How Long Does It Actually Take To Form Habits
Adding a new habit to your current routine or creating an entirely new routine can be difficult. However, once you do it for a while it just comes naturally, but how long does it actually take to become a habit?
According to GoodNet, most people believe it takes only 21 days, or three weeks, to form a new habit. This might sound appealing and easy to most people, but who really keeps their New Year’s resolutions after the 3rd week of January?
The idea that it takes 21 days to form a habit actually didn’t come from something about habits. It came from a book published in the 1960s by plastic surgeon Maxwell Maltz. In the book he stated that it would take people around 21 days to adjust to how they look.
This soon became a benchmark for how long it takes to form or adjust to any habit. This was finally proven false almost 50 years later in a 2009 study on habits which concluded that it takes 18-254 days to form an actual habit, with an average of around 66 days. It also found that consistent repetition is necessary in forming habits.
Habits that are simpler are easier to form. For example, something like washing your hands before you eat will likely become a habit in a week or two, but a bigger habit with multiple steps, like going to the gym, will take longer.
These big habits may be easier to form when broken down into smaller steps. For example, if your goal is to clean the entire house at once every sunday it would be best to start with just vacuuming and add things from there.
With enough planning, motivation, and repetition, anyone can form new healthy habits.
