This was originally posted in 2007 at the old blog, but people have been talking about it again lately:

The Myth of the 21 Days

In an article I posted last week I mentioned that it takes 21 days of consistently performing an action to create a new habit. This piece of advice was questioned by a reader who wanted to know the citation for the research on this subject. As it turns out, my cursory scanning of a few online sources resulted in making a mistake. This mistake is made at hundreds and thousands of other articles on the internet - it is not true that it takes 21 days to create a new habit! The primary source for this research is a single study, by Dr. Maxwell Maltz, that was done in conjunction with amputee therapy.

I have to admit that I fell for the conventional wisdom on this topic, most of which points back to the research of Dr. Maltz. There is an entire industry based on “Changing Your Life” in 3 weeks, and this industry is unsupported by any real science. I have done a lot of surfing and reading over the past few days, tracking down the best information on habits.

I discovered a lot of duplication, and a lot of advice unsupported by any research. The most interesting discovery was that the best articles and columns to be found do not mention a time-limit for setting new habits. In fact, I found a researcher who has dedicated the greater part of her career to studying the brain and the neurological effects of learning new things.

Real Research on Changing Habits

Ann Graybiel and her group at the McGovern Institute at MIT have done extensive laboratory work with rats and measuring the “activity of neurons in the striatum, which is in a key position to be involved in this habit-forming business, because it is the main part of the BG [basal ganglia] that receives the reward-related dopamine input on the one hand, and it gets massive inputs from the neocortex on the other hand.“[1]

Important neural activity patterns in the basal ganglia change when habits are formed, change again when habits are broken, but quickly re-emerge when something rekindles an extinguished habit–which originally took great effort to learn.

“We knew that neurons can change their firing patterns when habits are learned,” Graybiel comments, “but it is startling to find that these patterns reverse when the habit is lost, only to recur again as soon as something kicks off the habit again.”[2]

This research has given Graybiel a great deal of insight into how the physical processes of learning take place. It also shows that habits, or new behaviors, are difficul for the brain to create. Once formed, however, these behaviors and their related neural pathways are easily accessed when the conditions are encountered again:

In the Graybiel experiments, rats learned that there was a chocolate reward at one end of a T-maze. When the rats were learning, the neurons were active throughout the maze run, as if everything might be important.

[...]

Then the researchers removed the reward, making the cues meaningless … The rats eventually stopped running (gave up the habit), and the new habit pattern of the brain cells disappeared. But as soon as the researchers returned the reward, the learned neural pattern, with the beginning and ending spikes, appeared again. [3]

Where do you find the best advice?

This research by Graybiel seems to be the most salient on the topic of learning and habits. It is important to note that not once in any of the articles on these experiments does Graybiel mention a time frame for establishing these neural patterns in humans. In fact, most of the other articles that I found on “medical” information websites were very careful not to mention how long it may take to establish new habits.

I did find a few articles about changing habits that had some tips in common, which one could follow if they were serious about changing their behavior. Here is an example, from the AARP website :

Behavioral change experts generally agree on several tips for habit-changers from 18 to 88:[edited for length, Ed.]

• Figure out why you want to change. An internal motivation is preferable to an external one (my doctor told me to lose weight). But to start with, even cosmetic goals will do.
• Use your life experience to your advantage. Catalog the attempts
  you’ve made at change and why they’ve failed. Then apply what you’ve learned. Don’t plan to work out at six each morning if you haven’t risen before eight for the last five decades.
• Substitute a new behavior for the old one. Exercise is a great replacement for smoking or eating. And even a less-than-virtuous substitute is better than a plainly bad habit.
• Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. If the prospect of trying to lose 20 pounds paralyzes you, start small. Walking for 20 minutes a day and consuming just 100 fewer calories daily—that’s one tablespoon of mayonnaise—adds up to a 20-pound weight loss over the course of a year for an average-size person, according to Baylor’s John Foreyt.
• Get support. Having friends and family on board is critical for most
  successful behavior change. Let those close to you know what you’re planning to do and how it might affect your behavior. Conversely, stay away from people (including spouses!) who have an interest in undermining your efforts.
• Anticipate obstacles. Develop a plan for what you’re going to do when the bread basket arrives at the restaurant table. Take a walk, order a veggie plate, or ask the waiter to take it away once others have been served.
• Don’t quit trying. Most people don’t succeed in changing on their first try, says Wilkins of Cedars-Sinai. “You never want to give up because you don’t know if it’s the third time, the fourth time, or the fifth time where you will succeed.”

Anandra George is a life coach who advocates a similar list of tips for making changes:

How Change Happens:

• Self-examination, then Pre-cognition. When you begin to look at the pattern differently, you have the opportunity to recognize more positive ways to interact. In time, you also begin to recognize what you’re thinking about right before you step into the pattern again. Here you can see where your thinking is incorrect, and seek to correct it with more positive beliefs.
• Cessation, then more Self-realization. Next time, you recognize the thoughts that precede the pattern, and you begin to stop just before you repeat your pattern. When you’re stopped, you have the opportunity to truly choose differently. You recognize more positive ways think about the problem and better ways to interact. At this stage, you attempt to do it better, though it’s often clumsy at first.
• New Patterning and Practice. As you find the beliefs and actions that work much better for you, you establish a new pattern by practicing it every time the situation presents itself.
• More Practice, then True Change. By practicing your positive response over and over again, you transform yourself from within.

Being mindful of making real changes in your habits

Here are my suggestions for changing your habits:

• Making important changes in your life is not to be undertaken lightly. Once you make the decision, commit yourself to it.
• Find a partner in change to help you through the tough spots.
• The research that you do before starting is important and needs to be thorough. Don’t believe everything that you find on the Internets!
• Expect it to be difficult, and prepare rewards for yourself when you make real progress.
• Do not be afraid to ask for help! We have an excellent resource in our community, as many of the “Productivity Bloggers” have other expertise as well. (For example, both Rob and Ariane have both pitched in to contribute on this subject.)

Please share your own experiences with changing habits in the Comments.