Habits

Habit Loop Model

  1. The cue - signals for next steps. Difficult to erase
  1. The Routine - the behavior that you perform
  1. The reward - the loop gets stronger by repetition - automated.
    Difficult to erase.

Automaticity. Time requirement varies: between 14 days and and 9 months.

Understand that it is a Journey!

Discover the driving force behind addiction - relieve stress, anxiety , social isolation... dopamine issues.

Replace, not erase. Change for something good, meditation, imagination, exercise.

Often several combined - boredom, drunk, rejected, phone nearby

Tricky to identify. Might be another hidden reward. Sense of validation, relieve stress, feeling of accomplishment, destress, social needs.

Attach them to more positive routines

If relapse. It is not necessary to restart the whole process. The bigger the relapse, the worse.

it is normal to relapse. It is important not to give up as long as it takes. Do not worry about the days.

Good replacements: 1. Reading useful in daily life and engaging; 2. Meditation - trains willpower, focus, self-control, appreciation and gratitude; 3. Fitness. Stick to one at a time!

Build a new habit

  1. Pick a cue that appears every single day
  2. Pick a cue that is unavoidable (no matter where, what you are doing or even how you are feeling) (eating - reading; showering, commute, logging on)
  3. your cue should make it easier to follow through the routine (if meditation -> not meditation; seeing a gym = fitness)
  4. only pick one cue for one routine (single cue for single routine - for more than one cue the automaticity increases)
  5. Identify all steps of your routine
  6. Not high expectations - bad days are unavoidable

Willpower facts:

  1. The newer the habit, the higher the willpower necessary to implement it
  2. If willpower goes down a certain threshold, the brain will do everything in its power to conserve willpower. (focus on the habit and not on the amount of productivity, or high expectations)
  3. How often, frequency and consistency really matter - think about the automaticity line
  1. Modulation of expectation:
    1.1 Low bar (still need to follow all of the steps of your routine; the least amount of work that will move your habit closer to the line of automaticity - 1 minute meditation) - stick to routine!
    1.2 High bar (The most amount of work you will allow yourself) - motivate to do more than the bare minimum - the hardest part is to start the routine!!
  1. Must be immediate after the routine
  2. Must be pleasurable
    2.1 feeling of accomplishment is usually not enough
    2.2 primitive rewards: food, play, sex, socializing, relax

Willpower

  1. Muscle: the more you use, less you can use after in the same day.
  2. Battery: if it gets too low - side effects = ego depletion
    2.1 brain fires slower
    2.1 alarm system for errors becomes weaker
    2.3 harder time controlling their reactions: more emotional, angry, cry over small things
    2.4 harder to make right decisions: become impulsive and bad habits become hard to resist! vicious cycle!

Habits are affected by our levels of willpower

How to use less willpower?

How to recharge willpower?

How to raise levels of willpower for good?