The three elements of habit formation
We often hold the misconception that something we do frequently is a habit. Well, let me tell you this: I go to work every day, yet as soon as I go on vacation, it takes me no time to get used to not going to work. Working is not a habit for me; don’t get me wrong, I quite love what I do, and I do it frequently, yet it is not a habit.
A habit is something you do automatically, regardless of the frequency. That is a simplistic, catchy phrase to say that habits are processed almost out of conscious awareness, with very low cognitive load or active decision-making (Wood & Rünger, 2016).
Think of your life: how many things do you do out of awareness? Do you take out your phone as soon as you call the elevator? Do you take the same route to school or work? Do you brush your teeth in the same order? Do you put your seatbelt on as soon as you enter your car? Do you always sit in the same spot at the table? How many things do you do that don’t require questioning?
That’s kind of the key: out of awareness. If you want to engage in a behaviour in a habitual way, it needs to become less dependent on you convincing yourself to do it. In this article, we unpack a roadmap to do exactly that, and it requires three ‘simple’ steps: context, reward, repetition.
Step 1. Context in habit formation.
Is willpower something that makes you tougher? Is that why, if you do something, you have to do it with your own strength? If you find that question irritating, not to worry; you can book a free 15-minute consultation through the link below, and we can unpack that.
Research on willpower has developed quite a lot. We went from thinking it was fundamental to thinking it was a limited resource that could be depleted throughout the day, to understanding that it plays an important role but is often insufficient on its own to build a habit.
During the Vietnam War, one out of five Americans fighting overseas was addicted to heroin, and one out of two tried it (numbers vary slightly based on the exact point in time data comes from). Facing the horror of a war will probably do it, and something that can take the pain and suffering away has a natural attraction. The surprising fact, though, is that when those soldiers came back from Vietnam, only 1% of them relapsed or remained a heroin user (Robins et al., 1975).
If there is something that has a habitual component, that is addiction. This data demonstrated the enormous impact that environment (and context) has in shaping our habits. In Vietnam, drug use was triggered by the stress of war, reinforced by being surrounded by peers who also used, and by the availability of the substance itself. Coming back to the US, soldiers were surrounded by a different situation, a different social network, and less substance availability. The context of addiction was no longer present.
Smoking offers another example. In 1965, 49.5% of Canadians were smokers; now, it is little more than 10%. The changes in social policies and awareness of dangers, limits on triggers (cigarettes cannot be openly displayed by sellers), and places in which smoking is allowed have shaped the environment in such a way that deciding to smoke is almost a burden.
If developing change matters to you, use science. Modify the context to increase or decrease the chances of what you want happening. Do you want to use your phone less? Put a timer on it. There is a bucket of apps out there that will block your phone after X hours of use. Place it far away. Put it on silent. No, not vibration. Silent. How many times have you heard it buzz? You picked it up to notice it was just the weather app, but before you know it, you are 20 minutes deep in Instagram Reels? Silence it.
If you want to decrease a behaviour, you need obstacles between you and the behaviour. Vice versa, to increase a behaviour, remove as many obstacles as possible. Make it almost inevitable. Do you want to eat healthier? Buy only healthy food. Delete all your delivery app accounts. Meal prep. Do you want to work out more? Find a gym along a route that you take every day. Prepare your bag and leave it next to the door. Shape your environment to remind you of your commitment and eliminate distractions, so that you ‘stumble’ in what you want to do.
Step 2. Reward in habit formation.
Nobody wants to do something for nothing. If you want to increase the likelihood of something happening, you need to reward that behaviour. Think about cashback or points credit cards. The bank uses those systems to reward people for getting into debt with them. Yet, seeing that cashback accumulating feels good. We are enmeshed in a society that uses rewards constantly. From the stickers in school, to the likes on Facebook, to our partner doing something special for us because we picked the restaurant that they liked. Rewards.
You are used to being rewarded by others and society; you just need to learn how to reward yourself for something that feels a bit annoying to do, but you know is the right thing. And I’m not talking about a Starbucks on the way to work because “treat yourself, you deserve it, king/queen.” What are you rewarding? Going to work? They pay you for that. I’m talking about something positive that you can use right after you do the behaviour you want to increase. It might take a bit of trial and error because everyone prefers different things.
Do you want to work out more often? Have a protein smoothie right after you finish. Studying? Have a gummy bear every time you finish a section. Reading? Do it while having something good to sip. Walking or running? Do it while listening to your favourite podcast. Walk on the treadmill while watching your favourite show on your phone. Do you want to learn how to play an instrument? Do it with your favourite song. Put your favourite music on while cleaning and have a bit of karaoke in front of an imaginary audience. These are some common rewards, but you know you.
Importantly, a reward doesn’t have to be a prize. A reward is something pleasant that you can pair with something else. That reward gives you what we ultimately all want. No, it is not money; it is not true love; it is not power. It’s dopamine. This is an oversimplification of our neurological system, but it gets the point across. If you reward something long enough, your brain starts releasing dopamine before you even get the reward; during the activity you are trying to implement. Because the activity itself becomes a cue that a piece of chocolate is about to come (Schultz et al., 1997).
Step 3. Repetition in habit formation.
Rome was not built in one day. I can say it. I’m Italian.
Doing something once is usually not going to bring you the transformation you want. But if you repeat it long enough, at some point, one day, you will notice the difference. But not for the reasons you might think.
Repeating is the earliest form of learning. We do it in school; the first way in which we learn to study is ‘repeating enough times so that you remember.’ But in habit formation, the concept is a bit more nuanced. We don’t repeat a behaviour to remember it, but so that we go from goal-directed to context-directed. Let me break it down.
When you decide what change you want to bring to your life, you are motivated by a goal. Perhaps you start going to the gym because you want to be fit. You want to read more because it trains your brain. You want to play an instrument because it can help in dating (unless it’s a bagpipe, but to each their own). There is a goal there. You know what you want.
Imagine this: you start working hard to get the target that you have in mind. Day one, no considerable change. Day two, no considerable change. Day 3? Same. It will take time to see the results. But if you keep doing it, you are progressively shifting from a goal-directed action to a context-dependent action (Lally et al., 2010). You are building associations in your mind that slowly reinforce the process. Suppose every day after supper you start practicing the trumpet. The first few nights, your behaviour is goal-directed (‘I want to learn to play it’). But with time, every repetition creates the association: dinner done – trumpet practice. You are learning that when circumstances X occur, your behaviour is Y. Repetition strengthens this.
Now playing the trumpet is being prompted by the context and situation you are surrounded by. See, it all makes sense… There is a little nuance though. It is important to repeat the behaviour in the same context (or situation) to build the association. If you work out in completely different settings, at different times, and following different cues, it can be harder to create a strong association because the context-dependent cues are always changing. But if you always work out at the same place, at the same time, with the same music, you’re building that pivotal link in habit formation.
And there you have it. Context, reward, repetition. The context communicates to the brain when; the reward makes the behaviour worth doing, and the repetition makes the association between them stronger. Eventually, what you want to happen will happen without you having to think about it. The trick is in using all the tools at your disposal to make the change inevitable and enjoyable, rather than forcing yourself to do something that carries a lot of psychological friction.
References
Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., & Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998–1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674
Robins, L. N., Helzer, J. E., & Davis, D. H. (1975). Narcotic use in Southeast Asia and afterward: An interview study of 898 Vietnam returnees. Archives of General Psychiatry, 32(8), 955–961. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1975.01760260019001
Schultz, W., Dayan, P., & Montague, P. R. (1997). A neural substrate of prediction and reward. Science, 275(5306), 1593–1599. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.275.5306.1593
Wood, W., & Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67, 289–314. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033417
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