The 10 Best Ways to Break a Bad Habit, According to Science There's no reason you can't break bad habits. By taking the right approach and working hard, you can change any unwanted behavior.

There's no reason you can't break a bad habit. You can change any unwanted behavior by taking the right approach and working hard. You just have to take the right approach. Why are bad habits so hard to break?

Emotions often play a role in bad habit formation, making them difficult to break. When we engage in a bad habit, we often experience pleasure or relief. Our brains release dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with reward. It becomes increasingly difficult to break bad habits as we become addicted to the dopamine they produce.

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What you can do to break bad habits

While breaking a bad habit is no easy feat, it can be done. Just follow these simple steps:

1. List the behaviors you want to stop

The first step to breaking a habit? Make a list of behaviors you'd like to stop and prioritize them.

According to Alana Mendelsohn, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at Columbia's Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, you'll likely get overwhelmed and quit if you try to do everything at once. Stress and fatigue further complicate the issue since we naturally revert back to our old habits, making it harder to break them.

The longer a time period you've had living the way that you have, the harder it's going to be to change that. That's why it's important to start slow. Even breaking one bad habit at a time is still progress.

2. Identify the habit loop

In studying rats running mazes, MIT researchers discovered the habit loop. Habit loops reinforce certain behaviors in three steps:

• Cue. The event that triggers the behavior. It could be related to the time of day, your emotional state, or the people around you.
• Routine. As a result of the cue, a given behavior occurs.
• Reward. What you get from the behavior.

For example, you might shop online when you're bored. Or maybe when you are depressed or stressed, you eat junk food.

As habits become more automatic over time, the habit loop creates a feedback loop. If you want to change a habit, you can do the following:

• Change the routine
• Be aware of the cue and avoid it
• Utilize temporal landmarks

In general, once you've identified the habit loop, you can devise strategies to break it.

3. Decide why you want to make a change

If you want to break a habit, determine why you want to do it. Research shows that it's easier to change your behavior when you're striving to improve yourself.

Block out some time in your schedule to reflect on why you want to break the habit and how it will benefit you. Maybe you want to follow a healthy diet to improve your heart condition, but is that your only motivation? You may discover a few additional reasons by creating a list. Perhaps following a diet and losing weight would make it easier to play with your grandchildren or travel.

Your mind can stay fresh on the changes you want to make if you see the list regularly. Your list reminds you why you wish to continue your efforts if you ever fall back into the habit.

4. Make it harder to indulge

Our list can't always help fight bad habits. Sometimes our indulgences are simply too convenient. The solution? Create obstacles for yourself.

Let's say you're trying to reduce your screen time before bed to improve sleep quality, but you find it difficult because your bedroom is equipped with multiple devices and you tend to browse social media or watch videos late into the night.

One obstacle you could create for yourself is to physically remove the devices from your bedroom. This means charging your phone or tablet in another room overnight, or even turning off your Wi-Fi router before bedtime to make it less tempting to engage with screens. By making it inconvenient to access these devices from your bed, you create a barrier that helps you stick to your goal of reducing screen time before sleep.

Putting obstacles in place can keep you from committing the same bad habits again. The vices just aren't worth the trouble.

5. Replace a bad habit with a good one

Changing out a bad habit for a good one is one of the most effective ways to break it. Using a fidget toy or stress ball could help stop you from biting your nails, for instance. Use a time management app or break tasks down into smaller, more manageable parts if you're trying to stop procrastinating.

The truth is, it's hard to stop a behavior once it's started. Sometimes trying to stop can make it worse. In fact, some studies show that suppressing your thoughts leads to you thinking about or even reverting to those habits. A 2008 study in Appetite found that suppressing thoughts about chocolate resulted in significant increases in chocolate consumption compared to not suppressing thoughts.

In a similar study, smokers who restrained their thoughts about smoking actually thought more about it. Overall, as a smoker, telling yourself not to smoke doesn't make your brain think any differently. However, telling yourself to chew gum when you want a cigarette makes your brain think differently. Rather than cutting out a bad habit, you could focus on drinking more water or getting more exercise. There's only so much time in a day, and if you spend it focused on healthy activities, there won't be enough time for bad habits.

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6. Avoid an all-or-nothing mindset

According to Dr. Luana Marques, associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, taking micro-steps toward your goal will help you avoid burnout.

Gradually getting to where you want to be increases the likelihood of success because it allows for incremental adjustments that are more manageable and less overwhelming. Additionally, this approach fosters a sense of accomplishment with each small step, reinforcing motivation and resilience for continued progress towards your goal.

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7. Use the buddy system

Your journey to change will be more successful if you surround yourself with supportive people. Consider joining a support group, talking to a friend, or seeking professional help. Having an accountability partner can significantly improve your success rate.

The American Society of Training and Development found that you have a 65% chance of achieving your goals if you share them with a friend. I have also found it helpful to find someone who has broken a habit similar to yours and has experienced success. They can serve as a mentor, and their experience proves that breaking your own habits is both possible and worthwhile.

Your choice of mentor or accountability partner should be someone you admire and like. If you are familiar with someone who has succeeded in breaking your bad habit, ask how they did it. Even better, you could ask them for coaching while you work on your habit.

8. Reward Yourself

Rewarding yourself for good behavior is important because it provides positive reinforcement. Like receiving a sticker on a good assignment, rewards acknowledge your efforts and successes. This creates a cycle of motivation and achievement, driving ongoing progress toward your goals.

In order to be most effective, rewards should be given immediately following positive behavior. Why? Your brain releases dopamine when you get rewarded, so you'll want to repeat the behavior.

To be effective, however, you should pick something you enjoy and really want. This could be indulging in a favorite treat, spending time doing a hobby you love, or treating yourself to a small luxury like a massage or a movie night. As your brain becomes accustomed to your new, positive behavior, it reinforces your good habit.

9. Try Visualization

Visualization is a powerful tool. It harnesses the brain's ability to simulate experiences, activating similar neural pathways as actual actions. By vividly imagining desired outcomes or scenarios, you can enhance your confidence, focus, and motivation, effectively priming yourself for success.

This mental rehearsal can also help reduce anxiety and increase performance in various activities, from sports to public speaking, by familiarizing the mind with optimal strategies and outcomes. So, mentally practice good behavior over bad behavior.

10. Be patient

Breaking a bad habit takes time and effort.

As a matter of fact, breaking a habit can typically take 30-60 days! For this reason, consistency is key to achieving your goals.

Furthermore, setbacks will occur along the way. Don't give up. Eventually, you'll succeed if you keep at it.