It takes time to form new habits, but experts explain 8 tips to help you make them stick
Some people may have tried to acquire new habits, such as 'writing a diary before going to bed,' 'jogging or doing muscle training every day,' 'incorporating vegetables into their meals,' or 'going to bed by 11 p.m.', but have given up because they didn't feel like they had acquired the habit. It takes longer to form new habits than people say, so
Time to Form a Habit: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Health Behavior Habit Formation and Its Determinants
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/12/23/2488
Forming new habits can take longer than you think. Here are 8 tips to help you stick with them
https://theconversation.com/forming-new-habits-can-take-longer-than-you-think-here-are-8-tips-to-help-you-stick-with-them-255118
It is often said that it takes 21 days to develop a new habit, and this rule is also called the '21-day rule.' It may be comforting to think that you can develop a habit by working hard for 21 days, but unfortunately, in reality, it is difficult to establish a habit in 21 days.
The 21-day rule originated from an episode reported by plastic surgeon Dr. Maxwell Maltz in his book ' Psycho-Cybernetics ' written in 1960, in which patients who had cosmetic surgery took 21 days to get used to their new appearance. This episode was repeatedly cited in self-help books and other publications, and eventually became a common understanding.
However, a 2009 study showed that even simple habits like 'drinking water after breakfast' or 'eating fruit every day' took a median of 66 days to become automatic. In a review of several studies on habit formation, Shin and his colleagues found that it took an average of 59 to 154 days for a habit to become automatic. The time it takes to acquire a habit varied widely, with some people developing a habit in as little as four days and others taking nearly a year.
The time it takes to form a habit depends on a variety of factors, including the type of habit you want to develop, how often it is repeated, how complex it is, and who is trying to develop it. For example, simple, effortless behaviors like 'drinking water after meals' or 'taking a vitamin supplement every day' are likely to become habits more quickly than more difficult behaviors like 'training for a marathon.'
However, it has been shown that 'interventions that actively support the formation of habits' are effective for any habit. According to Shin, interventions such as using a reminder app to 'notify you to exercise at the same time every day' or 'notify you to drink water after every meal' can help form habits by making it easier to repeat the behavior and less likely to forget.
Research by Shin and others has shown that 'even small daily actions can become strong habits if repeated consistently.' In other words, rather than thinking that you can change your life by forming a habit in the short term, it is important to continue until the behavior becomes a habit, even if it is difficult to feel daily progress.
Based on scientific research, Shin and his colleagues present eight tips to help you form good habits.
1. Take your time
It's important to aim for at least 60 days of consistent behavior rather than waiting a few days or weeks to see if you can form a habit. You don't have to be perfect, and a day or two of inactivity along the way doesn't reset the clock.
◆2: Start with something simple
In order to form a habit, it is important to continue the action, so rather than trying to make something difficult a habit right away, it is important to start with something small and easy that you can realistically repeat every day.
3. Connect to existing routines
It's difficult to build a new habit from scratch, so if you incorporate the new behavior of 'flossing' into the behavior of 'brushing your teeth,' such as 'flossing before brushing your teeth,' you'll be more likely to remember and repeat the behavior.
4. Track your progress
By using a calendar or app to check the days when you were able to carry out an action, you can get a sense of how well you are able to continue the action.
5. Include rewards
For example, by incorporating rewards into new behaviors, such as 'making coffee using high-quality coffee beans after taking a morning walk' or 'watching your favorite TV show after jogging,' you can associate positive emotions with the behavior, making it easier to make it a habit.
◆6: Do it in the morning
Behaviors performed in the morning tend to be more likely to become habits than those performed in the evening, possibly because people are most motivated and have fewer distractions early in the day.
7. Make your own choices
A new behavior is more likely to become a habit if it's something you choose for yourself, rather than something that's forced upon you by someone else.
◆8: Repeat in certain situations
Rather than incorporating different actions into different situations and times each day, it is easier to develop a habit by doing the same action in the same situation every day, such as 'going for a walk after lunch every day' or 'doing radio exercises when I wake up in the morning.'
Singh and his colleagues argue that since it generally takes more than two months to form a habit, it's important not to give up even if you don't see any changes within 21 days, but to keep going. 'Our research and other evidence supports that repeating deliberate behaviors in stable contexts really does make the behavior automatic. Over time, new behaviors feel effortless and become deeply ingrained. So whether you're exercising more, eating healthier foods, or improving your sleep, it's consistency, not speed, that's important. Keep doing the behavior,' Singh and his colleagues advised.
Related Posts:
in Note, , Posted by log1h_ik