Do you struggle forming new habits and routines? Do you lack the time and energy to start a new treatment, graded exercise program and make positive lifestyle changes? Below are 8 proven tips to make creating and sticking to habits and routines easy, including how habit stacking and habits attachment can help.
Disclaimer: This post is intended for informational purposes only. I’m not a qualified practitioner and I’m not encouraging anyone else to do them. Please consult a qualified practitioner before implementing these things or changing your current treatment plan. This post contains affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you I will earn commission if you click on a link and make a purchase. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. See my full disclaimer here.
All of us, especially at the start of the year, set intentions of healthy habits to adopt and things we’d like to get into the routine of doing consistently. New year, new me. New year, new habits routines and goals.
So we make a list of intentions and good habits to start in the new year. Examples of intentions may include:-
- Starting a new stretching or exercise routine,
- Go to bed by 10pm,
- Get fresh air everyday,
- Read one book a month.
Related Post: 10 Healthy Habits To Improve Your Health For Free
Difficulty sticking to habits and routines
However, when our time and energy available is limited, it can be difficult trying to fit it all in and get into the habit of implementing them consistently. Research shows after a month 55% of us fail to stick to them (1).
Which poses the questions:-
- How many days does it take to form a habit?
- How can we build new habits and routines that everyone, regardless of time and energy constraints, other commitments and illness, can stick to consistently and do automatically in the long term?
How long does it take to form a habit?
It’s commonly thought that it takes 21 days to form a habit. However, the number of days for it to become a habit we do automatically can vary anywhere from 18 to 254 days. Creating new habits and routines take time. Below are 8 tips which help me easily implement positive lifestyle changes all year round.
How to create lasting habits and routines
Tip 1). Make it easy – Start Small
We often have a go big or go home attitude when forming new routines and habits. We’ll set unrealistic goals, such as:-
- Going from never reading to aiming to read a chapter of a book each day,
- Never exercising to aiming to do 30 minutes of stretching each day,
- Rarely eating fruit and vegetables to intending to eat 10 portions everyday,
- Not journaled before to intending to write 5 pages a day,
- Aiming to be in bed by 10pm instead of 1am.
These drastic behaviour changes require a huge amount of motivation to implement. They’re unrealistic and unsustainable. Every time we fail to stick to them, we grow increasingly frustrated and disheartened until eventually we stop trying.
It’s the small habits that make a big difference
Improving our health and building new habits and routines isn’t the result of one big effort but rather the sum of the small things you repeat everyday. Therefore, it’s recommended to scale back our intentions and start small so they don’t require much change, motivation or effort to implement.
What can I stick to even on my worst days?
When setting your starting point ask yourself what you are capable of doing on your worst days. Make the habit to start with so easy and minor that it requires no motivation to do. You then have a habit and intention which is achievable even when tired, feeling low and short of time. This allows you to always show up and feel like you’re succeeding. You then have the motivation to keep progressing and moving forwards.
Realistic examples of daily intentions to start might be:-
- Instead of reading a chapter a day, aim to read 1 page.
- Instead of aiming to do 30 minutes of breathing exercises a day, start with 1 minute.
- Rather than intending to eat 10 portions of fruit and vegetables each day, start with eating 1.
- Instead of trying to go to bed at 10pm and not 1am, aim to be in bed by 12:45am.
The power of tiny gains
Never underestimate the power of the small things you do everyday. Even if you stick to these tiny amounts each day, after a year you will have accomplished a lot. For example, although doing breathing exercises for 1 minute each day may seem trivial, when repeated everyday for a year you will have performed over 6 hours of breathing exercises.
Suddenly the benefits of these small daily habits don’t seem so insignificant. So celebrate the small wins and keep doing what you’re able to, knowing that whatever you can manage will add up and make a significant contribution towards forming new habits and improving your health and wellbeing in the long run.
| Daily Habit | After 1 Year |
|---|---|
| 1 minute | Over 6 hours |
| 2 minutes | Over 12 hours |
| 5 minutes | Over 30 hours |
| Read or journal 1 page | 365 pages read or journalled |
| Eat 1 fruit or vegetable | Ate 365 fruits and vegetables |
Related Post: 6 Free Ways To Start Toxin Free Living (& Why It’s Important For Health)
Start small and progress small
As we’re able to successfully implement these tiny behaviours everyday, our motivation and satisfaction increases, making it easier to stick to our new habits and routines and do them for longer. As well as starting small, it’s important to increase the amount of time you perform your new habit and routine for each day by a small amount too, like in the table below.
| Habit Example | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Journalling | 1 page | 2 pages | 3 pages | 4 pages |
| Be in bed by 10pm not 1am | In bed by 12:45am | In bed by 12:30am | In bed by 12:15am | In bed by 12am |
| Breathing Exercises | 1 minute | 2 minutes | 3 minutes | 4 minutes |
| Eat more fruit and vegetables | Eat 1 | Eat 2 | Eat 3 | Eat 4 |
Eventually you’ll achieve your desired aim of consistently or regularly exercising for 30 minutes, being in bed by 10pm, eating 10 portions of fruits and vegetables or writing 5 pages in a journal.
Related Post: 5 Step Nighttime Routine To Sleep Better (That Doesn’t Cost Anything!)
Tip 2). Make it obvious
Have visual cues that make it impossible to not remember to do the habit:-
- Place a journal on your bedside table to remind you to brain dump a page of thoughts or write 3 things you’re grateful for after you wake up or before you go to bed.
- Leave the fruit bowl near the kettle to remind you to have 1 of your 5 a day.
- Put a post it note on the tv remote control to remind yourself to do a breathing exercise.
- Set alarms on your phone to go off at set times to remind you to do your habit.
Tip 3). Make it fun
Enjoy the habits you implement. So often we tell ourselves we will be happy when we achieve our desired goal:-
- Once we heal,
- Earn a certain amount,
- Run a certain time,
- Get the promotion,
- Complete the project.
A better way to do it is to fall in love with the process. That way you can be happier each day as you work towards your goals. Doing things you enjoy makes you more likely to stick to them consistently.
If your aim is to eat healthier – find new foods that you enjoy. If you don’t like apples try blueberries.
If your aim is to get fitter – find a form of exercise you enjoy. If you don’t enjoy cycling, try running or a Zumba class.
Tip 4). Make it satisfying
Did the habit achieve the desired effect?
Did the nervous system regulation exercises you did make you feel calmer?
Did you feel more refreshed after getting to bed earlier?
Did you experience less bloating after eating more nutritious food?
Did you feel energised after going for a walk round the park?
This satisfaction trains the brain to associate the new habit with a positive feeling, making it want to repeat it. It increases your motivation and the habit will require less effort to do each day as you will look forward to it rather than feel forced to.
Tip 5). Surround yourself with people already doing the habits you want to
Join groups where your desired behaviour is the normal behaviour. Surround yourself with people who have achieved your desired outcome. That way you have people to be accountable to, who can help keep you on track and encourage you if you struggle.
For example:-
- If you’re on a healing journey connect with people online who have recovered.
- If you want to improve your fitness, join a running club or go to gym classes.
- If you want to start reading more, join a book club.
Tip 6). Visualisations
Visualise yourself doing the habit every morning. Your brain doesn’t know the difference between something happening in reality and being imagined. Every time you visualise you performing the habit it makes it more familiar to your body and mind making it ten times easier to complete with less effort, anxiety and stress.
Tip 7). Habit Stacking
We’re constantly overloaded with positive lifestyle habits to adopt and ways to improve our health and manage chronic illness:-
- Scheduling 7 types of rest,
- Supporting our drainage pathways,
- Switching to toxin free living,
- Daily movement,
- Grounding,
- Visualisations etc.
When our time and energy available is limited, it can be overwhelming and impossible trying to fit it all in and implementing them all consistently to receive the benefits.
Related Post: 20 Healthy Food & Drink Swaps
What is habit stacking and how can it help?
Habit stacking involves you combining multiple habits that can be done at the same time to allow you to receive the benefits of them all in the same amount of time it takes to perform just one of them.
Habit Stacking Examples
Here are two habit stacking ideas. In the first photo the habit stack involves:-
- Fresh air,
- Grounding,
- Stretching and
Related Post: 6 Tips To Maximise The Benefit Of Breathing Exercises
In the next habit stack below I’ve combined:-
- Epsom salt bath,
- Sensory rest,
- Visualisations,
- Diffusing essential oils.
Related Post: 7 Types Of Rest We Need
Tip 8). Attach new habit to an existing daily habit
There are numerous habits we already do everyday without thinking about, such as:-
- Switching off our alarm in the morning,
- Brushing our teeth and,
- Boiling the kettle.
To help make new habits easy to stick to, the book Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg (UK Link/US Link) recommends adding it to one of your existing daily habits. For example, when brushing your teeth perform a calf stretch.
Performing the new habit at the same time as you perform an existing one makes it easy to remember and doesn’t require you to make any additional time in your day to perform it. Therefore, it allows everyone to make a positive behaviour and lifestyle change regardless of how busy you are or how many other habits, treatments and therapies you have to fit in. Having these habits scheduled like this causes over 90% of people to stick to them, compared to just 30-50% without (2).
In the table below is an example daily routine showing how to add a new habit to an existing one.
| Existing Habit | New Habit To Attach |
|---|---|
| Turn alarm off in the morning | Think of 3 things you’re grateful for |
| Brush teeth | Perform a calf stretch |
| Boil the kettle | Visualisation |
| Finish eating a meal | Walk round the block or go outside for 5 minutes |
| Open your laptop or phone | Journal practice |
| Write food shopping list | Add one new plant food to try (fruit, vegetable, nut, seed, whole grain, bean or legume) |
| Open the cupboard or fridge to prepare meals | Select one fruit or vegetable to include |
| Turn light out at night | Breathing exercise |
Further Information
If you would like to learn more about creating habits and routines which stick, these are books and podcasts I recommend:-
Other related posts
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What helps you form new habits and routines? If you have any other tips I’d love to hear them. Leave me a comment below or message me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or YouTube.
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Small changes can make a big impact, can’t they? I’ve been trying to develop regular eating times, as my meal times are so inconsistent at the moment.
Thanks for your comment Kacie. They really do make such a big difference. Developing regular eating times is something I’ve done recently and it’s really helped me and made my digestion so much better, I hope it benefits you too.
I definitely need to start going to bed earlier. I never thought about doing it with small steps. Thanks for sharing!
Ukeveryday
You’re welcome Paulina, I’m glad the tip was helpful.
I think attaching a habit to an existing one is a great idea, this feels as if it is really manageable and I think that is the key, to make things easy for us to stick to and not too cumbersome.
Thank you Michelle. I completely agree, making things feel effortless is the best way to stick to habits and changes in the long term.
These are really helpful tips. I find it ever so difficult to stick to new habits and routines so will be implementing these tips to help me.
Thank you Rebecca, I’m so glad to hear that. I hope they all help you.
Such good ideas. Small steps can make a huge difference. And making changes slowly, people are more likely to stick with them.
Thank you very much. I agree, small steps and small changes are most sustainable and lead to the biggest difference in the long term.
I live for habits and routines and I don’t care if that makes me boring or predictable. It helps with my health so much. As soon as I get off track, I tend to get worse, so anything I can get a firm grip on is always my top priority! Great article and ideas, Lucy!
It definitely doesn’t make you boring or predictable, having a regular routine and habits I can consistently do makes the world of difference to me both physically and mentally too. Thank you so much Carrie, I really appreciate it!
Love the idea of habit sticking… it definitely makes things easier! Currently I’m trying to train my upper body strength as my legs are wasting away from disability. Hopefully it helps when I can start physio -might need to consult you for tips and advice and motivation then! 😉
Thank you Sheryl, I’m glad you found the tips helpful. I’m so sorry to hear about your disability. I really hope your upper body strength training is going well. Yes, please do get in touch whenever you need any advice or help, I’m more than happy to help in any way I can 🙂
Fab post and very well-timed! That Atomic Habits book seems like it’s often top in the charts, but the divergence of what is often thought (21 days to form a habit) and reality (66 days) is quite striking. I think people need to ease up on themselves, and be prepared to have some patience. When you slip on something, it’s easy to get frustrated, disheartened, think it’s not going to work and give up.
I love the charts you’ve done on how the time adds up. Such a clear visual! Makes me think if only I had written even the first page of a book a few years ago (despite currently having no ideas) I could have written a dozen by now! I’d not heard of habit stacking either but that’s a really good idea and I like your simple, workable examples. xx
Thank you so much Caz, I really appreciate it. I’m so pleased you found it helpful. It’s so true, we so often want a quick fix but the reality is there’s ups and downs and it takes patience and time for us to form habits and see the changes we want. Thank you, I’m so glad you found the charts and ideas helpful. Wishing you all the best xx