When you build good habits, you give yourself the best chance of achieving success in your business. Your habits shape who you are, affect your productivity, and can even determine whether or not you reach your goals. Learn why it’s so important to establish good habits and how to do it.
TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:
[03:08] What is a habit?
[07:16] Why habits matter
[09:26] Build good habits by starting small
[12:48] How long does it take to establish a habit?
[15:15] How to build good habits
[17:20] What is a habit loop?
[19:42] Use the 4 laws of behavioral change to build good habits
[28:04] Build good habits now or stay stuck where you are
[29:44] Bloopers
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Atomic Habits by James Clear
What is a habit?
[Theresa] Did you know that you’re spending about 45% of your waking hours doing something automatic?
[Meghan] I suppose if I really think about it, that percentage shouldn’t surprise me. There are tons of things we do, like breathing, that we don’t consciously think about. It just happens.
[Theresa] Right. The brain is amazing. One of its many jobs, though, is to conserve energy. It does that by automating tasks. Enter, habit formation.
A habit is defined as an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. Your day is essentially a string of habits. Some of them are good, some are neutral and some are bad.
[Meghan] For sure my days—and evenings—are filled with both good and bad habits. Like, I’m good at time management, but I watch way too much television! Especially since the pandemic started.
Now, when it comes to neutral habits, I’m clueless. What the heck is a neutral habit?
[Theresa] A neutral habit is one that is just a part of a routine that doesn’t have a helpful or harmful effect. Let’s look at the example of what happens when you wake up in the morning.
It may look something like this:
- Hit the snooze button on your alarm clock 3 times
- Turn off your alarm clock
- Check your cell phone
- Get out of bed
- Brush your teeth
- Take a shower
Each one of these items is a habit. Some are good, like brushing your teeth and taking a shower. Others are bad, like hitting the snooze button and checking your cell phone before you get up. The neutral habits are turning off the alarm clock and getting out of the bed.
[Meghan] Okay, so then a neutral habit is an action that’s more routine in nature.
A neutral habit is an action that’s more routine in nature.
As you’re talking about neutral habits, I’m starting to assess my routines. I’m totally a creature of habit. And I’m thinking that most of us don’t realize how much time we actually spend on autopilot.
[Theresa] I think that’s true. I mean, how many times have you driven home from someplace like the grocery store and you have no memory of it.
[Meghan] Oh yeah, I hate when that happens! I have a very distinct morning routine, and there are days when I brush my teeth and don’t even remember doing it because I was concentrating on something else. Sometimes I’m hyper-focused on one thing, and brushing my teeth is a task that is so automatic at this point, that’s it’s totally forgettable!
What’s becoming abundantly clear in this conversation is that you’re creating habits whether you mean to or not. So, if you want to build good habits, you start by knowingly creating them. It’s an effort that’s intentional.
[Theresa] Yes! You definitely want to be intentional about the habits you create, but first, you need to become aware of the habits you have. James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, says, “One of our greatest challenges in changing habits is maintaining awareness of what we are actually doing.”
[bctt tweet=”“One of our greatest challenges in changing habits is maintaining awareness of what we are actually doing.” -James Clear” username=”@TheresaCifali”]
[Meghan] You’ve mentioned James Clear before (actually, you’ve mentioned that book before, but I still haven’t read it. I’ve gotta get my hands on it!). I’m thinking that awareness goes hand in hand with intention.
Why Habits Matter
[Theresa] That’s right. I began my journey to be more productive many years ago, but no matter how hard I tried, I struggled. At first, I thought that the problem was the strategies themselves. But I was wrong.
The actual problem was my behavior. You see, I had built bad personal and professional habits that shaped everything about me. I wanted to be different, so I had to start behaving differently. That began with changing the habits I’d created over many years.
I wanted to be different, so I had to start behaving differently. That started with changing my habits.
[Meghan] Ok. So then, why do you think it’s so important to build good habits? Why would or should people really consider building better habits?
[Theresa] How you think, act and feel are significantly affected by the habits you’ve created. Your habits influence your behavior. And your behavior affects how productively you work.
For example, let’s say that you need to complete a challenging task. But every time you hit a snag that makes you feel stressed and frustrated, you go onto Instagram. Double-tapping on photos seems to relieve that tension. Then you feel better. So you repeat that behavior every time you feel stressed out.
Can you see the habit you built there?
[Meghan] Yes, the habit is: when you’re stressed and frustrated you spend time on Instagram. That’s fairly dangerous!
I run into this myself actually. When I’m avoiding one thing, I may go do something else—and from what you’re saying, I could run into developing a habit with this behavior. And it could be a bad habit.
[Theresa] Exactly. Now, how productive do you think you’ll be if every single time you’re feeling stressed out you lost time in your day to Instagram?
[Meghan] Yeah, I’d waste a lot of time.
[Theresa] The habits you have in place now has served the person you are now. If you want to uplevel your work performance, your happiness, productivity, whatever, you need to improve your habits.
Having good habits makes everything easier.
Build Good Habits by Starting Small
[Theresa] But I don’t want anyone to think that you can change your habits overnight. It’s a process. I had as many wins as I had failed attempts.
Do you know what those failures and successes gave me? Data!
[Meghan] OOOOOhhhhh, data! You know how much I love data and analysis! What did you learn?
[Theresa] I learned that when I changed one habit at a time I increased my chance of being consistent over the long term. The opposite was true if I tried to change too many things.
For example, if I attempted to establish a morning routine consisting of 5 new habits all at once, I would fall short. That would lead to me right back into my bad habits. My brain was like, “Whoa! What are you doing? This seems new and scary. Let’s go back to where I feel safe.”
[Meghan] I understand that. Not only does your brain conserve energy, but it’s also designed to protect you. That was too much new territory all at once.
Not only does your brain conserve energy, but it’s also designed to protect you.
Change can be overwhelming. To avoid the overwhelm, start small. Small steps people! I can’t emphasize that enough. It’s the same whether you’re implementing a new marketing strategy, testing out a new productivity tactic, or building a good habit.
You’ll progress faster with one small tweak at a time. Often, the reason you fail is that you try to do too much at once. I know this because I’ve bitten off more than I can chew many times in the past. That’s led to overwhelm and sometimes failure.
[Theresa] That’s true. Don’t discount the little changes that may seem insignificant. Those baby steps add up over time. So, find your one thing to try now.
I started really really small. I wanted to fix my sleep problem so I picked one habit to change.
[Meghan] And which habit was that?
[Theresa] Devices! I was either on my phone, computer, or tablet right before bed. I was so stimulated that I couldn’t settle down. So, I began to build the habit of not being on a device within an hour of bedtime.
Over time, I added other small good habits to create a bedtime routine. But I added those one at a time.
How Long Does it Take to Establish a Habit?
[Meghan] So, my question for you is: how long does it take to build good habits?
[Theresa] As much as I hate to answer with, “it depends,” it depends! Phillippa Lally, a health psychology researcher at University College London, conducted a study in 2009 to determine how long it actually takes to form a habit.
She discovered that it can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days for a habit to become fully automatic. But on average it takes 66 days to completely establish a new habit.
How long it takes you to build a particular habit depends on the difficulty of the habit you want to establish. For example, the habit of drinking a glass of lemon water is easier to establish than say exercising for 30 minutes 5 days a week.
[Meghan] To clarify, that means the time it takes to make one task a habit. Not a routine consisting of multiple habits, right?
[Theresa] That’s right. Remember, I didn’t try to change all of my habits all at once. I didn’t wake up one day and say, “Today I’m going to be different!” I started small with one thing and added on over time.
Building good habits is a constant, fluid process. As I learn and grow, my habits change with me. Your habits help reinforce who you are evolving to be.
[bctt tweet=”Building good habits is a constant, fluid process. As you learn and grow, your habits will change with you.” username=”@TheresaCifali”]
How to Build Good Habits
[Meghan] Ok, Theresa, you mentioned a process a minute ago. I know building good habits requires a plan. So, what’s the deal?
[Theresa] You caught me! When I first began experimenting with my own habits, it was a game of chance. I did some research on the topic and tried some tactics. And I believe I had great success, in spite of myself.
How effective I was at changing my habits changed for me when I read Atomic Habits by James Clear. First, his book helped me understand the science behind creating good habits. That greater understanding of how and why habits work helped me create better, more intentional habits. In other words, I could create better habits that lead to more successful outcomes.
[Meghan] I’d never really considered that there’s science behind habit creation, but that makes sense.
[Theresa] Let me give you an example. One area I created better habits around is my cell phone. Previously, I had notifications set up on my phone to remind me of important things. The habit then became, when my phone dings, I look at it.
The problem when the phone dinged, I couldn’t stop myself from looking. If I tried to ignore it, the friction it caused was unbearable. The phone won out 100% of the time because even if I didn’t look at it immediately, I was still thinking about it.
I’d created a successful habit loop, but it wasn’t a successful strategy.
In order to have more success, I needed to remove the interruption. To remove the interruption I had to change the habit loop.
What is a Habit Loop
[Meghan] I want to know how you fixed that issue, but first I have to ask, “What’s a habit loop?”
[Theresa] A habit loop is simply a feedback loop. James Clear explains the 4 step process of building any habit:
- Cue (the trigger to initiate an action)
- Craving (the motivation or desire to perform the action)
- Response (the actual habit you perform)
- Reward (satisfies your craving)
If I apply the habit loop process to my cell phone notification habit, it’d look like this:
- Cue: the dinging of my cell phone
- Craving: I want to look at my phone
- Response: I pick up the phone and look at it
- Reward: my curiosity is satisfied
[Meghan] Ah ok it’s like Pavlov’s dog study and conditioning. It’s interesting how feedback loops play into habit formation. A simple feedback loop can easily create a good or bad habit. That reward is like a dopamine hit!
I’m curious. How did you break the habit loop of phone notifications?
[Theresa] I didn’t break it so much as change it. What I needed was a new cue and a new reward. It started with turning off notifications though.
Here’s the new habit loop:
- Cue: 9 am in my office
- Craving: I want to check phone notifications
- Response: I check my phone for email, texts, and other notifications
- Reward: I stay in control of my day
[Meghan] That sounds better. I bet you save tons of time, too.
Now I’ve got to know, what’s the best way to go about building good habits? I think most of us are unconsciously creating new bad habits all of the time. So, we probably need to understand how to be more proactive about our behavior and actions.
Use the 4 Laws of Behavioral Change to Build Good Habits
[Theresa] Well, there’s no cookie-cutter solution to anything. At least I don’t think so. But if you have struggled in the past with building consistent, good habits, I recommend using James Clear’s process, the 4 Laws of Behavioral Change. It has helped me establish many new habits. Plus, it’s directly related to the habit loop.
These 4 laws are:
- #1 Make it obvious (cue)
- #2 Make it attractive (craving)
- #3 Make it easy (response)
- #4 Make it satisfying (reward)
[Meghan] That sounds like something I can get on board with! Tell us more about each one.
Build Good Habits by Making them Obvious
[Theresa] Sure. The first law is to make it obvious, James Clear suggests doing so by attaching the habit to time and location. Time and location become the cue. He calls it the implementation intention formula.
So the goal:
I will drink 10 ounces of lemon water.
Becomes:
I will drink 10 ounces of lemon water at 7 am in the kitchen.
Using the implementation intention formula makes the what, the when, and the where very clear. Make sense?
[Meghan] Yes. It does. Specificity! I love that. It’s like goal setting. The more specific, the better. It’s obvious to what you are committing when you plan to do it, and where. It reduces the chance that you’ll keep putting it off until later.
[Theresa] That’s right.
And you can go a step further by stacking habits together, using that similar implementation together.
So,
I will drink 10 ounces of lemon water at 7 am in the kitchen.
Can lead to:
After I drink my lemon water, I will stretch for 10 minutes in the living room.
Once I stretch, I will meditate for 5 minutes in the living room.
Then, after I meditate, I will journal for 7 minutes in the kitchen.
You can stack as many habits as you’d like. Stacking habits together helps to create powerful rituals.
[Meghan] That sounds like a routine. What’s the difference between a ritual and a routine? To me, they sound very similar.
[Theresa] Yes, routines and rituals are the same in that they are both a performed set of actions. Essentially they are a habit stack.
The difference between them, however, is in the objective behind the actions. So a routine is a set of actions you just need to get done like make your bed, get dressed, or load the dishwasher.
A ritual is more purposeful in nature. My rituals help me get into a positive headspace that affects my mood and productivity in a good way.
A routine is a set of actions you just need to get done, whereas a ritual is more purposeful in nature.
[Meghan] I had no idea about the differences! I think I may refer to you as “Yoda” moving forward.
Build Good Habits by Making Them Attractive
[Theresa] The second law is to make habits attractive. This is the craving stage of a habit loop. The concept is that you’re more likely to adopt a habit in anticipation of a reward. The anticipation of the action, not the fulfillment of it, creates the craving.
It comes down to wants vs needs. Sometimes establishing a new habit is a challenge. Maybe it isn’t so exciting, like that lemon water. You know there’s a benefit to the lemon water, but that isn’t necessarily enough to get you to do it. In that case, find something you want to do to follow the thing you need to do.
[Meghan] So, you’re making it conditional to a reward. For example, after I drink my lemon water, I can watch van life videos on YouTube for 10 minutes.
[Theresa] Yes, exactly, if that’s your jam. You can also incorporate the lemon water within a ritual. In this case, you’d insert it before a habit you enjoy. So, part of my morning ritual is to spend 10-15 minutes snuggling and playing with my dogs. I inserted my lemon water drinking right before that. Not only am I anticipating the joy of playing with them, but they anticipate it also. And I can really tell. It’s a good incentive to drink it down and not dilly dally.
[Meghan] Loving on the dogs is always a good habit! What’s next?
Build Good Habits by Making them Easy
[Theresa] The third law is to make it easy. This is the response phase of a habit loop.
To make a response easy, create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible. When a task is hard it creates friction. The easiest way to get rid of the friction is to not do it all. But that doesn’t help you build good habits, does it?
[Meghan] Nope!
To make a task easy to perform, create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible.
[Theresa] So design the environment to reduce any friction. For example, let’s say you want to establish the habit of drinking a smoothie after your morning workout. Yet every time you finish your workout, you flake out on making the smoothie.
Obviously, there’s resistance here. If you want to create this new habit, though, you have to come up with a solution to make it easier. What’s something you could do to make it easy?
[Meghan] You could take out all of the non-perishable ingredients and the blender before your workout. Or, you could make your smoothie the night before so that all you need to do is grab it out of the fridge.
[Theresa] Perfect. Those are great ways to make it easy. Nice job!
[Meghan] I know that task well since the morning smoothie is something I struggled with in the past. Making things easier on yourself always makes you more likely to succeed!
Ok, tell us more about the last law.
Build Good Habits by Making them Satisfying
[Theresa] The fourth law is to make a habit satisfying. This is all about reward. Remember that part of the reason to create a habit is to eventually make the action automatic. To keep practicing an action, make sure it’s rewarding in some way.
When a task is gratifying you increase the odds of repeating the behavior again. If you don’t, you won’t be able to make it a habit.
The best way to ensure that you’ll repeat a behavior is to make the completion of it gratifying in some way.
[Meghan] That plays along with psychology and makes total sense. But, let me ask you this. If the reward isn’t immediate, will that make it more difficult to stick with an action?
Let’s say you’re trying to establish the habit of walking two miles a day on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. The goal of your exercise habit may be to help you lose 10 pounds. In this case, you won’t see the reward right away.
[Theresa] We are definitely an instant gratification nation. Behaviors that have delayed rewards are indeed harder to establish as habits than those that have immediate rewards attached to them.
However, while the bigger reward may come later, you can increase your chances of success by finding something smaller to keep it pleasurable. Using your walking example, you could reward yourself with a massage once a week or coffee with a friend on the days you walked.
There is always a way to make an action more satisfying so you’ll stay on track to build good habits.
[bctt tweet=”There is always a way to make an action more satisfying so you’ll stay on track to build good habits.” username=”@TheresaCifali”]
[Meghan] Look for solutions, not excuses. You’re always reminding me of that! And it’s great advice. As I’m always saying, more people need to take responsibility. So, it’s on you to make your habits work.
Build Good Habits Now or Stay Stuck Where You Are
[Theresa] Ok everyone, I have enjoyed sharing my knowledge about habits with you. But we’ve only scratched the surface here. I highly recommend you read Atomic Habits by James Clear. You won’t regret it.
Do you have anything else, Meghan?
[Meghan] I’ll add this. You can remain stuck in the same place you are now. Or, you can consciously build the good habits you need to make lasting, effective change to your work and your life. You either stay stuck or make a change—you decide!
[bctt tweet=”You can remain stuck in the same place you are now. Or, you can consciously build the good habits you need to make lasting, effective change to your work and your life. You either stay stuck or make a change—you decide!” username=”@MeghanMonaghan1″]
From years of biting off more than we could chew, we know that success comes when you start small. We keep saying that because it’s true! Aim big, but start small. Make small improvements over time. Then, in a couple of months, you’ll look back and be proud of your progress.
We believe in you! We know that you can build better habits. Change is messy. Don’t fight the messy moments, embrace them.
