Changing Your Own Habits - Step 3

In my last post, I began explaining how you can apply what I've learned about in my book, The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg. We learned about how to change a habit, you need to identify the routine, and the reward that it gives you. You then must find an alternative routine to satisfy the craving that the old habit gave you. Now that we've figured that part out, all that remains is finding the cue to the entire habit.

Sensory Overload

Identifying the cue of a habit is hard. Charles Duhigg says this is because we receive so much information from our 5 senses, much of it we don't even realize (Duhigg 294). Take for example Breakfast. Why do you eat breakfast when you do? Is it because you're hungry? Is it because of the time? Do you do it because that's what you do right after you wake up in the morning? Another example is advisory days. Too many times I've gone to third period instead of advisory even though my second period teacher reminded us that it was advisory schedule not five minutes earlier. What is the cue of the habit to walk to third period? You may think that it is the time of day, but it may be more complicated than that. You may do it because you talk to certain people in the hall right when passing period starts. Or maybe you see something on the wall that reminds you to go to third period. With so many stimuli in the world, how could we ever figure out what the cue of a habit is? Charles Duhigg has the answer: "Luckily, science offers some help in this regard. Experiments have shown that almost all habitual cues fit into one of five categories:

• Location
• Time
• Emotional State
• Other People
• Immediately preceding action

" (Duhigg 295). Therefore, you can take notes when the urge to complete a habit first hits.

• Where are you?
• What time is it?
• What's your emotional state?
• Who else is around?
• What action preceded (came before) the urge?

After a few days of logging your habits, you should see one question often has a common answer. For example, in my scenario, where I always eat a snack and watch YouTube when I get home from school, it would be "What action preceded the urge?" because the answer is almost always, "I walked home from school."

My notes from experimenting with my habits

Hopefully this has helped you find the cue of your bad habit. In my next blog post, I will explain how to change the routine of your habit so that you can most effectively change it. Meanwhile, think about a habit you have and what some of it's possible cues are. Try taking notes on what happens when you feel the need to complete your habit. What turned out to be the actual cue?

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Works Cited

Duhigg, Charles. The Power of Habit. New York, Random House, 2014.