4 easy steps to replace bad habits with good ones

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

We do more than 40% of our daily activities out of habit. A good habit helps us move towards our goal, a bad habit only moves us away from it.

Writer Patrick Edblad talked about what habits are made of and how you can replace one habit with another. Lifehacker publishes a translation of his article.

1. Assess your habits

According to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), each habit has three parts called the habit loop. The famous journalist and writer Charles Duhigg writes about her in his book "".

1. Sign - what starts the habit. Example: New message alert.
2. Habitual action - your very action. Example: we open email.
3. Reward - the benefit that we get from this action. Example: we find out what is written in the message.

If the reward has positive reinforcement, we will want to repeat this loop the next time we see the appropriate sign. After a lot of repetitions, it will become a habit.

It is very useful to evaluate your habits in this way. You can track what provokes a habitual action, what this action is and what kind of reward it brings. By breaking your habit into its component parts in this way, you can change it and make it work for you.

2. Find substitute habits

You've probably noticed that habits are hard to break. Then try to replace your habit with another.

Consider this example: People smoke when they are nervous. In this case, simply quitting smoking will not work. Instead, you need to find another way to deal with stress and incorporate it into the old habit loop.

• Old loop. Sign: stress → Habitual action: smoking → Reward: calmness.
• New loop. Sign: Stress → Habitual Action: Walk → Reward: Calm.

The badge and reward remain the same. Only the habitual action changes.

Of course, quitting smoking is much more difficult. But if you experiment with different substitute habits, you will increase your chances of success.

Examples of substitute habits

Here are some ideas for how you can use surrogate habits to improve your life.

• After waking up, try to stay awake. Instead, think about what you are grateful for in life. Remember at least three things.
• When you feel like relaxing, don't turn on the TV. Better read a good book.
• Don't waste your time if you're in line or stuck in traffic. Train mindfulness.
• While walking or running, don't just move from point A to point B, but also listen to some informative podcast.
• Listen to audiobooks while doing household chores.
• During a break from work, don't read the news, let your brain relax. Better meditate.
• Prepare something healthy for a snack instead of the usual chips and chocolates.
• Always take the stairs, not the elevator.
• When getting ready for bed, turn off your phone and write down what happened during the day in your journal.

Small changes like these won't make a big difference in your life. But if you start to systematically incorporate them into your routine, together they can make a significant impact. They will help you start to change. Once you start, you cannot stop. This will set off a chain reaction that will positively affect all areas of your life.

3. Sign up for a "toilet course"

Substitute habits don't have to be very big to have a positive impact on life.

One of the funniest examples of good habits - "toilet courses" - is mentioned in his book "" MJ DeMarco (MJ DeMarco). “Never sit on the toilet without a useful book,” he writes.

If we combine 15 minutes every day in the toilet with reading, there will be about 90 hours spent with benefit in a year. Think about how much you can learn during this time by watching educational videos (for example, YouTube channels such as, or) or reading interesting books and articles.

4. Start with one little habit

If you are interested in this idea, try replacing one of your habits right now while you have inspiration. In the next 10 minutes, do the following.

1. Choose only one surrogate habit. If you try to replace multiple habits at once, chances are you won't succeed at all. Don't overload yourself. Review the above list of habits again. Perhaps he will give you the idea that you want to change.

2. Create a rule to implement the intent. State your goal using the “if-then” construction. “If” is your sign and “then” is a habit. For example: "If I sit on the sofa, I will read a book."

3. Determine the reward. Rewarding yourself for small wins is a great way to reinforce good habits. A small reward that will help you get used to the new action can be anything. For example, tracking a new habit in a special application (Coach.me or any other).

4. Change the environment. Make it as easy as possible for you to perform the new activity that you want to make a habit. For example, put an interesting book on your bedside table and put your phone away.

5. Repeat the new habit. This will help her to strengthen faster.

6. Measure progress. Set aside 15 minutes a week for this. Think back to if you followed a new habit every day. If not, ask yourself what was stopping you. Don't think of it as a failure. This is just information to help you change your approach to the habit next week.

The most important thing is to perform a new action every day. Of course, at first you have to force yourself, but over time it will become easier.

Change one thing today. When this habit takes root, change something else. And further. Over time, you will begin to think and act like a completely different person.