How to Finally Build Good Habits: 8 Evidence-Based Tips

Eat fewer sweets, floss daily, drink fennel tea instead of alcohol, and exercise three times a week. How many times have you started the new year with good intentions, only to quickly fall back into old habits? How is fennel tea supposed to work when it's perfect red wine weather in early January? Why on earth should you start jogging in the snow and frost? And who feels like going to the gym when it's so packed after New Year's Eve?

Although almost everyone rushes into the new year with good intentions, only twelve percent of people manage to stick to them. 88 percent fail. [1] [1] Almost everyone fails to achieve their goals: Anthony Robbins (2012): Change, Robbins Research International But why is that? What is the difference between realised and failed dreams, between fulfilled and dissatisfied people, and between those who achieve something and those who are done for? 

The answer lies ... drumroll please …in good – or rather, not-so-good – habits! They guide about 95% of our daily decisions and are therefore the undisputed boss in our heads by a clear majority. [2] [2] Only 5% of our decisions are conscious: Zaltmann, Gerald (2003): How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market For this reason, the ability to develop good habits is probably one of the most important skills of all. Even though it's neither a piece of cake nor something that happens overnight, developing new habits will be easier for you and even fun with the right approach. The following scientifically sound tips will help you finally use the power of habit to your advantage – without struggle and without strain.

1. Start with mini-habits for maxi-success

Have you ever intended to get up at 5 or 6 a.m. every day to work on your passion project or exercise? During my student days, I failed at this so often that I eventually stopped counting. It was only when I slowly worked my way up to my desired habit – getting up at 7:50 a.m. at first, then at 7:40 a.m., 7:00 a.m., and so on – that I finally for seven months without exception got out of bed at 6:00 a.m. It was only years later that I realised I had unconsciously been practising the concept of “mini-habits” back then. [3] [3] Mini-habits as a recipe for success: Stephen Guise (2018): Better than Good Resolutions: How to Achieve Maxi-Success with Mini-Habits

Small deeds that you do are better than big ones that you plan. – George C. Marshall

A brief look at the laws of motion makes it clear why this approach is so practical: For any undertaking, the transition from standstill to motion – from inertia to activity – consumes the most energy. This applies just as much to launching an aeroplane as to any new habit you want to incorporate into your life. If the start takes the most energy, it naturally makes sense to shed as much weight as possible to make it as easy as possible. For this reason, the principle of mini-habits is so effective and applicable to any resolution: You simply take your target habit – e.g., 100 push-ups a day – and break it down into a mini-version – e.g., 20 or even 5 push-ups a day. The main thing is to keep the activity so small that you actually do it. Once you have expended enough energy to manage the first, even tiniest starting movement, it is relatively easy to keep going.

Suddenly, momentum is on your side, and the desire for more comes completely on its own. Thanks to the low demands of mini-habits, you celebrate one small success after another, enjoy building your new habit, and thus stay motivated in the long term. 

More on mini-habits: Why we swear by the 6-Minute-Principle

The motto is: A simple start is pretty smart. 
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2. Link your habit to a place and time

Have you ever tried to motivate yourself with videos or lectures? Motivational psychologist Peter Gollwitzer found that neither videos nor lectures about the benefits of your resolutions have a measurable effect on whether words actually turn into deeds. At the same time, however, he was able to show that by writing down a so-called “implementation plan,” you can increase this probability from an average of 35% to an astonishing 91%. [4] [4] The effects of implementation plans Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54, 493-503 This plan is nothing more than a simple sentence that links your habit with a time and place. Here are a few examples: 

• Building knowledge: Instead of intending to acquire more knowledge from now on, you could write down, for example: “Today after dinner, I will read one chapter of my new book on the couch.”
• Eating healthy: Instead of “I will eat healthy," write: “I will chop up a coriander-mango salad in my kitchen after work.”
• Less stress: Instead of “I want to stay more relaxed,” write: “Every time I get angry at work, I will take two deep breaths before speaking.”

Numerous studies have shown how effective this simple approach is. [5] [5] How knowledge and motivation are connected: “The vololitional benefits of planning” in P.M. Gollowitzer & J.A. Bargh (Eds.) (1996): The psychology of action: Linking cognition and motivation to behaviour (pp. 287–312) So save yourself the time of watching motivational videos and building castles in the air with vague resolutions. Instead, take a minute to write down specifically when and where you want to implement your plans.

The motto is:  A concrete start is pretty smart.
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3. Play habit Tetris

How many habits are already a fixed part of your life? Since habits are simply behaviours that you perform without thinking much about them, it is only natural that your answer to this question does not come out of the blue.  Whether it is “checking your phone in the morning,” “brushing your teeth,” “tying your left shoe first and then your right shoe,” or “drinking a coffee” – the good thing about your established routines is that you can use them as a foundation for developing new habits.

Instead of, for example, developing the habit of drinking a glass of water in the morning from scratch, you can link it with your morning coffee. Behavioural researchers call this strategy “habit stacking”. [6] [6]  Stacking habits: S.J. Scott (2013): Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes Or Less We call it habit Tetris, because not all habits fit together and, just like in the game of Tetris, it really does matter how exactly you stack them. By filling out the following formula, the fun can begin – without a Game Boy: 

After I (existing habit), I will (new habit). It could look like this, for example: 

• After I have had lunch, I will take a walk around the block. 
• After I have meditated for five minutes, I will set my most important task for the day.
• After I have checked my emails, I will turn off all notifications for one hour. 

This way, you use behaviours that have become rooted in your brain over the years as a secure anchor and increase the probability that your desired habit will also become a part of you.

The motto is: Don't reinvent the wheel, but tune up your old wheel.
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4. A slip-up is not a failure

How long do you think it takes to successfully change a habit? – On average, the phase from consciously performing an activity to it becoming an automated habit takes 66 days. [7] [7] 66 days until a firm habit Lally, Phillip- pa/H.M.Van Jaarsveld, Cornelia/Potts, Henry W.W./Wardle, Jane (2009): How habits are formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world, in: European Journal of Social Psychology, Issue 40 (6) Not that long, when you consider that you can potentially benefit from it for years afterward. The easier the habit is and the more fun it gives you, the faster this process goes. If you miss a day during the building phase, it has been shown to have no long-term effect on the successful development of your new habit. [8] [8] How habits are formed: Lally, Phillip- pa/H.M.Van Jaarsveld, Cornelia/Potts, Henry W.W./Wardle, Jane (2009): How habits are formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world, in: European Journal of Social Psychology, Issue 40 (6) So occasional slip-ups will be forgiven. 

A habit is a rope. We weave a thread every day and eventually we can no longer break it. – Thomas Mann

To quickly get back to weaving your rope after a slip-up, you can also perform a mini-version of your habit. Can't meditate for 10 minutes today? Then take at least 30 seconds. Don't have time to go to the gym for an hour today? Then just do one exercise or a 10-minute workout. Can't fill a whole page in your diary today? Then summarise the day in one sentence.

One today is better than ten tomorrows. – German proverb

Stay away from the all-or-nothing mentality, because it often produces no progress and, on top of that, leads to a bad conscience. Allow yourself to do a little less, so that you can get back to your usual routine afterwards. In the long run, continuity is much more important than perfection for your new habit to take hold. As Sheryl Sandberg, the co-CEO of Facebook, so beautifully put it: “Done is better than perfect". For the moment, meditating for 30 seconds might seem ridiculous to you. However, over the sum of the moments that make up your life, such small actions can make the difference between the person you are and the person you want to be.

The motto is: Less is significantly better than nothing. 
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5. Use your “WHY" as a driving force

When we want to change something in our lives, we often ask ourselves directly “WHAT do I want? And HOW do I get there?”. Don't like your job? So you immediately aim for a new position and write 5 applications. Feeling lonely? So you look for a partner and immediately install three dating apps. The mental focus is usually too quickly on the end result and the path that leads directly there without detours – to the better job, inner peace, the dream partner, or dream body. We cling so strongly to the WHAT and HOW that we have no time at all to calmly ask ourselves the much more important question: “WHY do I want that?”

Studies show that goals motivate us best when they are closely linked to our why – to our personal values – stand. [9] [9] Goals motivate us more when they fit our values: Levontin, L. / Bardi, A. (2019): Using Personal Values to Understand the Motivational Basis of Amity Goal Orientation, in: Frontiers in Psychology, Issue 9 Your why is your strongest driving force, your fuel. The fuller the “why tank,” the more fuel you have to integrate your habit into your life in the long term.  [10] [10] Thanks to Tim Schlenzig for this beautiful analogy: 12 Habits That Will Change Your Life, p. 44-45 But it is not enough to understand the why in theory. You have to really feel it. Just because your mind knows that you will have over €3,000 in your account in a year if you save €250 a month, it will still be a long way from a firm saving habit. But if you plan a big trip every year that perfectly harmonises with your why (e.g., “broaden your horizons,” “adventure,” or “experience new cultures”), your driving force will be enough to develop the right saving habits.

With the following two questions you can check whether you have internalised your why for the next desired habit: Listen to yourself and ask: Where will this routine take me if it becomes a part of me? How much more fulfilled will my life be in one, two, or five years because of the new habit? The more you feel your why in the process, the fuller the fuel tank is for your journey to the goal.

The motto is: If your why is clear, the rest works wonderfully.
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6. Link your habit with a reward

Habits generally follow three phases: [11] [11] Charles Duhigg (2012): The Power of Habit In the first phase, we perceive a trigger that prompts our brain to “play out” the habit. In phase 2, we then perform the routine – virtually on autopilot – and are subsequently rewarded in phase 3. For years, the sound of the alarm clock was the trigger for my habit of repeatedly using the snooze function. The reward was that I could keep sleeping, and thus a firm routine developed from this. This example also illustrates why bad habits become ingrained much faster than good ones. They reward us immediately, while the reward for good habits often comes much later:

When you eat a greasy burger with fries, your brain is immediately flooded with reward signals. If you eat healthily, however, you only feel and see the positive effects later. If you play Candy Crush instead of working on your project, your brain is immediately rewarded with a release of dopamine. If you work on your project instead, the reward comes only at the end of the month with your salary or only after a few years with your university degree. 

We live in a society where a future reward is ultimately worth more than an immediate reward: Therefore, we must design our habits so that we are rewarded as quickly as possible. Whether you relax with a cup of tea after a period of intense concentration or treat yourself to a piece of chocolate after exercising – a reward can be anything that leads to a release of dopamine. 

A particularly helpful and above all low-calorie reward is documenting your habits. Whether you use a habit tracker or make a colourful checkmark in your calendar – every checkmark is a quiet triumph. In addition, it can be incredibly motivating when the checkmarks pile up. This is how quiet triumphs become major achievements – and thus, in the long term, good habits. I personally have been using a habit tracker for more than four years and am convinced that some of the best routines in my life wouldn't have come about without it.

The motto is: Reward yourself for every good habit,
until rewarding yourself becomes a habit.
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7. Set up your environment for success 

Most of us would agree that the people we surround ourselves with also influence our own behaviour. In doing so, we too often forget that the objects in our environment also have a strong influence on us.

This includes the items on our desks, the food in our fridges, or the pictures hanging in our homes. All objects in our environment can trigger a certain behaviour. Studies show, for example, that we eat food at eye level significantly more often [12] [12] Why candy bars are always placed at the checkout counter Blog/James Clear: Why Stores Place Candy by the Checkout Counter (And Why New Habits Fail) or that smartphones distract us as soon as they are within sight or in our pocket. [13] [13] Study: Thornton, B., Faires, A., Robbins, M., & Rollins, E. Apa PsychNet (2014): The mere presence of a cell phone may be distracting: Implications for attention and task performance By storing unhealthy foods in less visible places and your smartphone in another room, it will become easier for you in the long term to eat healthier and work with greater focus. 

Correspondingly, habit expert James Clear writes: “The idea that change is hard is one of the greatest myths about human behaviour. In fact, you are constantly changing effortlessly. The primary task of your brain is to adapt your behaviour to your environment. So if you consciously create a better environment, change will follow automatically.” [14] [14] Newsletter: James Clear (October 17, 2019):  3 Ideas, 2 Quotes, 1 Question Here are a few examples of how you can use your environment to effortlessly develop good habits:

• Do you want more focus and concentration? – Then clean up your desktop and close all tabs you don't absolutely need, because studies show that a cluttered screen constantly drains your cognitive energy. [15] [15] Study: Marketta, Niemelä & Perrti Saariluoma University of Jyväskylä (2003): Layout Attributes and Recall
• Do you want to eat more vegetables? – Then buy green plates. It has been shown that this automatically increases our consumption of green foods – such as broccoli, courgettes, or salad leaves – by 30%. [16] [16] The colour of plates has been proven to influence our eating behaviour: Brian Wansik, Koert van Ittersum (2012): Plate Size and Color Suggestibility: The Delboeuf Illusion’s Bias on Serving and Eating Behavior, Journal of Consumer Research, Volume 39, Issue 2, 1 August 2012, Pages 215–228
• Do you finally want to use dental floss? – Then place the dental floss right next to your toothbrush instead of in the darkest corner of the bathroom cabinet. A study involving myself showed that this makes you use dental floss 100% more often :)
• Do you want to lose weight? – Then use smaller plates, because switching from plates with a diameter of 30 cm to 25 cm automatically reduces your intake by 22%. [17] [17] The size of plates has been proven to influence our eating behaviour: Brian Wansik, Koert van Ittersum (2012): Plate Size and Color Suggestibility: The Delboeuf Illusion’s Bias on Serving and Eating Behavior, Journal of Consumer Research, Volume 39, Issue 2, 1 August 2012, Pages 215–228

Don't rely on your motivation, because as everyone knows, it fluctuates like a flag in the wind. If you want to change something in the long term, you must rely on something that is constant – and that will most likely be your environment rather than your motivation or willpower. 

The motto is: Adapt your environment instead of adapting yourself. 
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8. Learn from the past for your future

Which approach to building positive routines promises the greatest success? To answer this question, American scientists conducted a comprehensive study with 500 participants, the results of which were only recently published. As a result, one method – so-called “habit reflection” – proved to be by far the most effective. [18] [18] Habit Reflection is the most effective of 23 tested methods for building habits: Gregory Lopez (2019):  Want to form some new daily habits? We ran a massive study to explore which techniques work best. It consists of two simple steps: [19] [19] Online study on effective techniques for building habits: Doug Moore (2018): Join this study to get a leg up on forming healthy new habits.   

• Step 1: Think of a positive routine you have successfully established. What strategy or tactic helped you do this?
• Step 2: Formulate a short and concrete plan for how you can use your insights to build your new habit.

Perhaps you stretch for 10 minutes every morning and have successfully established this routine because you spread out your yoga mat next to your bed before going to sleep. You can now use this success factor – namely, adapting your environment – to establish your new desired routine – namely, eating more fruit. So from now on, place an apple and a banana next to your laptop and apply a tactic that has worked for you before. 

As so often in life, the most effective techniques are surprisingly simple. That is exactly why they are also often underestimated, half-heartedly carried out, or even ignored. Be smarter and don't make the same mistake. Regardless of whether you liked tip 1, 3, or 7 best – invest a few minutes in your habit reflection before you decide on a path –  and thus double your chances of success.

The motto is: Use your past for your future.
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9. A not so secret tip 

If you are now highly motivated to turn your good intentions into real habits, I have just the right companion for you: The 6-Minute-Success Journal.

Completing this book was a resolution that I failed at for two years in a row. The methods with which the project was then completed ended up in this very book. It is also intended to help you reliably achieve your personal goals – step by step, habit by habit. 

As I write this sentence, I look back on one of the most productive years of my life – and that despite having reduced my workload by about 30%. In the 6-Minute-Success Journal, you'll not only find the explanation of the techniques that helped me get to this point, but you will also receive a practical section in which you can easily apply them in a few minutes a day and internalise them in the long term.

If you intend to renew yourself, do it every day. – Confucius

If you believe the wise words of Confucius, it is practically New Year's Day every day and every day is a good day to start. So write down right now a habit you would like to develop for 2022 – or even better, for the new decade. 

The motto is: Better now than never. 
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If you want to know how to overcome procrastination and finally defeat your inner resistance, feel free to read here further.

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This post is by Dominik Spenst, founder of the 6-Minuten-Verlag, author of the 6-Minute-Diary and the 6-Minute-Success Journal. When he's not writing 6-Minute-Journals, he browses non-fiction books or praises his employees so inconspicuously that they don't notice. 

Sources:

[1] Almost everyone fails to implement their goals Anthony Robbins (2012): Change, Robbins Research International

[2] Only 5% of our decisions are conscious: Zaltmann, Gerald (2003): How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market

[3] Mini-habits as a recipe for success Stephen Guise (2018): Much Better Than Good Intentions: How to Experience Maxi-Success with Mini-Habits

[4] The effects of implementation plans Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54, 493-503

[5] How cognition and motivation are connected: “The vololitional benefits of planning" in P.M. Gollowitzer & J.A. Bargh (Eds.) (1996): The psychology of action: Linking cognition and motivation to behaviour (pp. 287–312)

[6]  Habit stacking: S.J. Scott (2013): Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes Or Less

[7] 66 days to a firm habit Lally, Phillip- pa/H.M.Van Jaarsveld, Cornelia/Potts, Henry W.W./Wardle, Jane (2009): How habits are formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world, in: European Journal of Social Psychology, Issue 40 (6)

[8] How habits are formed: Lally, Phillip- pa/H.M.Van Jaarsveld, Cornelia/Potts, Henry W.W./Wardle, Jane (2009): How habits are formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world, in: European Journal of Social Psychology, Issue 40 (6)

[9] Goals motivate us more when they fit our values: Levontin, L. / Bardi, A. (2019): Using Personal Values to Understand the Motivational Basis of Amity Goal Orientation, in: Frontiers in Psychology, Issue 9

[10] Tim Schlenzig: 12 Habits That Will Change Your Life, pp. 44-45

[11] Charles Duhigg (2012): The Power of Habit

[12] Why candy bars are always placed at the checkout counter Blog/James Clear: Why Stores Place Candy by the Checkout Counter (And Why New Habits Fail)

[14] Newsletter: James Clear (October 17, 2019):  3 Ideas, 2 Quotes, 1 Question

[15] Study: Marketta, Niemelä & Perrti Saariluoma University of Jyväskylä (2003): Layout Attributes and Recall

[16] The colour of plates has been proven to influence our eating behaviour: Brian Wansik, Koert van Ittersum (2012): Plate Size and Color Suggestibility: The Delboeuf Illusion’s Bias on Serving and Eating Behavior, Journal of Consumer Research, Volume 39, Issue 2, 1 August 2012, Pages 215–228

 [17] Plate size has a proven effect on our eating behaviour: Brian Wansik, Koert van Ittersum (2012): Plate Size and Color Suggestibility: The Delboeuf Illusion’s Bias on Serving and Eating Behavior, Journal of Consumer Research, Volume 39, Issue 2, 1 August 2012, Pages 215–228

 [18] Reflecting on habits is the most effective of 23 tested methods for building habits: Gregory Lopez (2019):  Want to form some new daily habits? We ran a massive study to explore which techniques work best

 [19] Online study on effective techniques for building habits: Doug Moore (2018): Join this study to get a leg up on forming healthy new habits.