Making New Habits Stick

In 2001, researchers in Great Britain started working with 248 people for two weeks to help them build better exercise habits. The people who took part were split into three groups.

The first group served as a control. They were just told to keep track of how often they worked out.

The "motivation" group was the second one. They were not only asked to keep track of their workouts, but also to read about the benefits of working out. The researchers also told the group how exercise could lower the chance of coronary heart disease and improve the heart's health.

The third group was the last one. The same presentation was given to these subjects and the second group, ensuring they were both just as motivated. But they also had to plan when and where to work out over the next week.

Each person in the third group was asked to finish this sentence: "I will do at least 20 minutes of vigorous exercise on [DAY] at [TIME] in [PLACE] during the next week."

35 to 38% of the people in the first and second groups worked out at least once a week. (It was interesting that the motivational talk given to the second group didn't seem to change their behaviour much.) But 91 percent of the third group worked out at least once a week, more than twice as often as most people.

Researchers call the sentence they filled out an "implementation intention." This is a plan you make for when and where to act ahead of time. That is, how you plan to make a certain habit a part of your life.

Many things can trigger a habit, like the feeling of your phone buzzing in your pocket, the smell of chocolate chip cookies, or the sound of ambulance sirens. However, time and location are the two most common cues, and implementation intentions use both.

In general, this is how you make an implementation intention: "When situation X happens, I will do action Y."

Hundreds of studies have shown that writing down the exact time and date of when you will get a dental cleaning or recording the time of your hospital appointment is a good way to stay on track with your goals. They make it more likely that people will keep up good habits like meditating, studying, going to bed early, and giving up smoking.

Researchers have even found that people are more likely to vote when asked questions like, "What route are you going to take to the polling station?" What time do you plan to leave? "What bus can take you there

The point is clear: people are more likely to stick with a new habit if they make a plan for when and where they will do it. Too many people try to break bad habits without knowing these simple things. We say things like, "I'm going to eat better" or "I'm going to write more," but we don't say when or where to do these things. We leave it up to chance and hope that we'll "just remember to do it" or feel motivated at the right time. An implementation intention takes vague ideas like "I want to work out more" or "I want to be more productive" or "I should vote" and turns them into a concrete plan of action.

People often think they don't have enough motivation when what they need is clarity. Not always is it clear when and where to do something. Some people wait their whole lives for the perfect moment to make a change.

Once you plan how to do something, you don't have to wait for inspiration. Should I write a new chapter today? Should I meditate in the morning or during lunch? There is no need to choose when the time to act comes. Just stick to the plan you already made.

Fill in the blanks to see how easy it is to apply this strategy to your habits:

I will [DO SOMETHING] at [TIME] in [PLACE].

Meditation. At 7 a.m., I'll sit in my kitchen for a minute and think about my life.

Studying. At 6 p.m., I will spend 20 minutes in my bedroom studying Spanish.

Exercise. At 5 p.m., I will work out for an hour at my local gym.

Relationship. At 8 a.m., I'll make my partner some tea in the kitchen.

Try starting your habit on the first day of the week, month, or year if you're unsure when to start. Most of the time, people are more likely to act when they have more hope. Having hope gives us a reason to do something. A new start feels like a boost.

There is another good thing about putting intentions into action. Clearly defining what you want and how you plan to get it makes it easier to say "no" to things that slow you down, take your attention away, or pull you off course. We say yes to small requests a lot because we don't know what we should be doing instead. When your goals aren't clear, it's easy to make excuses all day long and never do what you need to achieve them.

Give your habits a place to live and a time to do their thing. The goal is to make the time and place so clear that you want to do the right thing at the right time, even if you can't explain why. The author Jason Zweig said, "It's clear that you can't just work out without thinking about it. But like a dog that salivates when a bell rings, you might start to feel restless around the time you usually work out."

You can use implementation intentions in many ways in your life and work. My favourite method is one I call "habit stacking."

When you buy a dress, you need new shoes and earrings to go with it. When you buy a couch, you start to think about how the rest of your living room is set up. When you buy a toy for your child, you soon have to buy all the extra parts that go with it. There are a lot of purchases going on.

Many things people do follow this pattern. Most of the time, you decide what to do next based on what you just did. You wash your hands and dry them when you go to the bathroom. This reminds you that you need to wash the dirty towels, so you put washing powder on your shopping list, and so on. No behaviour ever happens by itself. Each action becomes a signal that tells the brain what to do next.

Why does this matter?

When you want to make new habits, you can use the fact that behaviours are linked to your advantage. One of the best ways to start a new habit is to find one you already do every day and add the new one on top of it. This is called adding up habits.

Putting habits on top of each other is a special implementation intention.

Instead of linking your new habit to a certain time and place, you link it to a habit you already have.

"After I do [CURRENT HABIT], I'll do [NEW HABIT]." This is the formula for stacking habits.

For instance:

Meditation. Every morning, after I pour my coffee, I sit still for one minute and think.

Exercise. I'll change into my workout clothes as soon as I take off my work shoes.

Gratitude. After I eat dinner, I'll talk about one good thing that happened today.

Relationship. I'll kiss my partner when I get into bed at night.

Safety. I'll text a friend or family member where I'm running and how long it will take after I put on my running shoes.

The trick is to link the behaviour you want to change to something you already do daily. Once you have mastered this basic structure, you can start to link small habits together to make bigger stacks. This lets you use the natural momentum from one action to the next.

Your stack of morning habits might look something like this:

1. After I pour my cup of tea in the morning, I will meditate for five minutes.

2.After I meditate for five minutes, I'll write down my list of things to do for the day.

3. After making my list of things to do for the day, I'll start my first task immediately.

Or, think about this evening habit stack:

1. I'll put my plate right into the dishwasher when I'm done with dinner.

2.As soon as I put away my dishes, I'll wipe down the counter.

3. I'll put my mug out for tomorrow morning when I'm done cleaning the counter.

You can also add new actions into the middle of the ones you already do. For instance, you might already have a morning routine like this: Get up, make my bed, and then take a shower. Say you want to make it a habit to read more at night. You can add more habits to your stack. For example, you could wake up, make bed, put a book on your pillow, and then shower. Now, every night when you go to bed, a book will be waiting for you to read it.

Overall, habit stacking lets you make a simple set of rules that will guide your behaviour in the future. It seems like you always have a plan for what should happen next. Once you're used to this method, you can build stacks of general habits that will help you when the time is right:

Exercise. I will take the stairs instead of the lift if I see them.

Social skills. I'll introduce myself to someone I don't know when I go to a party.

Finances. When I want to buy something that costs more than €100, I wait 24 hours before I buy it.

How to eat well. When I make myself a meal, I always start with vegetables.

Minimalism. I'll give something away when I buy something new.

Mood. Before I answer the phone when it rings, I'll take a deep breath and smile.

Forgetfulness. I always check the table and chairs when I leave a public place to ensure I didn't leave anything behind.

No matter how you use this method, the key to making a habit stack work is to start with the right trigger.

Habit stacking is different from an implementation intention, which says exactly when and where a behaviour will happen. Instead, the time and place are built in. When and where you add a habit to your daily routine can make a big difference. If your mornings are chaotic and your kids keep running into the room while you're trying to meditate, that may not be the best place or time. Think about when you're most likely to do well.

Don't try to do a habit when you'll probably be busy with something else.

Your cue should also happen as often as the habit you want to form.

If you want to do something every day but also do something only on Mondays, that's not a good choice.

Making a list of your current habits is one way to find the right trigger for your habit stack. You can start with the Habits Checklist you made in the previous blog. You can also make a list with just two columns. In the first column, write down the things you do every day without fail. *

For instance:

Get out of bed.

Get in the shower.

Brush my teeth.

Get dressed.

Make some tea.

Have breakfast.

Put the children in school.

Start the day's work.

Lunchtime.

Finish up for the day.

Change my clothes.

Take a seat for dinner.

Turn the lights off.

Get to sleep.

You can add much more to your list, but you get the idea. In the second column, write down everything that always happens to you every day. For instance:

Sun comes up.

You get a text message.

The end comes to the song you are listening to.

It gets dark.

With these two lists in hand, you can look for the best place to start your new habit.

Stacking habits works best when the cue is specific and can be done immediately. Many people choose clues that aren't clear enough. I was wrong about this. When I wanted to get into the habit of reading, I told myself, "When I stop for dinner I will read."

At first, this seemed to make sense. But I soon realised that I didn't know what the trigger was. Would I do my reading before dinner? When I finished dinner? Where would I read? After a few days of being inconsistent, I changed my habit stack to say, "When I clean my dishes after dinner, I will read for 30 minutes on the couch." No more confusion.

Habits like "read more" or "eat better" are good ideas, but they don't tell you how or when to act. Be clear and exact: Once I've shut the door. I will then brush my teeth. Once I'm seated at the table. It's important to be clear. The more closely your new habit is tied to a specific trigger, the more likely you will notice when it's time to act.

The first rule of changing how people act is to make it clear. Implementation intentions and habit stacking are two of the most useful ways to make your habits stand out and make a clear plan for when and where to act.