Do you remember at what point the ‘occasional cigarette’ ended up becoming a part of your everyday life, or when making that cup of morning coffee became a ritual?
Have you ever wondered when exactly an action goes from being consciously implemented to habitual?
FIT brings a quick crash course on habit formation for you with insights from Dr Sairaj Patki, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Flame University.
Effective Ways of Forming Habits
According to Dr Patki, reinforcements can play a significant role when it comes to habit formation. This means setting up a reward for yourself each time you follow through on an action, and conversely deciding on a ‘punishment’ if you go against it.
He explains how the “brain learns through associations,” so to effectively form a habit, positive associations should be made with the action that you aim to turn into a habit.
In terms of effectiveness of habit formation, the most important is the consistency and the way through which you apply those penalties, says Dr Patki.
“Say you want to create a habit of waking up early, and you do consistently for four days. On the fifth day, you could reward yourself with something you value, such as a pizza.”
But.. conversely, say you fail to be consistent and don't follow through on what you had decided, then as a ‘penalty’ you could abstain from pizza for a week.
He also mentions that we need to decide our own penalties and rewards because effectiveness may go down if we let other people decide for us.
Does Consistency Even Matter?
Dr Patki explains how habits involve the formation of actual neural networks which is why it is normal for us to take some time to adjust to any new habit or association.
The importance of consistent associations can be explained through Hebb's Law, says Dr Patki.
Neurons that fire together, wire together.
Think of it as paving a pathway in a field. With each repetiton, the grass is worn down and the path becomes increasingly visible. Eventually, the road becomes well-established and it is effortless to travel along it, just as a habit becomes automatic and effortless once it's deeply ingrained in the brain.
Why Are Habits So Hard To Break?
Dr Patki expressed that since habits are based on associations, to break a habit means changing the way the already formed neural network behaves, which also requires time and patience.
This makes trusting the process and decisions you are making each day of utmost importance, even if you cannot externally see any changes.
“People often don’t have the patience to see the effects of these techniques and they believe that a habit should be formed immediately."Dr Sairaj Patki
Moreover, studies say it can take an average of 66 days to break a habit.
How Can You Stick To A Habit?
Dr Patki says that placing different kinds of cues in the environment can serve as reminders that help maintain consistency and thereby form associations smoothly.
“These reminders can be in the form of an app that reminds you to do something, it could be a friend or family member, or it could just be a visual cue, note, or post-it in your room.”
The choice of the reminder, as he mentioned, depends solely on your preferences and what you think might work best for you.
How Can You Break A Bad Habit?
There's also the need to be mindful and ask ourselves why we are indulging in a particular action, says Dr Patki.
For example, if you see yourself procrastinating a lot more than before or are starting to feel a dependency on substances such as alcohol or cigarettes, then it becomes important to ask yourself what is causing this change in behaviour.
He adds that when a person is mindful of their actions, it becomes easier to chart out what life events or stressors could be leading to bad habits.
“Anything can be learnt, unlearnt, or relearnt.”
Instead of removing a habit, one has to replace it with something else. So, rather than focusing on bad habits, look into other healthy alternatives.
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