Lots of people throw around numbers about how long it takes to establish a new habit. Twenty-one days? Twenty-eight days? A month? Three months? In one study on habit formation it was determined that the time required varies a lot from person to person, from just 18 days to 254 days, with an average of 66 days.
Of course, one factor that can influence how long it takes to acquire a new habit is the difficulty of a habit. The harder the task, the longer it may take to become a habit.
That means that making a good behavior a habit takes commitment. You need to consciously repeat an action again and again until it becomes nearly automatic. Although missing a day won’t completely derail your new habit, consistency is important.
With that in mind, my question for you is: How to you maintain your dedication and keep working toward your goal of establishing a new habit? How do you motivate yourself to keep doing something, day after day, until it becomes a habit?
I find that doing something around the same time every day works. One habit I have been working on is walking my dog every day. It hasn’t always been easy, especially in the hot and humid Houston summer, but I have been doing it. Because of the heat, we walk in the evening. Some days we may only walk for 15 minutes, but we walk (nearly) every day. This new habit has helped me to lose some weight and keep it off, a nice reward for a good habit.
An alternative to doing something at the same time every day is to make an appointment with yourself and keep it. For example, if you want to get in the habit of writing every day, but can’t always do it at the same time, block out time in your schedule to write and treat that appointment as something you must do.
Add your answer in the comments and let us know what works for you!
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7 responses so far ↓
1 Leigh Harris // Aug 9, 2010 at 9:23 am
I try to focus on only one small habit change at a time. Biting my nails? I carry a nail file and clippers around. Eat healthier? I stop buying junk food for the rest of my family (sorry, family).
Big habits like jogging, walking the dog, or writing? I give myself one day off a week (two for writing).
2 Monique // Aug 9, 2010 at 1:30 pm
I can’t help in trying to figure out how to work in a good habit – I have difficulty myself. I’m really not good at sticking to something and I need to find additional tools which work for me. I also need a tool to keep my daughters from waking up in the middle of the night and getting in my bed. That’s a habit I’ve been trying to break forever! LOL
3 Katherine Swarts // Aug 9, 2010 at 2:27 pm
In my opinion pattern-of-thinking habits are the absolute worst, because having to deal with your brain every waking hour makes it near impossible to practice a different habit without regular backsliding. I can beat the 254-day record there; I’ve been working on changing a negative-thinking habit to positive for more than three years and am still scoring under 50 percent!
I have a friend who says “fight worry with pain; when you catch yourself worrying, snap a rubber band against your wrist,” or, in absence of a rubber band, simply pinch yourself hard. I prefer more positive motivations myself, but maybe the “pain” approach will be right for someone else reading this.
4 The Coffee Bump // Aug 10, 2010 at 2:27 pm
If it is a more difficult habit, like eating right and exercising, you absolutely have to reward yourself! Of course, if you are dieting rigorously, like I recently did for my wedding, then you can have a cheat day once a week as motivation.
I would have to say that another helpful tip is to focus on how you feel after exercise and eating well because it does put into perspective what a benefit it is making. So much of making healthy choices and everyday habits is mental and emotional, so if you start to attach positive rewards to what you do, you will stick with it.
5 Melodee Patterson // Aug 15, 2010 at 9:49 am
Choosing a time of day that works for me seems to be the key. I know if I don’t exercise first thing in the morning, I won’t exercise. If I don’t set a specific time to quit reading emails and posting comments on blogs, I’ll never start working.
At the moment I’m having trouble getting my marketing done, so I’ve decided to set a couple of hours at the end of each afternoon as “Marketing Time”. We’ll see how it goes
6 Developing Good Habits is Never Easy « Self Help-Ann-Such // Aug 30, 2010 at 1:51 pm
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7 Steve // Sep 24, 2010 at 4:30 pm
Get hypnotized to fool your brain to think you’ve always done this thing, then you’ll never have to try to force yourself.
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