How habits form: why you do things you never decided to do
The habit loop: cue, routine and reward
Every habit starts with something you hardly notice, and ends with something that brings you back tomorrow. Take one evening on the phone apart, piece by piece.
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1
Watch your evening slowly, one part at a time. It starts with the sofa, right after dinner. That is the cue: the thing that sets it all off. Many cues look like this one: a place and a moment.
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2
Next comes the routine: what you do. Your hand finds the phone, and your thumb starts to scroll. It is the part anyone can see, and the only part you would call the habit.
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3
Then the reward: a new message, a funny video, something you did not know a minute ago. It is small, and it comes fast.
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4
And the reward has one more job: it makes the cue and the routine stick together. Cue, routine, reward: the three parts form what is called the habit loop.
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5
Each evening, the loop runs once more, and the link gets stronger. On the first evening, you reached for the phone. A year on, the sofa sends your hand there before you even think of it.
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6
Now look at the guitar. It stands in a corner you never pass, so nothing starts it, and its reward, playing a song well, is weeks away. Against a loop this tight, it has no chance yet.
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Quick check
Every morning, while you wait at the bus stop, you buy a coffee from the stand next to it. Which part is the cue, which is the routine, and which is the reward?
Show the answer
The cue is the bus stop and the wait: a place and a moment. Buying the coffee is the routine, and the warm cup in your hand is the reward.
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Go further
Two names to search for.