How Habits Work

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A habit - a mini-system that once you create, becomes automatic to your body, with minimal interference from the brain.

The Habit Loop is a breakdown of a habit put it into three sections:

Cue: A certain trigger that awakens the habit
Routine: The action you perform without thinking.
Reward: The change you experience making you want to do more of the same.

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The Habit Loop: 5 Habit Triggers That Make New Behaviors Stick

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In my book New York Times bestselling book Atomic Habits, I explain that the process of building a habit can be divided into four simple steps: cue, craving, response, and reward. The image below shows the habit loop and how these four factors work together to build new habits.

Key Ideas

The Habit Loop

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The cue triggers a craving, which motivates a response, which provides a reward, which satisfies the craving and, ultimately, becomes associated with the cue.

Together, these fo...

5 primary ways that a new habit can be triggered

Cue 1: Time - Most common way to trigger a new habit
Cue 2: Location - Most powerful driver of mindless habits and also the least recognized
Cue 3: Preceding Event - Many habits are a response to something else that happens in your life
Cue 4: Emotional State - emotional state is a common cue for bad habits
Cue 5: Other People - people you surround yourself with can play a role in your habits and behaviors.

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Habit Stacking — How to Create Your Perfect Routine

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Creating a new habit can be quite challenging. It’s a lot easier to keep doing what you’ve been doing than to make a change to your life. Creating a consistent routine is even harder. A routine…

Key Ideas

Habit stacking

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Habit stacking means adding new habits onto existing ones - to the things you already automatically do every day.

After waking up in the morning, you might put on a cup...

Adding a new habit to your life

Identify a habit that you do every day. Make a list of all your current habits, to identify which would be suitable to stack new habits onto. It could be anything, as long as you perform it consistently. This habit will serve as your cue to start your new habit.
Add the new habit right afterwards.
When you’re creating a new habit, make things as easy as possible. It’s recommended to make new habits so easy that you’re able to do them, no matter how tired or unmotivated you are.

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Habit Stacking: How to Build New Habits by Taking Advantage of Old Ones

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In 2007, researchers at Oxford University started peering into the brains of newborn babies. What they found was surprising. After comparing the newborn brains to the normal adult human, the researchers realized that the average adult had 41 percent fewer neurons than the average newborn. 1 At first glance, this discovery didn't make sense.

Key Idea

Habit Stacking

One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top - habit stacking.

Habit stacking is a spec...