Bad Habits: Here's How To Break Them For Good

Many of our daily activities are governed by habits, regularly repeated behaviors that run on autopilot. Some of these habits are helpful, while others are not. If you want to reprogram your bad habits, you've come to the right place!

Any habit that prevents you from being happy, healthy, productive, or successful can be considered a bad habit. Some bad habits are simply annoying (like always forgetting your phone at home) while others (such as overspending or reckless driving) can have serious negative consequences.

Bad habits aren't a sign of a bad upbringing or a lack of willpower.

Some bad habits such as smoking are more socially acceptable than others, so people continue smoking despite all the health warnings. Others are simply an effect of how the human brain is wired. For example, procrastination occurs because your brain prefers short-term rewards to the long-term gains of boring work.

Fortunately, habits aren't carved in stone. In this article, we'll list some typical bad habits and give you practical tips for how to break them.

We've tried to list some common bad habits that people have. Some of these are quite obvious, while others are more subtle.

According to experts, seemingly innocent habits can undermine your work performance, ruin your reputation in your manager's eyes, and even get you fired.

One such habit is showing up late. Maybe you haven't missed anything important when you're five minutes late to a meeting, but remember that it can make you look irresponsible and careless.

Have you ever had coworkers who would leave dirty coffee mugs in the sink or keep rotting banana peels on their desks? Those habits might be more or less acceptable at home, but they can seriously ruin a person's professional reputation at work.

Procrastination is probably the most popular bad habit when it comes to studying. It affects up to 95% of students!

The problem with studying is that it doesn't feel rewarding in the short term. Yes, in a few years, you'll get a degree and possibly land your dream job. But this is a very distant reward. Your brain craves immediate rewards instead, like a Netflix marathon or the experience of beating a level in a video game.

Another example of a bad habit that can absolutely ruin a study session is not eliminating distractions. You won't get much done if you're constantly distracted by the TV or your smartphone. If you swear you can't study in silence, then at least listen to gentle instrumental music that won't distract you.

Do you sometimes wonder why some people maintain tidy homes while others struggle with clutter and dirt? Well, this is largely due to household habits.

These can range from simply gross quirks (using a sponge for too long or scattering dirty socks around the room) to potentially problematic habits like forgetting to unplug the iron or leaving wet laundry in the washer until it becomes moldy and requires expensive cleaning.

Many relationship habits are so subtle that you barely notice them until your partner gets mad at you over something that you find trivial.

One particularly painful bad habit is ignoring your partner when you enter or leave your home. This makes them feel unimportant and unloved.

Instead, cultivate good habits like kissing your partner when coming home from work. Little romantic gestures can do wonders!

Another bad habit that's surprisingly common is picking fights whenever you're stressed. Yes, that's part of your body's stress response, but regularly lashing out at your loved one just because you had a bad day at work isn't going to strengthen your relationship.

In a best-case scenario, you can break any bad habit in just 21 days. Just follow these actionable tips and build good habits quickly and easily!

Every habit – good or bad – is essentially a neurological loop made up of four components. The first one is a cue (also known as a trigger), followed by a craving. You respond to the craving and your response leads to a reward.

Let's say you have a bad habit of eating chips in front of the TV. In this case, the very action of turning on your TV becomes the trigger that makes you crave chips. When you respond, your brain feels rewarded by the taste and the texture of chips.

When you analyze the loops behind your bad habits, you'll start seeing opportunities to reprogram them.

If you love chips because of their crunchy texture, what about replacing them with a bowl of apples, baby carrots, cucumbers, or any other healthy snack that has a lovely crunchiness without the empty calories? Yes, eating cucumbers in front of the TV may feel weird at first, but it's a better habit than munching on chips.

Let's say you're addicted to the social media apps on your phone. Whenever you see a Facebook notification, you stop whatever you're doing and plunge straight into a half-hour scrolling binge.

The solution can be as simple as blocking Facebook notifications or removing the Facebook app from your phone so that you won't be reminded of it. Out of sight, out of mind!

Sadly, getting rid of triggers isn't always easy. Sometimes you can't eliminate the cue because it's literally inside you. For example, stress can trigger the bad habits of overeating or smoking.

In this case, go back to the previous tip and think of ways to substitute your bad habits with healthier ones.

Researchers have found that accountability plays a key role in building habits. Having supportive people who help you stay on track with your new habits can increase your chances of success by up to 95%!

Your habits are influenced by the habits of people around you. On a very simple level, if your partner insists on buying cookies all the time, you're going to have a hard time losing weight.

If the people in your family or workplace aren't 100% supportive of your new habits, you can always find a support group elsewhere. If you're building new productivity habits, joining an online group dedicated to your favorite productivity app or method is a good idea. And if you're looking to build health-related habits, make a few friends at the local gym.

Failure is a normal part of building and breaking habits. For example, a highly stressful period in your life can completely derail your productivity habits because you simply don't have the energy to make to-do lists or track your Pomodoros.

Don't beat yourself up. Simply observe the situation, discover what went wrong, and try to avoid this mistake in the future.

Many bad habits come from negative self-talk that echoes the criticisms of your parents and teachers. If your mom was always complaining about your lack of tidiness, you may still believe that you're a messy person. This belief can sabotage your attempts to build better housekeeping habits.

Instead of criticizing yourself and using labels (messy, lazy, a procrastinator, etc.), practice positive self-talk. Praise yourself for your strengths and don't associate setbacks with character flaws. You're not lazy; you've procrastinated on your latest project. This can happen to anyone, right?

If you feel that you can't break free from certain negative beliefs and thought patterns, talk to a therapist. They've been trained to help people just like you.

Compare these two sentences:

• I can't eat cake because I have to lose weight.
  
• I don't eat cake; I prefer fruit.
  

The first one sounds like you're temporarily banned from eating cake, but you'll get back to your old eating habits as soon as you lose some weight.

The second one makes healthy nutrition a part of your identity. You just happen to prefer fruit to cake.

So, talk and act as if you've already broken your habit.

Breaking bad habits isn't easy, but it's possible. Start by analyzing the underlying neurological loops. Once you've understood the real cause of your bad habit, you'll see practical ways to reprogram it into a good habit.