How long does it really take to form a habit?

Creating habits is a classic life hack: YYou want to change something about your life, so insert new behaviors into your daily routine. Anyway, dreams take care of that part of your life yourself. So how long does it take to form a habit? You may have heard of it, but not necessarily 21 days.

What happens during the first 21 days?

The idea that it takes 21 days to form a habit comes from Maxwell Maltz, a surgeon who observed that after surgery it seemed to take a person about three weeks to get used to a new body. Like amputation and plastic surgery, James Clear describe(Having had several minor surgeries, I recall it takes 2-3 weeks for the pain and swelling to subside to the point where I don’t constantly think about the fact that I’ve just had surgery.

The surgeon’s idea was that it takes people 21 days to dissolve and reshape their own “mental image”. But it fits a lot of our experience, so I think we’ve hit a dead end.

Let’s say you want to wake up early to exercise first thing in the morning.Well, of course You can do it once. But how do you make it a habit?

when i was in it Despite not being a morning person, in a situation where I started doing morning exercises, I let myself commit for a full week before complaining about it or adjusting my plans. I had to get up at 6am every day and was non-negotiable five days in a row. After enjoying a break over the weekend, the second week was much easier. By the end of the third, this was really my new normal.

One day may be a fluke. A week or two is a timeframe that I have experienced so far and can survive such long disruptions (imagine vacation or crunch time one week before the deadline)In contrast, three weeks is almost a month. (Note that 30 days is also a common period for self-improvement assignments.) During this period, you will be doing the thing many times, with some interruptions and obstacles (such as weekends). You may have survived. and got on track. For a time frame long enough to feel like “real life” is probably a good rule of thumb. But that’s not enough.

what happens rear 21 days?

There are studies that have tried to measure how long it takes for a habit to become truly automatic. This study We asked participants to choose a habit and associate it with one thing they did each day (eg, ‘eat fruit at lunch’). The study lasted 12 weeks. Some of the participants felt that new habits were automatically formed in just a few weeks.Many others weren’t there yet at the end of the study.Researchers concluded that most people form habits automatically The model they calculated fits only 62% of the participants. Despite the variety of possibilities, there are few universal rules of human behavior.

a 2012 review saw some others Estimate He concluded that it made more sense to tell people it would take at least 10 weeks for the new habit to become automatic.

The idea of ​​​​gradual behavior change instead of day by day

Setting time-based commitments, such as spending the first week before changing plans or using a new moisturizer every day until the bottle is empty, is a helpful tool.But another way of thinking is that the change in behavior is step by step than calendar dates.

With this mindset, there are several stages before starting a new action. Research options, try out the behavior and then make it a habit. But even after starting a new action, the work continues. It’s not as simple as “do this forever”.

in the action At this stage, you have started a habit, but it has not yet happened automatically and you may not be sure that you can really continue. .

• Remember your motive for doing itFor example, stick a reminder card for your next dentist appointment on your bathroom mirror. that you need to floss your teeth, why I want to floss my teeth.
• Rebuild the environment to provide clues and supportFor example, if you want to run every morning, take off your shoes the night before. Then ask your spouse how your run was when you got back.
• increase self-efficacy by celebrating your small victoriesThis might mean checking the days you did that thing on your calendar, but also working toward milestones (such as total miles you’ve done) or creating benchmarks of your progress. (Previously, you might have been doing daily push-ups). chair, but now you can do it on the floor).
• Plan ahead how to maintain your habits Even if you get in the way (More on that later).

After gaining some momentum, you maintenance stage. You are practicing the habit, and perhaps you are starting to feel it automatically, or at least feel it becoming more of a part of your life than it used to be. You may need to do the following:

• reassess the planDoes running every morning still work? It might make more sense to extend some runs and designate other days for rest, yoga, or strength training.
• Think ahead of obstacles you may faceIf you go on vacation, do you continue that habit? If for some reason you fall off the wagon, how do you get back on the wagon?
• Make sure your motivation is what keeps working for youFor example, if you find that keeping a calendar streak really motivates you, The real test inevitably comes when you break the streakAt that time, there must be something apart from The streak that keeps you going. This is often essential: YYou want to be the one who flosses every day. Excited to be racing with a running partner.I’m happy that my cholesterol went down as much as I ate..

Building habits isn’t a White Knuckles problem until you reach your magic days. Habits are work, but the ones that stick are the ones that make the work worthwhile.