Scientifically, How Long Does it Actually Take to Form a New Habit?
The 21-day rule; The 66-day habit rule and more…
My thought process behind this article began with a debate with my friends in one of our Book Club meetings. One of my friends was reading the book, The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod who claimed it takes 30 days to form a habit or to quote him, “Just 30 Days To Become the Person You Need To Be To Create the Life You Deserve”. I immediately felt like this claim was false and nothing more than a marketing gimmick that most self-help authors use. I remember reading the actual number of days it takes is somewhere around 60 days. As our discussion didn’t lead to a common consensus, I began my research for answers (as I am the host of this book club, it is my responsibility that people learn facts rather than opinions).
The Myth of the 20th Century that Still Haunts Us
Psycho-cybernetics is a self-help book written by Maxwell Maltz, an American Cosmetic Surgeon in 1960. In the book, he cites many real-life examples of people changing their thoughts and habits in 21 days. One of which was about a salesman who was attributing his failures to his apparently repulsive nose. Maxwell suggested to the salesman to avoid all negative thinking for 21 days and even though the salesman didn’t believe in this methodology, the sales continued to increase and he was congratulated publicly. He postponed the nose operation.
Such similar observations made him believe it takes about 21 days to form a new habit. Examples like these might include a lot of bias (including authors himself) and moreover these observations are not conducted in a scientific manner. Self-help experts like Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy popularised his studies and observations in their talks and writings. Psycho-Cybernetics alone has sold more than 30 million copies and is still in print. Tony Robbins has more than 8 Million followers on Social Media and has created programs around this 21-day rule. Hence, the society came to believe in the myth of “21-day rule” for new habits.
Science and Data
What is a Habit?
Behavioral patterns performed automatically in response to a situation in which the behavior has been performed repeatedly and consistently in the past. A behavior is likely to become a habit if it is performed repeatedly in an unvarying context [Lally et al., 2010, Triandis, 1977, Oulette and Wood, 1998]. Habit formation consists of 4 stages: cue, craving, response, and reward (popularised by Charles Duhigg and James Clear in their books, The Power of Habit and Atomic Habits respectively).
Behavior is likely to become habitual when it is frequently and consistently performed in ‘similar context’.
What is Context?
The circumstances that form the setting of an event. For instance, the alarm, the time, the location are considered as parts of the context of waking up. To understand more refer to James Clear’s blog.
The New Trend
The new trend by self-help experts is creating products and books around the 66-day rule (Eg: Robin Sharma’s 5 AM Club 66 day challenge). This started after Phillippa Lally and her research team published the paper — “How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world”, in 2009. This study is cited as the current standard in scientific literature and is popularised by self-help experts as the source for 66-day habit rule.
66 days — is that it?
Not quite. Phillippa Lally and her research team gathered data from 96 volunteers for 12 weeks and performed nonlinear regression (fitting a curve to a bunch of points) to find a curve for automaticity (habit development) for each individual. What they found was, for a person to reach 95% of their asymptote varied from 18 to 254 days. And the median time to reach this 95% of the peak was 66 days.
So out of thrity nine people, nineteen people were able to form habits in 66 days or less (18 days being the lowest). However, the other nineteen people (~50%) took more than 66 days for the same task, with the highest being 254 days.
I know, it sounds so boring when I put it like this. But when someone says it in cool hip phrases like, it takes “66 days exact” we are willing to follow blindly. The variability comes in from various factors — participants choosing different tasks (eating behavior, drinking behavior, and exercise behavior), the number of repetitions, etc. So, the original “21-day rule”, 30 days to form a habit peddled by Hal Elrod, ‘66 days exact’ by James Clear to build any habit are all FALSE.
On average, it takes 66 days to form a new habit but varies based on the habit that you’re trying to form and the number of times you repeat.
Does Missing a Day or a Week matter?
The authors say that missing one opportunity did not have any significant effect on long-term automaticity or habit formation. But missing a week’s worth of opportunities reduces the likelihood of future repetition and habit formation.
You can miss “a day” now and then but it needs to be immediately followed by 3 days/times where you follow through on your habit. So, some missed opportunities will not derail the process.
Things to Keep in Mind
- The harder the task (say exercise), the difficult it gets to reach the peak automaticity. Don’t get discouraged by this but take this knowledge and use it to build your habits. I wish, I had read the research papers earlier and I could have saved myself a lot of hard work and bad days.
- Repetition matters a lot. Remember, repetition under stable cues is what makes the difference. As the curve is asymptotic, as you repeat it more often the more quickly you will reach the maximum level of automaticity.
- Self-control is not as important as you think. Performing a task consistently with steady cues will increase the habit strength.
- You are at an advantage by having read this article and gained this knowledge.
Final Words
My suggestion, try to pick an easy habit like drinking more water because this is easy and habit formation takes less time. Once you build such small habits and feel happy and confident, you can try building difficult habits like exercising or meditation. The sooner you start the better you get at it. Initial gains will be huge so get started and enjoy the JOURNEY.
See my other posts at Agastya Zayant
