How many days does it take to create a habit?

well ,

your physical environment and your local geographical environment..effect the habit you have .. addictions are a different thing ..like smoking is not a habit it is an addiction ..

to develop and keep any habit you must at least adjust your physical habit to support it ..

habits are things you do without thinking about them .. if you have to decide to get in the car and go to the gym to work out ..it is not a habit .. it is a choice ..

I don't think 21 days should sufficient for my case. Maybe I need to take a year or two.

What kind of habits are you talking about? I mean more like wiring things in, so it becomes second nature.

the 21 day figure is self help bullshit .. not backed by real science ..science put the average at 66 days .. with the range of 18-254 day

addictions and habits are two different things

the 21 day figure was from maxwell malts and it was based on his personal observation of when a patient recognized the change to their face or stopped feeling a phantom limb after an amputation

other self help bs is being the average of the 5 people you spend the most time around

not using 95 percent of your brain .. your brain uses 25-30 percent of the energy you consume ..if you didn't use 95 % of it your brain would be smaller than a cats brain ..or a poodels

drinking 8 glasses of water a day

so here is the thing instead of trying to develop new habit..learn to make better choices ..consciously deciding each and every day to do things that are good for you .. is far more powerful than trying to automate yourself ..

many of your bad habits even your good ones where marketed to you ..if the marketing was good enough you bought the product .. and in the case of food products if the scientists who's job it was to add the right chemicals too the food to addict people too that food .. did their job ...you now think you have the habit of eating the whole can or the whole box ..or the whole thing of ice cream ..the whole package of cookies ..

the more guilty you feel ..the more you make yourself feel bad for having bad habits .. the sooner you with eat the next box ,or bag or package

you can build habit patterns .. but chose when to go into them

Yeah I don't really know if I believe in the whole 21 day thing.

For me I think that a habit takes as long as it becomes something you don't have to think about doing. Once you reach the point where you're not thinking about it any more then I think you've created a habit.

Depending on the difficulty, ie how far removed that habit is from your existing habits, it can take upto 90 days. Even then, you need to guard yourself against slipping back later.

Seems like creating a habit will take a whole lot more effort than it seems. No wonder so many people give up.

Science put it at 66 days? Any data to back up this up as well?

In my experience it takes around 90 days
before the habit becomes ingrained and
automatic.

Before that you still have to make a
conscious effort to do (Or not do)
whatever the habit is.

do nuns only have dirty habits?

17 days for me.

This is how long it took for me to give up my bad habbits.

Depends on the habit. My advice is to shoot for at least 30...but pick a number past that which feels doable and add 10. That will reinforce the idea that you are creating a practice and not just getting to a finish line (since technically, there isn't one).

My experience that I create a calendar notification that loop everyday to remind me the action.
That means I don't need to remember, the phone will remind me.

I noticed that it takes a couple of months to iron out a habit in your consciousness.

30-60 days, I think

I was once taught a nifty idea on how to think about creating a new habit. You can do it as many days in a row as you like (21 days, 30 days, 90 days). I was told that 21 days would suffice, but also I have no evidence to back that up so the choice is up to you.

Set a very simple and easy goal for each day. The goal can be something like "drink a glass of water today" or "do five pushups" or "wear jeans today" or something like that. Complete the goal that you had set for the day and do that every day for the amount of days you chose.

By the end of this exercise you should have developed a habit of completing your goals. And now when you set a goal to great a new habit or to get rid of a bad habit, you should be able to complete your goal.

Hope thats helpful!

I've also heard 21 days, but I'm not sure how "scientific" or proven that number is...

One good way to make sure you get habits to stick is to first of all, master the habit of using TO DO LISTS.

If you are in the habit of listing out your work items for the day and checking them off when they're done....all you need do, if looking to adopt a new habit, is enter that new activity into your planner for a few days.

You will already be in the habit of executing your to-do list and will be primed to actually execute on that new activity.

The 21 day idea apparently originated from Dr. Maxwell Maltz's work where he actually said a new habit required a minimum of 21 days. The myth spread and it's perhaps easy to see why: The time frame is short enough to be inspiring, but long enough to be believable. University College London researchers have found it takes anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit, depending on the behavior, the person, and the circumstances.

21 days is the minimum for many new learned habits. Unlearning habits takes somewhat longer because of the already established rituals, especially if addictive behavior is involved. It also depends on the desire to learn the new habit. I've found from experience that if it's something pleasurable, I can make a new habit stick in just a few days. with something I'm not crazy about, but i certainly need, it can take months.

I think everyone is unique in this situation.

About the 21 days....Just look to your own experience.

I've ingrained new habits in as little as 2-3 days. Depends on in what area of your life you're looking to implement the habit and how much resistance you have or have had to that area in the past.

Bottom line though is if you want something to become a new habit, do it daily until it sticks however long that is. Once you're in the habit of using to-do lists, its substantially easier.

21 days is just the START of a new habit. Studies have shown it takes 18 to 256 days to turn a habit into a behavior. It depends on what it is, how easy it is and how bad you want it to become a habit.