Hacking Your Brain to Make or Break Habits.
“This is the real power of habit: the insight that your habits are what you choose them to be” – Charles Duhigg,
We all are “creatures of habit”. Before you decide to get offended by my saying that each and every one of us is a “creature of habit”, take a deep breath and read this article.
Research undertaken by Dr Wendy Wood and her colleagues established that as much as 43% of all our daily activities are enacted habitually while we are thinking about something else. The power of habits is so strong, that it will resist even conflicting interests. According to research by Dr Wood and her colleagues, people can be so driven by their habits that they will automatically eat stale popcorn despite not being hungry (and not particularly liking the popcorn) while watching a film in the cinema.
Advantages and disadvantages of habits
Like many things in life, habits have some benefits and costs associated with them. Advantages of habits confirmed by research include the following:
- The cognitive economy and performance efficiency of habits frees us to engage in other important thoughtful activities such as rumination of past events and planning for future actions.
- Habits are associated with reduced stress and a greater feeling of control. They are unlikely to deplete our self-regulatory resources to the same degree as deliberate behaviour does, which helps us to conserve regulatory strength for important decisions.
- Also, habits may be helpful in those situations where we are lacking motivation and self-control to do (or not do) something to achieve goals. If you have a well-established habit, you will continue doing things even if they are difficult and not particularly enjoyable.
The known disadvantages of habitual (aka automating) behaviour are:
- When judgements become automatic, people may react on the basis of past experiences without due consideration of small changes in their current situation.
- Repetition of behaviour may continue even when this behaviour stops being the most appropriate and effective response.
- Habit performance reduces the immediacy of emotional experience. It is seen by people as unimportant in attaining personal goals and is associated with relatively negative self-evaluations.
Know thy habits
Bearing in mind the benefits and costs associated with our habits, it is worth taking a good look at them. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, habit is “any regularly repeated behaviour that requires little or no thought and is learned rather than innate”.
In his book The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg introduced the concept of the habit loop which was also explained in more detail in James Cleary’s book Atomic Habits. The three main elements of The Habit Loop illustrated by the image below help to understand how and why habits develop and how they become ingrained in our neural pathways.
The habit loop starts with a cue (external stimulus or internal signal), which prompts the brain to initiate a habitual response and acts as a trigger for a particular behaviour or routine.
Once the cue kick-starts the habit loop, the specific behaviour or action which constitutes the habit follows. As this behaviour or routine develops, neural pathways are activated and strengthened through a long-term potentiation (LTP) process which enhances the efficiency of the neural circuits associated with this specific behaviour or routine.
When this behaviour or routine is completed, the brain experiences a surge in dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and reward, which plays a key role in reinforcing the habit loop by creating a positive association with the behaviour or routine.
Cravings for reward are the motivational force behind every habit.
Understanding how the habit loop works helps us to identify the main leverage points in behavioural change which can be used to good advantage by strategically manipulating cues, routines and rewards. This understanding forms sound foundations for many brain hacks and science-based tools and techniques used to change habits.
For those who want to know more about the exact science of making and breaking habits, there is a comprehensive video by neuroscientist Dr Andrew Huberman on YouTube and the Neural Network Newsletter by Dr Huberman about building or breaking habits using science-based tools.
Changing your habits step-by-step (and one at a time)
Dr Jeremy Alfords gives a science-based, clear and easy to follow guide on how to identify habits and start changing them, which include the following steps:
- Keep a “habit journal” to raise self-awareness of repetitive behaviours (which are likely to be your habits) for at least a week. You can use a notebook or a digital app such as Day One or Habitify.
- Analyse your journal to identify triggers of your habits and rewards from them such as a sense of relief, pleasure or achievement.
- List the habits you identified and categorise them into positive (beneficial for your wellbeing), neutral (those that have little impact) and negative (negatively affecting your goals or health).
- Prioritise your habits to change – one habit at a time. Start with the negative one which affects your life most. You can start with the habit which is easier to change to build up your confidence and motivation.
- Set clear, SMART goals for changing the habit you decided to focus on. Write down these goals to make them visible and to keep yourself motivated and accountable (even if it is just to yourself).
- Create an action plan based on small, manageable steps which should include:
a positive habit to replace the negative one (for example, go for a short walk instead of reaching for sweets when you are feeling low, tired or bored);- changes to your environment to reduce triggers (for example, removing snacks from your bedroom and kitchen to stop late-night snacking);
- your support system – friends or family members who can encourage you, motivate you and keep you accountable.
- Monitor your progress and adjust your action plan as and when required to help you achieve your goal (you can continue using your habit journal or apps such as HabitBull or Streaks for this). Remember to acknowledge and celebrate even the smallest wins to stay motivated!
- Stay committed, be patient, persistent and kind to yourself. Remember thatchanging habits takes time and effort, and brings some learning opportunities (aka setbacks) along the way.
Apparently, it can take anywhere from 3 weeks to a year to form a new habit. It is also useful to know, that, according to research, it may be beneficial for long-term success in attaining goals to occasionally “fall off the wagon”, as long as it is planned. The so-called “planned hedonic deviations” may help people feel more in control and keep morale and motivation high.
The good news is that we don’t actually need to understand neuroscience to form new beneficial habits. According to researchers from Warwick, Princeton, and Brown Universities, all we need is repetition because forming habits depends more on how often we perform an action rather than how much satisfaction we get from it.
If you are looking for good books about habits, you will be spoilt for choice. My personal favourites are: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, Atomic Habits by James Clear, Hard to Break by Russell A. Poldrack and Good Habits, Bad Habits: How to Make Positive Changes That Stick by Dr Wendy Wood.
There is also a useful Strategic Habits Workbook created by scientists from the Consortium for Health and Military Performance (CHAMP) at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. It contains 20 habit tactics designed to help people “hack” the habit cycle so that they can form their desired habits in the shortest time possible.
With all this information and resources, we have no excuse for sticking with habits that are no longer beneficial to us. As Charles Duhigg pointed out, the real power of habit is in the insight that our habits are what we choose them to be.
Want to know more about brain hacking? My next article will follow soon!
Editor’s Footnote
You can read all of Zorina’s articles here.
