The Ultimate Beginner Guide to Creating Habits

February 9, 2025

Since habits determine the trajectory of your life.

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It’s common knowledge that habits are an essential part of our lives. They shape our routines, influence our actions, and determine the direction we go.

I’ve been obsessed with building new habits and learning about it since 2020. I read books such as Atomic Habits, The Compound Effect, and The Power of Habit that gave me powerful concepts that changed the way I built habits forever.

This blog post is a beginner guide to building and changing your habits. You will learn, step-by-step, how to create habits that actually stick (or break the habits that are holding you back).

I think you will be very surprised with how simple and easy the concept is.

Let’s dive in.

Step 1: Pick 2-5 habits to focus on

For this guide, choose at least 2 habits (or even 1 if you need to start off small), to implement these steps. You can check out this blog post here on ideas of habits that you can start integrating in your life.

Step 2: Write down the long-term consequence of the habit (& why you want to build it)

It is important to be aware of how these habits will affect you long term.

For example, the long-term consequence of building a workout habit is improved health.

On top of that, it is also important to know why you want to build the habit. Going back to the habit of working out, the reason why you may want to build this habit is because you value better health, an essential habit for personal development, and you also want to reap the benefits of it.

Knowing these two things helps you keep going with your habits. After doing the habits for a day, a week, or even a month, it’s easy to get discouraged not seeing the results. But remembering what lies ahead can help.

Step 3: Understand the Habit Loop

The very first thing you need to know about building a habit is the habit loop.

The habit loop consists of three key components:

Cue
Habit
Reward

By understanding the habit loop, you are able to build good habits, break bad ones, and take control over the habits that change the trajectory of your life.

Step 4: Choose the CUE (trigger)

The cue is the signal that intiates the habit. This can either be a feeling, event, or situation that prompts your brain to start a specific habit.

Cues can be external (like the time, seeing your workout clothes next to your bed) or internal (like feeling stressed).

For example:

7:00 am is the cue for your workout habit.
Seeing your phone make a sound is the cue to your habit of picking it up & checking your phone.
Feeling stressed is the cue to your habit of procrastinating on important tasks.

This is why cues are so important – they kickstart the habit loop. So, if you want to build or change a habit, identifying the cue is the first step.

RELATED: Habits for Better Productivity

Step 5: The Habit

The habit itself is the action you take in response to the cue. This refers to any habit that you wish to build.

Then, the habit becomes a habit when the behavior becomes automatic. By automatic, it means that it requires less thought and effort which will make it easier to repeat over time.

Now, let’s go back to the previous step, regarding the cue.

Say you want to build a workout habit, your cue could simply be the time (7:00am)
Say you want to build the habit of reading more, your cue could be seeing the book on your bed.
Say you want to build the habit of listening to podcasts, your cue could be when you drive.

This also works for habits that you want to break & change. There are 2 ways you can break/change a habit:

Replace the habit in the habit loop; or
Remove the cue completely.

For example:

If you want to break the habit of going on social media or any digital habit, every time you get bored, you seemly replace that habit.

BEFORE: Feeling bored (cue) -> going on social media (habit)

AFTER: Feeling bored (cue) -> read a blog post or 10 pages of a book (habit)

If you want to break the habit of going on your phone every time it buzzes, you can simply remove the cue (the buzzes).

BEFORE: Phone buzzes (cue) -> going on your phone

AFTER: if the phone doesn’t buzz (e.g. you turn off notifications), then it doesn’t kickstart the habit of going on your phone when it doesn’t buzz.

Step 6: Reward

The last component of the habit loop is the reward which is the benefit you gain from completing the habit. This is the reward that reinforces the habit, making you want to repeat it.

Rewards can be physical (e.g. getting a dopamine hit, energy boost) or emotional (e.g. feeling relaxed, feeling less stressed).

For example:

Checking social media is the habit, the reward is the dopamine hit.
Drinking coffee is the habit, the reward is the energy boost.
Meditating is the habit, the reward is feeling relaxed.

Step 7: Choose an application/platform/journal to do your habit tracking

This can be from a physical habit tracker (I actually have one in the Free Resources Library on my blog! or an electronic habit tracker. I do my habit tracking on Notion.

This is what my habit tracker looks like:

Take a SMALL STEP

If you want to implement the content in this blog post, simply repeat the steps. Here is a summary:

Pick 2-3 habits to focus on.
List down the long-term consequences and the why behind the habit.
Understand the habit loop.
Identify the cue to your habits.
Identify the habits (obviously)
Identify the reward.
Choose an application/platform/journal to do your habit-tracking

To Wrap Up

Hopefully you have a couple of habits in mind that you would like to integrate in your life. By understanding and implementing the habit loop, it’ll make it much easier to integrate those habits into your lifestyle.

I have a habit tracker in my Free Resources Library that you can check out, along with many other free resources to help with your personal growth. You can check it out HERE.

In the meantime, happy habit building.

-Lauren 🙂

P.S I suggest reading these blog posts next :

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hi, this is Lauren! I’m a lawyer from Melbourne, Australia. On laurenbarri.com, I create content on all things personal development, productivity, self-care, and habits! I am super passionate about these topics because of how they helped me in all areas of my life, and I want to share it with others!

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The Ultimate Beginner Guide to Creating Habits

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