Our everyday life is made up of all kinds of routines and habits. According to a study with students from 2005, these are about 45% of our daily actions. The cup of coffee to wake up in the morning, the glance at the cell phone as soon as it buzzes, the grab for a beer after work.
In themselves, habits are a good thing. Our brain switches to autopilot and takes the conscious decision away from us. This leaves us free to concentrate on the important things. However, this also makes it difficult for us to establish new habits or change existing routines.
How do habits work in the first place?
Many habits go back to the fact that we did something consciously, this action had a positive effect and we therefore repeated the whole thing.
This process can be divided into four phases:
In general, this means:
We receive an impulse. This in turn awakens a desire in us. This triggers a reaction, which in turn delivers a reward. Thus our desire is satisfied and associated with the impulse. These steps together form what is called a neurological feedback loop.
That is, using the example of the cup of coffee:
When we wake up or after a meal, we feel tired. But we want to be fresh. That's why we drink a cup of coffee. This makes us feel awake. As a result, we associate drinking coffee with being awake and repeat this routine.
Habits and stress
Especially when we are under stress, automatic patterns take hold. The phone rings incessantly? The information is quickly scribbled down on a notepad instead of being entered directly in digital form. Problematic - after all, the information has to be entered afterwards and that means twice as much time.
How do I change habits?
On average, it takes 66 days, or about 10 weeks, for a behavior to become a habit. Simple actions are quicker than complex ones. We also often overestimate our ability to change habits. The best example of this are the annual good resolutions on New Year's Eve. After a few weeks, there's usually not much left of them, which ends up frustrating and disappointing. To prevent this from happening, we would like to introduce you to a procedure developed by James Clear, an American bestselling author:
1. make it obvious and concrete
Define what exactly you want to do, when and for how long - for example: In the morning after getting up, I do ten push-ups next to my bed. In addition, you link an existing habit with a new one. It's also easier to establish new habits when the environment is unfamiliar and our brain is running less on autopilot and we are confronted with fewer "triggers." However, triggers can also be used constructively by placing desired triggers in obvious places: A book on your pillow when you still want to read at night.
Conversely, this means make unwanted triggers as invisible as possible, so put the Playstation away after each gaming session when you want to play less. Because it's easier to avoid temptations than to resist them."
2. make it attractive for you
We can combine enjoyable activities with new habits, first calling three new customers and then checking Facebook. But we are also motivated by our environment. That's why we should ideally surround ourselves with people who live the habits we aspire to.
Many of our cravings can be traced back to a deeper need. Less insecurity - we search for info on Google, social recognition - we post on Instagram. So we associate "cravings" with positive feelings.
3. make it easy for yourself
It's not about perfection, it's about getting started. What you do doesn't have to be perfect, you just have to do it over and over again so it becomes a habit.
If you take on too much, you make it hard for yourself. Try to keep the hurdles as small as possible, rather 5 instead of 50 sit-ups for example. This can also be reversed. Delete social media apps from your smartphone if you spend too much time on them, that way you have to reinstall them first.
4. reward yourself
We feel the effect of going for a jog or eating a salad only later. The trick is immediate reward so that we are motivated to repeat our action.