If you’re among the 41% of Americans who set New Year’s resolutions, chances are your goal has something to do with changing your habits — whether it’s building a new one, or getting rid of a bad one.
“Habits help us perform desired behaviors on autopilot so that we don’t have to think about what’s beneficial or plan exactly how we’re going to carry out our good intentions,” says Katy Milkman, author of the book. How to Change: The Science of Getting You to Where You Want to Be and Professor James G. Dinan at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
To set yourself up for success this year, here are some tips for building better habits:
1. Try to find fun ways to achieve your goals.
“We continue in new behavior for far longer when we like people, but we rarely think about how to pursue good habits in a fun way,” says Milkman. To make the habit more fun, she recommends “temptation building,” or allowing yourself to enjoy the temptation while completing a task. “For example, just watch your favorite TV show while working out at the gym. Or just listen to your favorite podcast while doing household chores. Or just pop your favorite bottle of wine while cooking a healthy meal.
2. Break the goal down into bite-sized parts and make specific plans.
“Instead of saying ‘I’ll exercise more next year,’ make a plan to exercise four hours per week by opening at 7 a.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday,” suggests Milkman.
3. Get help from a friend, or accountability partner.
“When we team up with others, we’re more likely to achieve our goals and we’re accountable to others, which increases the pressure to succeed,” she advises. “By giving advice to friends with similar goals when we hit the road, we also help ourselves build confidence and competence, according to research led by Lauren Eskreis-Winkler.”
4. Create a commitment contract.
To break bad habits, Milkman recommends “commitment contracts,” such as putting money on the line that you must lose if you fail to meet your goals. In a study by Dean Karlan, professor of economics and finance at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and his collaborators, he found that the contract resulted in a 30% higher quit rate for people who wanted to quit smoking than simply offering it. standard smoking cessation tool people.
Milkman recommends websites such as StickK or Beeminder, or simply making direct arrangements with a friend to lend you cash if you fail to meet your target by a certain date.
How long it takes to build a habit
Contrary to popular belief, there is no magic number of days for how long your new habit will stick.
“Research led by Anastasia Buyalskaya and Colin Camerer at CalTech that I collaborated on machine learning used to estimate that it takes the average person months to build a gym habit, but only a few weeks for caregivers to build the habit of washing their hands. in and out of the patient’s hospital room,” Milkman said. “There is reason to believe that the more often you can repeat less complex behaviors and activities, the faster you can form habits.”
But try not to rush if everything doesn’t fall into place. Building new habits and changing old ones takes patience, grace and determination.
“Try not to let one miss grow into two,” Milkman said. “Research shows that it’s very important to avoid two accidents in a row, so remember that it’s okay to break your record, but don’t make two missteps.”
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