5 little but effective ways I’m improving my habits

More for your habit transformation!

I have always had a passion for habits. Over the years, I picked up various insights and techniques that have helped me improve my existing habits, build new ones, and break unwanted ones.

This blog post will go into five little ways that I’ve done to improve my habits, which you can do as well! From the habit loop and rewards system to temptation bundling, and other concepts like “only when’s” and tracing your steps, you will learn of practical strategies to optimize your habits for personal growth.

Whether you struggle with productivity, self-discipline, or just want to enhance your life in general, this blog post is for you!

Let’s dive in.

1 – Utilizing the HABIT LOOP

The habit loop consists of this formula:

CUE -> HABIT -> REWARD

The cue triggers the habit, and the habit leads to a reward. Utilizing this continuously forms and reinforces the habit.

This habit loop can be used for both building new habits and breaking unwanted ones.

With building new habits, you can create a cue for your new habit, and the reward you’ll get after it. For example, if you want to build a new habit to take a walk, this will be your habit loop:

7:00am (CUE) -> Walk (HABIT) -> Feel more energized and motivated (REWARD).

In terms of breaking bad habits, all you need to do is replace the unwanted habit, with a new habit. The cue and reward remain the same. For example, with your unwanted habit, the habit loop may have looked like this:

Lay down on the bed (CUE) -> Scroll on social media (HABIT) -> Entertained (REWARD).

If you want to replace this unwanted habit with a better one like reading, you just need to replace it:

Lay down on the bed (CUE) -> Read 10 pages of a book (HABIT) -> Entertained (REWARD).

Ultimately, this habit loop provides a framework for understanding and changing habits. By recognizing the cues and rewards associated with the habits, you can modify your routines to create more productive habits.

This is something that has been helpful for me in breaking bad habits and developing better ones, especially when focusing on the cues and rewards that drive those habits.

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RELATED: 4 Books for Building Better Habits and Breaking Bad Ones

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2 – Rewards System

Something to think about when building a new habit (or breaking an unwanted one) is motivating yourself with rewards.

The rewards system is rewards for practicing a habit or staying away from an unwanted one.

For instance, after one week of consistently sticking with or staying away from a habit, a small reward is given. After two weeks, a larger reward is earned, and after a month, a desired reward is granted.

There is something about the anticipation of rewards that fosters a sense of motivation and accomplishment every time you reach those milestones. That’s why it can be such a helpful way to reinforce your positive habits and stay away from your unwanted ones. Because honestly, rewards feel great.

I’d like to think that my personal rewards system is what motivates me to keep going.

3 – Temptation Bundling

Temptation bundling is where you pair an activity you don’t like with an activity you do like.

For example, you might only allow yourself to watch TikToks IF you are washing the dishes at the same time.

Temptation bundling is a great way to motivate yourself to do something you don’t want to do, especially if it happens to be a good habit. Linking a desired task with an undesired task makes the undesired task more motivating to do and increases your likelihood of doing it.

It’s a helpful way of making mundane tasks more enjoyable and also gives you a sense of reward as well. It’s also an extremely helpful way to overcome procrastination.

I love using temptation bundling when doing my chores because they’re my least favorite thing to do. Like the example I gave earlier, I will watch TikToks while doing the dishes because the dishes are my least favorite chore.

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RELATED: Bad Habits to Break in a Personal Development Journey

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4 – Only When’s

The concept of “only whens” is where you set specific conditions and requirements that must be before you engage in an unwanted habit. For example, I use “only when’s” for social media habits (link blog post), where I can only scroll on social media when:

• It’s my designated social media time (30 minutes maximum)
• If I want to use it outside my designated social media time, I have to be standing up.

This approach works by creating a sense of accountability and control over your unwanted habit. By linking it to those specific requirements, it encourages you to be more mindful when it comes to doing that habit.

Because maybe you don’t want to 100% remove that unwanted habit from your life, because it’s still entertaining at the end of the day. But because you don’t want to do it too often, you implement those conditions so you can do them more mindfully.

Ultimately, this can be a great way to enhance productivity and self-discipline. If you still want to do those unwanted habits, you can at least be more intentional and mindful when you do them.

5 – Tracing Your Steps

Tracing your steps to understand the reason behind your habits involves examining the series of events that led to that habit.

For example, tracing your steps to your habit of snoozing your alarm in the morning may look like this:

• You snooze your alarm because you’re too tired.
• You’re too tired because you stayed up late the previous night.
• You stayed up the previous night because you were scrolling on social media.

Tracing your steps can help you identify the root patterns behind your habits. By analyzing this chain of events leading to a habit, you are aware of why you have it. This will allow you to make the changes necessary.

I’ve used this multiple times when it comes to my unwanted habits. Tracing your steps is beneficial to bring awareness to those factors that contribute to your unwanted habits. Once you know that, you can take the steps to break that chain of events.

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RELATED: Productive Week in My Life With My Daily Habits

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Take a SMALL STEP:

Practice using these for building better habits and breaking unwanted ones:

1. Habit Loop – Think of ONE habit you want to build or a habit you want to break. Utilize the habit loop to build it.
2. Rewards Systems – Come up with the following rewards for when you succeed in doing (or not doing) the habit:
3. Reward for 1 week of doing the habit/staying away from the unwanted habit.
4. Reward for 2 weeks of doing the habit/staying away from the unwanted habit.
5. Reward for 1 month of doing the habit/staying away from the unwanted habit.
6. Think of a habit you don’t like to do, and pair it with an activity you enjoy doing. This is temptation bundling!
7. Think of an unwanted habit and create a list of “Only When’s”.
8. Think of an unwanted habit and trace the steps.

To Wrap Up

And there you go – we explored 5 ways that you can improve your habits! You’ve got the habit loop to help you build or break habits, the rewards system to reward yourself for your progress, temptation bundling to motivate yourself more, “only when’s” to build more discipline, and tracing your steps to understand your patterns better.

These have helped me tremendously when it comes to my habits, so hopefully they are helpful for you too.

I also wrote a book about taking small steps which includes building your habits in my free book Small Steps to Progression. You can download it for free here, and you’ll also be able to access my Free Resources Library with free resources to help you in your self growth journey.

Remember, small steps lead to progression! – Lauren 😊

P.S I recommend you read these blog posts next:

• How to Build Life Changing Habits
• The Best Alternative to Habit Tracking
• How to Actually Level Up Your Habits

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