Power of Habit II: How to Quit A Bad Habit?

A bad habit is a non-desirable behaviour or routine, for example, eating cookies while watching TV, overspending, nail-biting etc.

To Learn about How Habits work, Please go through Previous post.

Commonly it is very hard to eliminate a bad habit but Habits aren’t destiny they can be ignored, changed or replaced. You simply have to learn the different components of the habit loop for that particular bad habit to control.

Change might not be fast and it isn’t always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped. Use the following framework to reshape your habit.

The Framework:

• Identify the routine
• Experiment with rewards
• Isolate the cue
• Have a plan

After understanding different segments of your habit, leave the cue and reward part and try to change the routine to achieve the same or equivalent reward.

Let’s say you have a bad habit of frequently wasting a lot of time on the internet during your studies.

Well, first I am going to break this habit in three fragments i.e. Cue, Routine and Reward. Identifying each fragment is a trial and error task. Follow above-mentioned steps for easing the task. 

Step 1: Identify the routine

Surfed some news articles then Opened Facebook from there went to YouTube.

Step 2: Experiment with Rewards

Try to figure out which cravings are driving this particular habit. Like, go outside and have a glass of water or a small chit-chat with parents, colleagues or anyone present out there, or just walk outside for some time and return to your desk. Don’t perform all of above activities on the same day instead try one activity for 3/4 days and see if after returning, you still have an urge for internet surfing, if yes then keep experimenting with the reward.

Let’s say Going out and wandering a little in the Balcony helped the problem. The reward needed by your brain was a little change of scenery.   

Step 3: Isolate the Cue

To identify a cue amid the noise we will identify categories of behaviour ahead of time to scrutinise in order to see the pattern. Experiments have shown that almost all habitual cues fit into one of five categories.

• Location – Where are you? (sitting at your desk)
• Time – What time is it? (8:30 pm)
• Emotional State – What’s your emotional state? (bored)
• Other people – Who else is around? (no one)
• Immediately preceding action - What action preceded the urge? (Surfed Internet)

Answer above questions at different times of study hours and after 4/5 trial you will clearly understand that what is causing this behaviour. Like, you may find that boredom is causing this behaviour.

Step 4: Have a plan

Once you have identified Cue, Routine and Reward, try different routines to get the same rewards like going outside for a change of scenery, having a glass of water or a small chit chat with parents, neighbours etc.

Changing a habit is a difficult task but once you experiment with it and understand how a habit operates (once you diagnose the cue, the routine and the reward); you can control or change the habit for sure.
Remember,

  

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Power of Habit I : How to form a new Habit?

Habit is a process by which behaviour becomes automatic. The brain does not take part in decision-making while performing a particular habitual Task, like eating.

The time period for forming a new habit varies person to person, it may take days to months.

This process of habit formation in our brain is a three-step loop. First one is the Cue, which tells our brain to go into automatic mode and use routine associated with that particular cue. Second is the Routine which can be physical or mental or emotional. The final step is the Reward which helps our brain to figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future.

This process for a particular behaviour is saved inside our brain; it just needs a cue to trigger the process. Focus of brain shifts to reward rather than on process, that’s why we don’t need to think while performing the routine.

For example, a soon as we see a man crossing a road (cue) our foot automatically pushes the break (saved routine for this cue) to stop (result) the car.

How to form a New Habit?

Suppose you have a fat belly and want to develop a habit of daily exercise, then to form the habit, you have to break the process in, cue (which will help in triggering the habit), routine (the automatic behaviour which will be saved in brain) and reward (On which brain's focus will be while performing the behaviour) segments.

Keep cues as simple as possible, for example, keep your running shoes nearby your bed in the night so as soon as brain sees the shoe, it triggers the routine to go outside for a run. Keep rewards worth remembering for the brain, like have a cup of coffee or a beautiful conversation with a neighbour while returning.

So as soon as your brain remembers this loop, the moment you will put shoes on, brain's focus will shift from hard the part[going outside for running] to the smooth ‘reward’ part [getting a coffee while retuning].   

For Learning How to change a bad Habit Please go through next Post. 

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