
Ask HN: Are there any systematic and scientific ways to develop a habit? - sammyjiang
I want to develop many daily habits, such as running, reading, or exercise every day, but all difficult to stick to, I know someone, such as zurkburg, who can insist on what they want to do, so I wonder is there any systemic way i can develop a habit?
======
kstenerud
1\. Build a routine. Set a specific, repeating time when you will do the thing
in your calendar. Keep that slot clear, ALWAYS. Never let something interrupt
this task.

2\. Learn to say no. If someone wants you to do something else during this
time slot, say no, and tell them why.

3\. Never break the routine. Breaking it once makes it MUCH easier to break
the next scheduled time. If you do break it, feel bad about it and get back on
the horse IMMEDIATELY.

4\. Use the power of accountability to reinforce the routine. If you can find
someone who will hold you accountable, do it. Someone who does the routine
with you, or a coach who will call you out if you make excuses.

5\. One thing at a time. Don't build some huge routine of 15 tasks at once.
Ease into it one task at a time.

6\. Don't overload yourself. Leave time in your schedule for play. If it gets
to be too much, decide CONSCIOUSLY which one you will drop permanently (and
not right before the schedule to do it).

Edit: I'll also say this: Overcoming adversity builds discipline. A tough life
that forces you to fight for what you want builds this naturally. An easy,
carefree life doesn't make you tough. Seek out tough things to toughen
yourself up.

~~~
d23
As someone who got into a regular exercise habit a year ago that has
progressively gotten more intense, I disagree with a few of your points.

Actually, I guess it's mostly the first 3:

> 1\. Build a routine. Set a specific, repeating time when you will do the
> thing in your calendar. Keep that slot clear, ALWAYS. Never let something
> interrupt this task.

> 2\. Learn to say no. If someone wants you to do something else during this
> time slot, say no, and tell them why.

> 3\. Never break the routine. Breaking it once makes it MUCH easier to break
> the next scheduled time. If you do break it, feel bad about it and get back
> on the horse IMMEDIATELY.

It's this "do it now or feel guilty" stuff that keeps most people
procrastinating or avoiding doing the task. I remember initially I would have
it set in my mind that I needed to go to the gym at 10 a.m. the next day. If I
woke up a bit late or was wasting time on reddit and 10 a.m. looked
unrealistic, I started feeling really guilty. "Oh no, if I don't go now, I'll
never go!" It put a lot of stupid, unnecessary pressure on the situation. And
it didn't really have the desired effect -- I'd usually not go, since I had
already blown it by missing my 10 a.m. deadline, after all!

Now, I might wake up and plan on going at 10, but I know that I 1) absolutely
do plan on going and 2) can go at 11, or 12, or 1, or 2, etc. There's no need
to make the task worse by associating a lot of negative pressure and guilt
with it.

> One thing at a time. [...] Leave time in your schedule for play.

Totally. Especially if it's an area where the amount of information out there
can be overwhelming (a la fitness / weightlifting). I started out going with a
few exercises I enjoyed in mind and simply did them until I felt tired. I
didn't worry about making a program, writing down my workouts, obsessing about
nutrition, or obsessing about how many days or which days I did what.

Over time, things started getting easier and I began incorporating more of
this stuff as I started feeling comfortable. But the initial phase where I
made the habit something I actually enjoyed was crucial. Even now, when I
occasionally find myself feeling like I've slipped too much back into treating
it like a job, I take a day to not keep track of anything and try some new
exercises that I think might feel good.

Edit: Also super useful:

> If you can find someone who will hold you accountable, do it. Someone who
> does the routine with you, or a coach who will call you out if you make
> excuses.

For me it was my roommate. I'd go with him the first couple of months. After a
while I felt comfortable enough to go by myself and do my own thing, but that
initial time where I would use the slight social pressure of him going and
asking me if I wanted to go to keep myself in check.

~~~
mrleinad
> It's this "do it now or feel guilty" stuff that keeps most people
> procrastinating or avoiding doing the task

Couldn't agree more with this.

I've tried many times to build habits into my routine, only to abandon them
and feel bad about it because I couldn't maintain them for a few days.

No more. Now I have them in my list, I keep them consciously present, but I
won't punish myself if I don't get them done one day. Allow some leeway. If
you really want it, build it paciently into your routine and if it doesn't
feel right, try another way.

One example: I've been trying to stick to a healthy diet to lose some weight.
I don't enjoy cooking, and much less enjoy preparing or eating salads. Tried
lots of apps, lots of ways of grocery shopping, and hated it all the way. Now
I switched to calorie counting and drinking lots of water. Walking away from
the desk to fill a bottle 3 or 4 times a day feels like I'm moving forward
without any hassle, and I just try to eat slowly when I sit down for lunch or
dinner. Water diminishes my appetite and cravings for eating out of just
feeling anxiety. And if I feel like chomping down on a pizza with beer, it's
ok, no big deal.

Just take it easy. Hakuna matata.

~~~
d23
> Now I switched to calorie counting and drinking lots of water.

Nice! Calorie counting was _huge_ for me. I started using an app for tracking
it, and suddenly the weight just started coming off. The quantification and
gamification aspect was hugely addicting for me. For the first time I actually
felt in control over my body.

------
katzgrau
Have a read, great book on the topic: [https://www.amazon.com/Power-Habit-
What-Life-Business/dp/081...](https://www.amazon.com/Power-Habit-What-Life-
Business/dp/081298160X)

Systematic, definitely. Scientific? Not really sure, but I find it extremely
effective. If I could boil it down to "what works" for me, it'd be:

\- Pick a task or thing that you want to accomplish. Let's say running (mine
is running/lifting).

\- Pick a "cue," or something that signals when you perform said task. The
more apparent the cue the better. Mine is waking up. Working out is the first
thing I do.

\- Follow this routine religiously for about 21 days. That's the magic number
according to people who are into this kind of thing, and I agree. At this
point you kind of forget what your old habit was when you woke up, and you
naturally go to perform your new task.

And lastly, there will be some days when you don't want to perform the task.
Do it anyway. A streak of not performing that task is really just the
(re)formation of a _bad_ habit.

~~~
prostoalex
I second "The Power of Habit", Duhigg is the kind of writer you're looking for
- aggregating scientific sources and multiple studies, but presenting them in
very easy-to-consume popular-science format.

Worth noting that the 21 day recommendation is "average", the actual "stick
time" has a huge variation between a few days spent on "brush my teeth as soon
as I wake up" habit to (likely) months that it would take to pick up the "run
5 miles before breakfast" habit.

~~~
cortesoft
Running five miles before breakfast is more than just a habit; it is also a
skill. Many people simply can't run 5 miles right now, they need to first
train up to acquire the ability to do it.

~~~
jabv
I agree with you, but I think the parent was saying that even controlling for
one's ability to successfully do a thing, some things (i.e. those that are
more strenuous or otherwise require more commitment) take longer to solidify
as habits, which makes sense if we think of habit-forming as environmental
adaptation. One doesn't adapt to massive environmental changes after just a
couple of weeks.

------
serhatozgel
I was the same and now, after reading a lot about these things, I believe I am
able to actually develop habits I want. What worked for me:

\- I stopped trying to develop all the habits at once and sticked to a single
habit. Preferably the easiest one.

\- I discovered I get used to doing something by repeating it a lot. For e.g.
at the beginning, I was targeting doing yoga once a week because I was
thinking that the more often I target, the more difficult it would be and I
would fail. It did not work out because doing something once a week did not
turn into a habit. Instead, I switched to doing 3 minutes of yoga, but every
single day. And I did not target increasing it at all. After a period, I was
automatically increasing it without noticing it.

\- I cannot develop habits when my life is busy and unstable. For e.g. if I am
not coming home at the same hour everyday, and targeting to read at the same
time but missing it because I was not at home at that hour, it did not turn in
to a habit. When I could do it at the same time everyday for a period, then it
started to stick.

\- I started giving a habit at least 3 months to develop. I reserve the next
three months for a single habit, if I can do it, say 60 times in 90 days, I
tend to stick to it after that period and am now able to add a new one,
because the feeling of "I am now trying to develop a habit" disappears for the
old one.

\- Also I discovered that once I make something a habit, I can decrease the
frequency and still able to stick with it. E.g. I developed a habit of running
3-4 times a week, now I want to do it once a week and I can easily stick to
it.

------
DenisM
Couple of life-hacks to help you along:

\- Pay for things. I'm been paying $400/month for fitness classes and rest
assured I never missed one. Haven't even been late.

\- Develop a single meta-habit: check your checklist. I have a morning
checklist of things that I need to check off before I feel my morning is
complete and my day is off to a good start. I don't forget my vitamins
anymore.

\- Talk things through with someone who listens. As you're talking out loud
you will get a better perspective and ideas on how to make new habits stick
will pop out of nowhere.

~~~
semi-extrinsic
> Pay for things

Counterpoint: lots of people hold $50-$100/month gym memberships but never go
to the gym. In fact, this is the most important part of the business model of
most gyms.

~~~
DenisM
In my case the program will end. So I'm paying $400 and if I slack off I will
have to start over and that's _another_ $400.

------
0xcde4c3db
I don't know of any "how to" type material, but the scientific topic here is
operant conditioning. The basic idea is that you reward behaviors that are
desired and/or punish behaviors that aren't desired. There's an interesting
dichotomy, though: the fastest way to _learn_ a behavior is to have a
reinforcement (a reward or foregoing something unpleasant) that is
consistently provided with/after the behavior and not at other times. However,
the most effective way to _maintain_ a behavior is for the reward to be
provided at a random ratio to the behavior (but still only in conjunction with
the desired behavior) [1].

A lot of people want to believe that humans are somehow "above" operant
conditioning, but there's a _lot_ of evidence that we aren't.

Language nitpick: the word you want is _systematic_ [2].

[1] [http://open.lib.umn.edu/intropsyc/chapter/7-2-changing-
behav...](http://open.lib.umn.edu/intropsyc/chapter/7-2-changing-behavior-
through-reinforcement-and-punishment-operant-conditioning/#stangor-
ch07_s02_s02_f01)

[2]
[http://www.public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/systemic.html](http://www.public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/systemic.html)

------
CapitalistCartr
I wanted a particular job; I wanted to get it and succeed at it once I had it.
I wanted it more than any job I'd ever wanted. The commute was 44 miles, work
started at 7 AM. I quickly realized I could eat breakfast, read the paper at
home, then fight rush hour traffic, or reverse that and avoid rush hour. I
searched and found a nice deli/diner 1.1 miles from work. That meant getting
up at 4:30 AM, which meant going to bed at 8:30 PM. My (now ex) girlfriend
picked a pointless fight with me at 8:20 twice the first week. But at 8:30 I
went to bed.

All of this might sound crazy, but I wanted it badly, made it paramount, so
all the rest flowed from that. If you really want your life to be different,
decide what you want and accept the decisions that flow from the goal. People
will get in your way, including yourself. I've had the weirdest effects myself
of suddenly unable to focus on getting out the door, forgetting where my keys
or such are, etc. But keep at it. Make the goal paramount, break through
whatever bizzareness appears, and you'll have what you want.

~~~
antisthenes
I think the lesson here is: be prepared to make sacrifices for the thing you
really want.

Not sure if there's advice or a definitive way to develop a habit here, but
it's helpful nonetheless.

------
mtw
The biggest challenges I found are distractions. It's easy to get going with
running, reading or exercise but as long as TV is there, Netflix or the
Internet, we are easily tempted to follow the easy path.

Once you get distracted by something, it's very easy to continue to be
distracted. I'm thinking of binge-watching Netflix, or checking out the reddit
front-page etc. After, we forget what is the work and what are the todos. Even
if we have to go back to a productive state, then we are not in the zone, and
it is still very easy to go back in distraction mode.

Based on all this, what worked for me was being productive right from the
beginning. Waking up, I do something productive, often creative writing. When
I begin to work, I do not check news or email. I start with a to-dos that are
quick to do. You do a streak and then continue on the bigger todos. News,
emails, blogs, social media are much later in the day, if at all.

In this framework, if I want to develop a new habit, I would wake up early and
put 30mn of time into it. I won't open up my phone or have any social
interaction before finishing it.

------
TheTaytay
BJ Fog is a Stanford researcher who is studying exactly that. Check out his
"tiny habits" program, which is a one week course in which you will learn 3
new tiny habits. It is free and enlightening: tinyhabits.com

~~~
bskinny129
I highly recommend this as well. It involves all the principles discussed in
this thread, but makes you actually do them rather than just reading about it

------
simonw
Get a dog. Our dog needs to go out first thing in the morning. It sounds
silly, but she succeeded in injecting an element of schedule into my days that
I hadn't had before. I feel like I've found it easier to develop other daily
habits as a result.

~~~
notimetorelax
I can second that. On one hand you have a little less of the free time, but on
the other hand you learn to stick to a routine. Which is a useful skill for
habit formation. And you can couple the walks with something else, like
running or listening to audio books.

------
lexpar
There is an excellent app for android called 'Loop - Habit Tracker'
([https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.isoron.uha...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.isoron.uhabits&hl=en))
which has a really great interface for keeping track of habits. It's very well
designed. The interface is simple and snappy. Best app I've found anywhere for
keeping track of even small daily habits (like flossing). It takes about 3
seconds to check off a habit, it can remind you every day, and you can consult
graphs to see how you've been doing. It's also free and has no ads.

I didn't make this project. But it's great. I've picked up quite a few habits
using it.

~~~
che_shirecat
I really admire people who make stuff like this. It's completely ad free and
open source too.

------
3feetfromgold
Also about the pain vs. pleasure response.

Ultimately, we as humans, are always trying to either obtain more pleasure or
avoid some level of pain. This is true for every task and decision we make in
life.

If we take the task of going to the gym for instance, some people associate
going to the gym with "pain". I.e. I don't want to run because I"m tired.
Whereas others associate going to the gym with "I want to feel good and have
more energy".

The trick is being able to combine the power of habit (cue) with pain and
pleasure.

All of this can be read in Awaken the Giant Within by T. Robbins. Oldie but a
goodie classic on this stuff.

------
c3RlcGhlbnI_
Quickly trying to bootstrap my knowledge of the field I have a few things for
you.

First of all as such the examples you have given aren't quite habits. A habit
is generally defined in the research as a sort of automatic response to
contextual cues. So running just "every day" can never be habitual, however
running as a specific part of your morning routine can become habitual.

Secondly the cue is the essential part in making the habitual behaviour
override your conscious intentions. It is however both necessary and
sufficient, so you don't necessarily need to worry too much about rewards or
accountability to make things stick. Just developing the association between
cue and behaviour is enough.

And that is basically all we know for certain so far. At least as far as I can
learn skimming the first related literature review that popped up
([http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17437199.2013.87...](http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17437199.2013.876238?))
and some of the associated papers.

If you are not the kind of person who can through willpower alone get yourself
to set up the cue and do the action it may benefit you to get help from
someone who is better at that kind of thing until the habit is automatic.

------
nickjj
I think you need a complete change in mindset, because you're just setting
yourself up for failure.

You shouldn't need to develop a habit like reading or exercise. If you don't
truly want to do these things then you'll stick to your systematic habit for a
few days and it'll fizzle out, then it's back to the drawing board.

I've been walking/jogging a few miles a day for the last 5 years or so. Now
it's part of my life because I straight up enjoy it. I also quit smoking
cigarettes cold turkey after smoking a pack a day for a long time.

Both were honestly really easy to do because deep down I wanted to do them. I
woke up one day and the room was spinning which is something I never
encountered before. It scared the shit out of me, so I immediately changed my
life style.

You should be asking yourself why you want to read and exercise more. Is it
because of a long term goal? Good, write that goal down and stick to doing
things that point you towards it. That's all there is to it.

If you find that too difficult, then your goal is not really something you
care about, so think harder. Keep repeating that until you find what you
really want.

~~~
goblin89
> If you find that too difficult, then your goal is not really something you
> care about, so think harder.

From personal experience, agreed that you shouldn’t have to _make_ yourself,
and instead realizing that you _want_ it.

Disagreed with ‘think harder’, though. When mind is foggy, thinking harder
doesn’t seem to help; and when mind is clear, things tend to be obvious
without thinking.

When you woke up to a spinning room, you probably didn’t have to think too
hard about goals or whether you’d want to experience that again. It was a
moment of clarity. However, when everything is going _mostly_ well and there
are no incoming existential warnings—just normal ups and downs of life—such
moments can be elusive to some of us.

I’d say regularly practicing different ways of inducing bouts of mindfulness
(how? I wish I knew) might be the only habit worth development per se.

~~~
nickjj
Right, when the room was spinning, I didn't think "I better read a Tim Ferris
book!" or "what type of application should I use to schedule my time to
monitor habits".

It was more like sitting down and having a conversation with myself that went
something like this:

"You're not in that bad shape, but something is messed up. Cigarettes are
terrible and while you're not overweight, you're inactive and that needs to
change or you're going to die".

Then I basically evaluated my life up until that point and made sweeping
changes based on a bunch of goals that I wrote out.

The really funny thing is, death wasn't enough to keep me motivated with
walking. Not because I hated it that much, but it was really easy to get
trolled by my own brain with thoughts such as "you just walked 4 miles in 4
days after sitting at a computer desk for years... you're fine man".

Now I have long term goals and walking meshes well with my life style. I've
grown to like it because of what it allows me to do, not because of the
mechanical motion of walking.

------
hollander
On Reddit there are several groups that try to do this. It's called the
X-Effect. It works by creating a habit by doing a small task daily. One of the
most important things is to start small.

You have to start so small that is seems stupid, but as it's all about
positive reinforcement, you better start small (five minute tasks like clean
your desk) and succeed, than a little bigger and fail. You may think that you
could do 30 minutes and do more, but the goal here is to do this each and
every day. If you do more one day, that's great. But this is the minimum. You
have to set yourself to do this every day for five minutes.

You repeat this for 50 days, and the idea is that by then you have created a
habit. Then you can start a new goal.

It sounds stupid, but it's not. It's really easy to let this go for one day,
and think tomorrow I'll do 15 minutes to compensate. Or maybe you had a good
day yesterday, and you worked 30 minutes on your goal. This is not a good
idea. It's a trigger to let go, and stop the routine. Soon you're doing this 5
minute task only every other day, and then suddenly you stop alltogether.

And of course I take a stupid example here. You may choose another task that
takes more time, and maybe you don't set a time limit, but something like walk
the dog three times a day, or read one chapter of a book each day.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/1x99m6/im_a...](https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/1x99m6/im_a_piece_of_shit_no_more_games_no_more_lies_no/cf9dz72/)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/theXeffect/](https://www.reddit.com/r/theXeffect/)

------
some1else
BJ Fogg has a few insights regarding good habit retention:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g56aKi-z05w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g56aKi-z05w)

Basically if you look at it as a process, making sure not to overwhelm
yourself before the habit becomes second nature, you have a better chance of
succeeding at it.

------
BrandiATMuhkuh
BJ Fogg's tiny habits is a good way. You might know him as author of the book
"persuasive technologies". But his habit tools are well studied and tested
(according to him ;) [http://tinyhabits.com/](http://tinyhabits.com/)

------
DeBraid
See Tim Ferriss and his various podcasts/books. This is basically what he's
spent 10-15 years studying, does a good job distilling information into the
most impactful and substantive bits.

A good starting point: this podcast with Naval Ravikant
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7J-Gwc9pVg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7J-Gwc9pVg)

Naval is a deep thinker, talks about happiness, habits, learnings, etc.

Then, check out Derek Sivers (also w/ Tim)
[http://fourhourworkweek.com/2016/11/21/tools-of-titans-
derek...](http://fourhourworkweek.com/2016/11/21/tools-of-titans-derek-sivers-
distilled/)

------
dpandey
After trying to build a healthy habit app for several years, we have found
that the most effective way to do it is to turn what you're trying to do into
a game. It doesn't need to use technology - you could just be doing it on a
piece of paper.

There's an important psychological reason behind this. When we usually try to
build a habit(or 'change a behavior'), we're going against our default nature.
If that weren't the case, you'd already have acquired that habit.

Now going against your nature takes willpower. And research has established
[1] that we have a limited amount (budget) of willpower everyday. Expend the
budget on one thing, and you have no more of it for another. In experiments,
people are more easily tempted by an unhealthy snack after a hard day, because
they've already used up their willpower for the day. Bottomline: willpower
based behavior change is very hard to sustain.

Also, we usually interpret our failings to keep up with our behavior change
effort as guilt and failure, rather than the budget of willpower drying up,
which is what it actually is. That starts a negative connotation with the very
thing that was supposed to bring a positive change to our lives.

I don't want to sound promotional, but we're seeing incredible change in
people's walking behavior by turning it into a fun engaging game/app [2]. It
just seems to work where an 'endless willpower' driven approach fails.

The interesting insight into this process is that the healthy habit needs to
be a side effect of this game. It cannot be the main focus of the game. In
other words, there must be a strong gaming core loop that's just fun and
sticky by itself, and which is what people think of when they think of the
game. The core loop is basically going to be fed by (among other things)
elements of your healthy habit.

[1] [http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/willpower-
facts](http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/willpower-facts)

[2] [http://battlesteps.com](http://battlesteps.com)

~~~
mping
The willpower research has been debunked, example:
[http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/cover_story...](http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/cover_story/2016/03/ego_depletion_an_influential_theory_in_psychology_may_have_just_been_debunked.html)

The game advice seems legit though.

~~~
dpandey
Thanks.

"Challenged" (not debunked) would more precisely describe what the linked
article says. I'm not saying the claims were set in stone, but even
intuitively, it seems to make sense that people might be tempted to 'throw in
the towel' after a hard day.

As for me, I've found I'm usually actively seeking out a guilty pleasure after
a hard day. A cookie (or a beer) looks pretty appealing at that point.

------
lj3
The book "Superhuman by habit" is the best book I've read on the subject. It's
well researched and comes with lots of practical advice for developing habits,
not just the research and theory.

~~~
peller
I'll second this recommendation. "Cliff Notes":
[https://sivers.org/book/SuperhumanByHabit](https://sivers.org/book/SuperhumanByHabit)

------
geoffreyfloyd
If there were a short answer to this, we'd all be amazing. There are
strategies for building good habits, such as adding a small amount to your
daily load at a time (to avoid overextending your will power, and build it up
slowly), and logging your actions in a journal everyday, which causes you to
recognize your accomplishments and confirm your goals. Also, there are methods
of setting very specific, measurable goals that can be achieved in relatively
short spans (days and weeks, not months and years) so that you continue to
push forward at a visible pace.

------
Singletoned
I doubt there is any 100% reliable way, or any way that works for everyone
(cause people are different), so it's partly a case of finding out what works
for you.

A useful discovery for me was that emotion is a greater driving force that
rationality. Rather than making a list of all the reasons that exercise will
be good for you, spend time visualising exactly how wonderful you will feel
(in as much detail as possible) when you are fit, and spend time visualising
how bad you will feel if you don't get fit.

It might not work for you, but if it does it can be very powerful.

------
ryanmarsh
Yes and it's explained in awesome book The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

You need a cue/craving -> response -> reward cycle

The reward should be slightly unpredictable to make the habit really
addicting.

So best way to build (or deprogram) a habit: keep a log of how you feel before
you do (or don't do) something you want to change. Become aware of your "cue"
or craving. Begin to introduce a different response that comes with a reward.

For instance, if you don't feel great after leaving the gym you'll never make
it an unconscious habit.

------
codethief
Following up on katzgrau's recommendation for "The Power of Habit", I think
it's important to stress that you should prioritize and choose the most
important habit first and focus on that 100%. In the book, Charles Duhigg
mentions "key habits" that, if changed, will lead you to change other habits
as well.

I've been down the road of changing habits multiple times and I think the most
important habit you can adopt is actually to continuously watch your progress,
adjust your routines if necessary and, more generally, give you time to think
about where you're moving with your life on a grand scheme of things.

Whenever I tried to get into a new habit, I found that the hardest thing was
actually to come up with and take counter-measures if the routine wasn't
sticking as expected. I would often try a new routine and if it failed to
stick, I would automatically fall back into my old (bad) routine.

So my advice is this: Set aside time to reflect upon your routines (and your
life in general). Make this your very first habit to get into. Personally,
I've found that doing it once a week is by far not enough for me (and it's
also a difficult habit to maintain), so I decided to do it once a day and,
since I rarely find the time at night, I decided to get up a bit earlier in
the morning and go for a 30min walk. This has the added benefit that you get a
bit of exercise and lots of fresh air. I also use that time to decide on my
most important task for the day that I will work on right after the walk.

------
shock
I've read the book The Power of Habit and found it enlightening, but the bits
I'm having most trouble with are choosing rewards and getting started. The
part about choosing rewards is, by far, the most difficult for me. Everybody
keeps saying "make sure to reward yourself after doing the thing you want to
make habitual" but nobody provides actual examples of rewards that work and
are not harmful (no, I don't want to eat a cookie each time I do the habit).

~~~
SomeStupidPoint
From personal experience, _starting_ with a cookie (I used a piece of
chocolate, because small individually wrapped units) is really the most
effective way.

However, I always congratulated myself (outloud, by name) when giving myself
the treat, and pretty soon, the congratulating myself was conditioned as a
reward for the activity, letting me drop (most of) the usage of actual treats.

Just treat yourself like a particularly stubborn and clever dog/cat/animal
you're trying to train -- if marketing has taught us anything, it's that cheap
psychology tricks work.

~~~
shock
How did you choose your initial rewards? Did you just start experimenting with
things that popped in your mint or did you find a list of suggested rewards?
I'm trying to limit my sugar intake otherwise I would've gladly used the sweet
treat reward.

~~~
SomeStupidPoint
I just went for the first thing that popped in to my mind that is a primary
reward -- something biology has conditioned me to want, and will activate
reward pathways (quickly!) when ingested/experienced.

Honestly, you could probably just start with the secondary reward of
congratulating yourself -- it's just important that you do it out loud and
call yourself by name (eg, "John, you did a good job of running today"), so
you _hear_ it happening, instead of it being part of your mental dialog.

Generally though, I find that speaking to myself is psychologically different
than talking to myself internally, so YMMV if that's not true for you.

------
RoboTeddy
What's worked for me for running (2x/week), pushups (2x/week), pullups
(2x/week), stretching (daily), going to bed by a certain time (daily), and
other things:

* focusing on consistency: if you do any tiny amount of the thing (even if it's just one pushup), that totally counts. once you have the habit, you can build intensity as you please.

* specific deadlines: (e.g. run Tues/Fri by 1pm), since then I don't have a series of "I'm in the middle of something, I'll do it in a bit"'s that are kind of unpleasant and attention-consuming.

* It's kind of stupid, but I wrote a little app where I can press a button after I've done a habit -- if I don't press the button before the deadline, it sends a text to my brother. I don't wanna bug him, so for me, this helps make the deadline more "real". If I'm super busy or really don't feel like it, it's totally fine if I just do a tiny bit of the habit and then press the button-- but that rarely happens.

It's kinda nice to have all this running on autopilot; it's been working well
for about a year, and it doesn't take any sort of willpower at this point. I
find it especially useful for keeping my routine after something that would
normally disrupt it, like travel.

------
auganov
I'm very sorry that I don't have citations handy [0]. But there are studies
that explored affecting one's propensity to do what they rationally believe to
be right. The common theme of these studies has been that feeling observed by
others greatly improved it. The most memorable result has show that merely
placing someone in front of a mirror improved it too (a testament to how
salient the effect is)! My point being that if all else fails, it's worth
trying to structure your social environment in a way that motivates you. It's
easy to slack off when nobody's watching. It's easy to not deliver your side
project on Friday if nobody's gonna care anyways!

[0] that's the playlist where I heard about it, I'm not sure if it's the right
video, though. Sorry just don't have the time to dig through it. I greatly
suggest everyone watching the whole playlist. The subject matter explores a
lot of concepts tangential to procrastination from a philosophical angle.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reZA81S0zfI&list=PL3F6BC200B...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reZA81S0zfI&list=PL3F6BC200B2930084&index=9)

------
tdaltonc
Yes! In addition to some of the awesome answers already posted here I wanted
to mention how important the schedule of reinforcement is habit formation.

If you're building a product, optimizing when and how it rewards users can
double your retention and engagement. I make a tool to help with this:
[http://useDopamine.com](http://useDopamine.com)

------
partycoder
For reading there's this product: [https://www.amazon.com/Mark-My-Time-
Digital-Bookmark-Neon-Bl...](https://www.amazon.com/Mark-My-Time-Digital-
Bookmark-Neon-Blue/dp/0976142503/) . It's a bookmark that allows you to set
any target reading time, and it displays a countdown... You can do the same
with your phone eventually, and it might be unpractical to have one per
book... I use playing cards as bookmarks. You can read before going to sleep,
and make it a habit to read while catching some sleep...

Running/exercising... there are many apps such as Runkeeper and such that
allow you to set weekly goals. Running might better in the morning.

Another one is to get a wall calendar in a visible place at home and mark the
days where you have been active in whatever habit. If you see no marks it
means you have dropped your habit. You can also use a calendar app and set
reminders... but those are easy to ignore.

------
snoonan
Look into CBT in terms of efficacy.

A bit of a PSA... For anyone who relates to this very strongly, some people
with extreme difficulty in forming positive habits have executive function
disorders such as ADHD. This is a primary symptom and is often viewed as lack
of willpower or laziness vs. a treatable condition. Forming habits under
treatment is much more effective.

------
keepresolve
Want to introduce an app / website I created for this -
[http://www.keepresolve.com](http://www.keepresolve.com)

Based on my own experiments and also watching how other users are following
through, I noticed few things: (1) If an user starts with huge list of habits
to develop, more likely or not s/he would quit fast -- so starting slow is
recommended (2) I think having long term goal followed by daily steps / habits
is a good idea. (3) Sharing the goal with your friends / family helps a lot -
so currently we are working on a functionality to share the goals with others
(not strangers but 'friends'). (4) Also, when habits are set by someone like
parents / teachers, they are followed up better than self imposed habits (ex
doing daily music practice or homework as opposed to doing course work for
free online courses)

------
bryanrasmussen
I was going to be a jerk and just say 'heroin' but then thinking about it,
addictive properties does indicate one of the signatures of successful habits.
The times that I have developed exercise habits is because I managed to get
over the first week hump and then wanted the adrenaline rush that came with
it.

One pertinent aspect of developing any sort of exercise habit is that the
routine needs to vary enough - not just to help you grow - but also to keep
giving you that adrenaline feedback. This is why a martial art of some sort is
a good exercise routine, because of the variation that tends to naturally
occur ( I prefer capoeira )

But I guess the most systematic and scientific way to develop a habit is
operant conditioning [http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-
conditioning.html](http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html)

------
helentoomik
A book that I have found very useful for both developing new habits and
breaking existing unproductive habits is "Self-Directed Behavior" by Watson &
Tharp. It's based on scientific research, but the ideas are presented clearly
and in a practically useful way. It's also about more than just the
introduction or changing of habits - it also helps you analyze them,
understand them, measure them, reinforce them, etc.

It appears to be sold as a college textbook so the latest edition is
horrendously expensive, but this also means you can easily find used copies of
older editions. Mine is at least 15 years old and still very useful.

[https://www.amazon.com/Self-Directed-Behavior-Self-
Modificat...](https://www.amazon.com/Self-Directed-Behavior-Self-Modification-
Personal-Adjustment/dp/1285077091)

------
imron
Don't break the chain -
[http://dontbreakthechain.com](http://dontbreakthechain.com)

In the same vein, I made an app called 100% for doing something similar:
[https://www.imralsoftware.com/100](https://www.imralsoftware.com/100)

------
rawnlq
[https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/1x99m6/im_a...](https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/1x99m6/im_a_piece_of_shit_no_more_games_no_more_lies_no/cf9dz72/)

tl;dr; Draw Xs and don't break the chain

------
ohyoutravel
I don't know if there is a scientific way, but I can say what works for me. To
start, I essentially resign myself to doing whatever habit I want to build,
making it in my mind so I have no choice so there's no getting out of it. Then
I just do it, rain or shine, no matter what, which can be super difficult.
After a while, it becomes easier.

One example is running. I just told myself that I needed to run for one hour
every weekday at 6am. Extremely difficult as I normally sleep in until 7, but
I just told myself I have no choice. So I started getting out of bed at 6 and
running until 7. After a couple weeks it got easier, after a month I did it
without much thought. After about two months, I feel weird if I don't do it
and miss it.

I am also interested in whether there's more to building a habit than this.

------
mildbow
There is a whole industry focused on portraying developing habits as being
complicated.

It's not.

Just take things one day at a time and make sure you have your habits
scheduled in the times where you are least liable to get interrupted. I prefer
early mornings.

Then just do what you've committed to do. There is no magic trick.

------
dorfsmay
They touch on this in the "Learning how to learn" online course. One of the
point is to learn to recognise patterns:

[https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-
learn](https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn)

------
benevol
To develop a habit, you simply need to repeat the specific action, by forcing
yourself (apply discipline).

If you do that, your brain will benefit from its (life-long!) property of
plasticity and will create new neural connections (with each repetition) which
favor the action you're about to execute:

First, you're about to create a new path (like through a thick a forest),
which is a bit harder, but then you use that path again and again, and the
path will become a street and then a highway (which is increasingly easier to
use). In the end, you can execute your action without any effort because your
neurological pathways are now really solid and the electrical signals travel
much easier.

~~~
posterboy
>discipline

I think, the word is used inflationary, but maybe I just don't understand
because I lack disciplin. I suppose disciplina (“instruction”) implies some
form of encouragement.

------
bootload
_" I want to develop many daily habits, such as running, reading, or exercise
every day"_

Done that. Do the hardest thing first.

The simple hack I've found useful is to repeat the activity ^no matter^ how
you feel. I found the biggest point of failure is ^just before^ you start and
if you get over that hump of avoidance you'll succeed.

You have to repeat this every day. Every day you start is another point of
failure. ~ [http://seldomlogical.com/2009/OCT/29/do-the-hardest-thing-
fi...](http://seldomlogical.com/2009/OCT/29/do-the-hardest-thing-first/) (on
2770/3000km for this year, 10km at a time.)

------
eponeponepon
Piggyback on your dopaminergic system. Start by rewarding yourself with
something you already enjoy every time you display the habit you want to
acquire, and in the fullness of time your brain will react to the new activity
without the need for the separate reward.

This is more or less how smoking functions, modulo some neurochemical details
- the idea is to effectively addict yourself to the new behaviour.

~~~
jwdunne
Bear in mind this still needs some discipline. Your brain will try really hard
to make you go "I control the reward thus I don't need to do the work".

For the those with a flabby self-discipline muscle, start small. You won't
feel like short circuiting to the reward as much if you make the goal about
building a small habit and extending your self-control.

------
rm_-rf_slash
Not sure if this helps, but in order to _break_ a (bad) habit, I have found
the single best method to be a trip to the ER.

I had a nasty case of dehydration from a combination of beer and Mexican food
that resulted in the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life. It really
got me to reevaluate my perspective on alcohol. I stopped drinking immediately
and haven't looked back.

------
dizrupt
If, your habit involves your computer. I use SlimerJS to automatically remind
me to fill in a time sheet I use at work. After a month or so this resulted in
me remembering before it popped up to remind me. Sort of habit forming. I
think what was key was that it popped up with an actual window that I could
perform an action on, plus the visual aspect.

------
bhattisatish
You can check out [http://www.spring.org.uk/making-habits-breaking-
habits](http://www.spring.org.uk/making-habits-breaking-habits) A good book on
habits. The book covers on habits are formed, how they can affect you and how
you can change them.

------
evo_9
Seinfeld has his 'don't break the chain' method, worth a look:

[http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-
se...](http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret)

~~~
cJ0th
[https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ujvrg/jerry_seinfeld...](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ujvrg/jerry_seinfeld_here_i_will_give_you_an_answer/ceitfxh/)

------
bellebethcooper
I've been focusing on building new habits for the past couple of years and
have written about it a lot. Here are some of the things that have made the
biggest difference for me:

\- Start small. Focus on making the behaviour automatic (the definition of a
habit) in its smallest form. It's easier to increase the time and effort spent
once doing the behaviour is automatic. \- Schedule the habit. My habits almost
always fail if I don't figure out in advance when and where I'll do them. \-
Stack your habits. Using an existing habit (it can be something you didn't
build on purpose like brushing your teeth, putting on your pyjamas, putting on
your shoes before leaving the house, etc.) as a trigger to remind you to do
another habit. This makes it easier to remember and build into a routine you
already have. \- Make it easy to do the habit and hard not to. If you need
equipment, get it ready before you'll need it. Set up your environment to
encourage you to do the habit. Keep things out of sight if they encourage you
not to do the habit. Context makes a big difference in the early stages. \-
Build one habit at a time. Only when a habit is truly habitual (you do it
without thinking) start focusing on a new one. I've failed at building habits
every time I've tried to do more than one new habit at a time.

I've written a lot about habits. I'll link to some articles below that might
be helpful. Many of them expand on the suggestions I mentioned above.

I also wrote a four-week email course and a book to help people build
habits—specifically habits that will help you be more productive by saving you
time and helping you work more efficiently. But the course can be applied to
any kind of habits. You can find the course and book here:
[http://habits.bellebethcooper.com/](http://habits.bellebethcooper.com/)

[http://blog.bellebethcooper.com/pushups.html](http://blog.bellebethcooper.com/pushups.html)
[http://blog.bellebethcooper.com/french-
habit.html](http://blog.bellebethcooper.com/french-habit.html)
[https://open.buffer.com/building-habits/](https://open.buffer.com/building-
habits/) [https://exist.io/blog/simple-habit-
process/](https://exist.io/blog/simple-habit-process/)
[https://exist.io/blog/keeping-up-habits/](https://exist.io/blog/keeping-up-
habits/)

------
figjamjam
How do you design a fast car? You avoid designing a slow one.

Make room for good habits by stopping bad ones.

I wouldn't take outliers as examples unless you are also such an outlier. At
which point any advice based on averages is moot.

~~~
dmfdmf
I'm not sure why someone downvoted you but I read a book, on psychology I
think, and the author argued that one mistake people make is trying to stop a
bad habit by shear force of will. Just applying "don't do X" never works. You
have to consciously and intentionally _replace_ bad habits with good ones
(e.g. "don't do X, do Y instead") or the mind will just fall back into its old
programming. With repetition it soon becomes "do Y" and X is gone.

------
divbit
as a react practice protect I made habity.io (open source at my github, sry
phone) I am currently rewriting a new version of it with some machine learning
scheduling stuff e.g. predict what is the most efficient time of day to do
stuff based on previous days..(neural net practice idea of mine)

~~~
divbit
disclaimer: it was coded in many spare minutes so code is not well structured

------
bettermonkey
There is an excellent book "the power of habit" that delves into this very
topic. Its a quick read.

------
hatemben
Did you tried «Fabulous» app ? It's using a scientific method, besides being
very successful app.

------
hatemben
Did you tried «Fabulous» app ? It's using a scientific method, besides being
very successful app.

-Hatem

------
Animats
Drill sergeants. Much of military training is about habit implantation.

------
foobar16372883
Meditate for greater self awareness.

Learn about the trigger-action-reward cycle.

------
bikamonki
M O T I V A T I O N

You'll do whatever if the right buttons are pushed.

------
arnorhs
probably BA and CBT are the most studied and scientifically proven ways to
develop new habits and rid yourself of self-damaging habits.

------
dominotw
no there isn't. All the pop 'habit methods' methods like repeating same thing
to death over and over 'to form a habit' are bogus.

we need motivation, not habit. There are no shortcuts or hacks for motivation,
we have to put in the effort to understand our own brain and what drives it to
do things.

~~~
Singletoned
Do you have any evidence that all habit methods are bogus? It's quite a big
claim to make, so would imagine you'd have something strong to back it up.

Also, do you have any evidence that there are "no shortcuts or hacks for
motivation"? I'd be quite surprised if that were true, because motivational
speakers seem to be get people motivated in a very short space of time, so I
would expect there to be some shortcuts.

~~~
dominotw
>do you have any evidence that there are "no shortcuts or hacks for
motivation"?

Is there any evidence to the contrary that motivation speakers have any long
term impact. Burden of proof is on that side.

------
BOOSTERHIDROGEN
having an indoor bicycle ready next to my chair help me a lot to build the
habit.

------
Kenji
Willpower is not about forcing yourself to do something, but to deliberately
put yourself into a situation that forces you to do it.

For example: You want to run, but you are too lazy. Ask a friend to run with
you at a certain time. Now you can't lazily back out, unless you want to call
your friend again and mess with their schedule, as they were expecting to run
with you.

As you become better at something, like running, it starts to become more fun
and satisfying. You gain _momentum_. That allows you to adhere to your
schedule much more easily, to the point where you miss it when you don't/can't
do it.

------
Ericson2314
Uh, it's really sinple, though not easy.

1\. Do the same thing at the same time over and over again, intentionally. 2\.
Watch yourself keep on doing it unintentionally.

Ok "same time" is the more complex part. Your trying to wire your brain to do
something deterministically in response to some stimulum. It can be external,
or internal (feedback).

