{"id":684,"date":"2022-01-20T13:36:09","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T13:36:09","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2023-01-10T13:03:17","modified_gmt":"2023-01-10T13:03:17","slug":"what-are-micro-habits-and-why-are-they-so-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.circledna.com\/what-are-micro-habits-and-why-are-they-so-important\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are Micro Habits And Why are They So Important?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many people are determined to adopt healthier habits this year, but few realize it\u2019s actually micro habits that make all the difference. On October 16, 2018, the book <\/em>Atomic Habits<\/em><\/a> <\/em>by James Clear hit the shelves. In 2020, it reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and has since sold over 3 million copies.<\/p>\n

A little over a year after Clear\u2019s book was published, on New Year\u2019s Eve of 2019, BJ Fogg, Ph.D., released his book, called Tiny Habits<\/em><\/a>. The insightful book Tiny Habits <\/em>achieved similar success to Atomic Habits, <\/em>making the New York Times bestseller list. It was also named Amazon\u2019s Best Book in January of 2020, and Arianna Huffington called it \u2018the biggest book of 2020\u2019.<\/p>\n

The message in the two books is remarkably similar: \u2018micro habits\u2019 (small, incremental changes) can add up and change your life. <\/strong>The two books I\u2019ve mentioned on this subject differed mainly in their approach. Fogg\u2019s book leans heavily on the scientific research behind habit formation, while Clear\u2019s book takes a more motivational stance. In 2020, however, when the world shut down due to the pandemic, both books became a sort of instruction manual for people eager to take advantage of their newfound downtime by reevaluating the way they work, spend their free time, exercise, save money and more.<\/p>\n

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The Philosophy Behind Micro Habits<\/h2>\n

Changing your habits is easier said than done. Many of us make sweeping declarations on New Year\u2019s Eve, on our birthdays, or after we go through something painful or challenging, like a break-up or a disappointment at work. There\u2019s a problem here, though. Over the course of our lives, we become defined by our habits. Changing our habits is akin to changing our identity, which is a scary thing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also very challenging to change your habits. Let\u2019s say the healthy habit you want to adopt is going for a walk after dinner. If part of your routine is watching something on TV while you clean up the dishes, that\u2019s an automatic behavior. Once the dishes are done, the TV is still on, and the chances of you walking away from the TV to go for a walk outside are pretty slim. You therefore perceive yourself as someone who lacks willpower, berating yourself because you didn\u2019t stick to your goal of taking a walk after dinner. From such a low point, you have little motivation to try again the next day.<\/p>\n

As Clear explains, \u201cIf you\u2019re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn\u2019t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don\u2019t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is where micro habits come in. Instead of trying to create a new, bigger habit (take a walk after dinner), maybe the micro habit you adopt is doing the dishes without the TV on. That micro habit could make all the difference.<\/p>\n

From there, you build momentum towards the new life you want to create, to becoming someone who takes a walk after dinner.<\/p>\n

Why Are Micro Habits Important?<\/h2>\n

We\u2019ve already touched on how micro habits have a greater probability of being adopted than big, life-altering habit changes, but why is this the case?<\/p>\n

Micro habits are small changes. That means they are easier changes to make, easier to keep, and yes, easier to break. The key here is that it\u2019s a lot harder to make excuses for yourself for not keeping such a small intention.<\/p>\n

When you try to pick up a big habit and then don\u2019t, you\u2019re breaking a promise to yourself. How let down do you feel when someone doesn\u2019t keep their promise to you? When it\u2019s yourself <\/em>delivering that feeling, it\u2019s detrimental to your self-esteem, and significantly lowers the odds that you will keep pursuing this path; you\u2019re essentially (and wrongly) proving to yourself that you have no willpower, so why try again?<\/p>\n

But, when you keep a very small promise to yourself, the shift in your thinking is huge. You tell yourself \u2018I am<\/em> someone who can make changes, I am<\/em> true to my word, I can<\/em> do this\u2019.<\/p>\n

This little shift in mindset snowballs. You kept your promise today, which proves that you can do it tomorrow, and the next day.<\/p>\n

If a big change seems overwhelming and if setbacks are discouraging you time and again, adopting micro habits might just be what tips the scales in your favor.<\/p>\n

The Science Behind Habit Building<\/h2>\n

In Atomic Habits, <\/em>Clear references the 3 \u2018R\u2019s of habit formation: Reminder (or cue), Routine and Reward.<\/p>\n

When we repeat a behavior often enough, we start to associate certain things about our environment with that behavior. The couch reminds us of TV, or we might reflexively reach for the ice cream when we open up the freezer. These are examples of a cue reminding us to engage in the habit.<\/p>\n

However, we don\u2019t always need to be reminded. Some habits become so ingrained in our minds that they become just a normal part of our routine. Your routine might be to come home after work and sit on the couch watching TV with a pint of ice cream, and you might have been doing it for so long that, thanks to a structure in your brain called the basal ganglia, it\u2019s become an automatic behavior. Your basal ganglia help coordinate your movements, and they \u2018talk\u2019 to your frontal cortex in order to decide which movement is appropriate given the environment. However, if you\u2019ve done something often enough, your basal ganglia don\u2019t need to talk to the frontal cortex anymore; the behavior of walking through the door, sitting down and grabbing the remote has become automatic.<\/p>\n

Finally, we come to the reward we receive after engaging in a behavior. In this case, watching TV or eating ice cream is rewarding you with a hit of dopamine, which humans love and don\u2019t easily give up.<\/p>\n

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Some Micro Habits You Could Adopt<\/h2>\n

By and large, the habits people most want to change relate to their health, finances and leisure time. We want to eat better, be less sedentary<\/a> during our downtime, save money and use our free time doing something other than staring at our phones. Those are all huge changes, and as we\u2019ve seen, big change doesn\u2019t happen overnight.<\/p>\n

So, what are some micro habits (or more realistic goals) you can start doing today?<\/p>\n