Changing the Rhythm of Routine: On Modifying Habits

A Day in the Life of Automated Defaults

Morning (8 am-12 pm): Procrastination

It is 7:43 am as I settle into my workday, coffee within an arm’s reach. I’ve set aside time to revise a manuscript following suggestions from two reviewers. I open the file with their comments. Twenty-seven of them. I scroll through them impatiently until I reach the end of the document. I open my manuscript, ready to make the edits. I take a deep breath and… decide to check my emails instead. 45 minutes pass. I get caught up responding to a string of administrative matters and questions from thesis students. I leave the manuscript review untouched. At least I answered some of those emails.

Afternoon (12 pm-5 pm): Lunch and Snacks

Lunch comes soon enough. I walk to the nearby Subway and grab a sandwich to go. A six-inch Italian BMT on garlic bread. All the vegetables except cucumber. Sweet onion and honey mustard. I bring the half-sandwich back to my office and watch YouTube videos as I eat. I thought about the revisions I have yet to start on the manuscript. Worrying works up an appetite. It is 3 pm and I start feeling peckish. I walk to the vending machine two floors down for a quick snack. You’re not you when you’re hungry. I couldn’t agree with my Snickers bar more. It’s 4:30 pm after I have a lengthy corridor conversation with a colleague. I glance at my watch. I leave before traffic piles up.

Evening (5-7 pm): Couch Potato-ing

I drop my bag after getting to my room, thinking about doing some exercise. Some stretching and light resistance training might have done me good. I’m reminded of my goal (now a distant New Year’s resolution) of exercising 20 minutes a day, four times a week. Wait. Where did I leave my gym shoes? And my yoga mat? I don’t see either. But I do see my couch and the remote. I flip the TV on. The new season of The White Lotus is now streaming. I decide to postpone my exercise to tomorrow. I take a quick shower, make some tea, and hit play.

The Cycle and Psychology of Habits

Cue, routine, reward. That’s the cycle of habits that governs many of our daily actions. Habits are learned automatic responses [1]. Formally defined, a habit is “a cognitive process whereby a contextual cue automatically triggers an impulse to act, based on a cue-behaviour association learnt through consistent repetition in the presence of the cue” [2]. Our daily experiences comprise actions we enact on repetition – actions we are not necessarily conscious of. From the observations and reflections of my day, I could see my habits being shaped by my environment and time of day:

• I am overwhelmed by the demands of a difficult work task in the morning [cue] → I compensate by switching to an easier task [routine] → I get a sense of false productivity [reward].

• I start feeling hungry at tea time after getting back to my desk [cue] → I walk to the vending machine to buy a candy bar [routine] → I get a sweet, sugary treat [reward].

• I see my couch and TV at the end of a workday [cue] → I default to watching TV instead of exercising [routine] → I get a more enjoyable experience than sweating [reward].

For habits, context matters. The demands of work, hunger, and the fatigue experienced in that moment, in our immediate environment, cause us to recall what we previously did and to repeat it. Habits do not require that we set explicit goals [3]. They are also differentiated from goals and distinct from intentions [4]. For this reason, the research on habits also partly explains why New Year’s Resolutions tend to fail. We set resolutions and intentions, in the hopes of getting fitter, eating healthier, or connecting more with others. What might happen instead, however, is that we fall back to old patterns – the well-worn grooves of action already shaped by prior repetition. Even in our daily lives, we may set well-meaning goals and intentions and still fall short of following through with them because of existing habits. You may want to stop scrolling on your phone at night, but unless you place it out of arm's reach, you are still likely to reach out for your device the moment you struggle to fall asleep.

Because habits are shaped by our environments, relying on willpower alone is usually insufficient to break bad habits. BJ Fogg, author of Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything, writes that willpower and motivation are unreliable “shape-shifters” that falter in changing actions – more so when we are stressed or tired. Fogg proposes that we design our lives so that we minimize our reliance on willpower. In short, change your environment, not your mental or emotional willpower, if you want to change your habits [5]. Researcher Wendy Wood argues that to form new habits, we can (i) set up a reward system that encourages those new habits, (ii) disrupt contexts and environments to discourage unwanted habits, and (iii) reduce the friction that makes the desirable routine easier [6].

Good habits can help individuals stay the course toward well-being outcomes, even when our willpower and self-control are depleted [7]. From maintaining a healthy diet, to exercising regularly, and getting sufficient sleep, habits are central in ensuring that our consistency pays off in the long-term [8]. Altering your environment makes efforts for a better, healthier life easier. If you are given the benefit of working from home, for one, try creating a space that encourages uninterrupted work to boost your productivity – make your work environment one where you focus on work, away from the distractions likely to break your focus. In doing so, you are adjusting the environment to make beneficial, automatic actions easier.

Set Aside Goals for a Moment and Build Your Habits

Good habits lower the mental and emotional costs of enhancing your well-being. I found that it helps to start with tiny tweaks to nudge me toward better work practices, snacking, and exercising, in particular. I realized the limits of relying on willpower alone in shifting the rhythms of my day and have been adjusting the cue, routine, or rewards in my own habit loops:

• To limit distractions on any major writing task, I go offline for the duration of the writing task [cue removal] – unplugging from the internet so that I have no access to my email until after I get my writing done.

• To lessen my reliance on sugary snacks while working, I opted for healthier alternatives – dried fruits and nuts, and I leave them within reach in my office [cue manipulation + friction reduction].

• To nudge myself toward getting more exercise, I’ll leave my gym shoes and yoga mat where I can see them [cue manipulation]. The moment I reach home and want to do some light exercise, I know where to find them.

It has worked out well so far. I managed to get those edits done in time and just yesterday sent them over to my co-author. There’s now a jar of salted almonds and macadamia nuts on my office desk, which I enjoy as a guilt-free nibble during the mid-afternoons. And I finally found my gym shoes and yoga mat, stashed behind a pile of unread books, and they’re at the doorway before I reach my TV. Change the environment, and your routine and reward follow along like a kind of positive domino effect that enhances your well-being.

What would you experiment with changing so that you could automate better habits?

Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behaviour

- James Clear

References

[1] Wood, W., & Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67(1), 289-314. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033417

[2] Gardner, B. (2015). A review and analysis of the use of ‘habit’ in understanding, predicting and influencing health-related behaviour. Health Psychology Review, 9(3), 277–295. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2013.876238

[3] Wood, W., Mazar, A., & Neal, D. T. (2022). Habits and goals in human behavior: Separate but interacting systems. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17(2), 590-605. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691621994226

[4] Hagger, M. S., Hamilton, K., Phipps, D. J., Protogerou, C., Zhang, C.-Q., Girelli, L., Mallia, L., & Lucidi, F. (2023). Effects of habit and intention on behavior: Meta-analysis and test of key moderators. Motivation Science, 9(2), 73–94. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000294

[5] Fogg, B. J. (2020). Tiny habits: The small changes that change everything. Harvest.

[6]Wood, W. (2024). Habits, goals, and effective behavior change. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 33(4), 226-232. https://doi.org/10.1177/09637214241246480

[7] Neal, D. T., Wood, W., & Drolet, A. (2013). How do people adhere to goals when willpower is low? The profits (and pitfalls) of strong habits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104(6), 959-975. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0032626

[8] Ekman, R., Fletcher, A., Giota, J., Eriksson, A., Thomas, B., & Bååthe, F. (2022). A flourishing brain in the 21st century: A scoping review of the impact of developing good habits for mind, brain, well‐being, and learning. Mind, Brain, and Education, 16(1), 13-23. https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12305

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