback the habit of tooth flossing onto the habit of tooth brushing.

Furthermore, they had more success forming the habit when they flossed after brushing