How To Make Learning A Habit

Have you ever wondered why we bite our nails when we’re anxious? Or wonder why we start mindlessly scrolling our phone when we’re bored?

In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg introduced us to a habit loop. He described how our circumstances create a cue that triggers us to do certain thing. Doing this will give us something in return: a reward. This reward is what keeps us coming back to our routines. For some people, biting their nails when they’re anxious brings them temporary relief. For others who engage in doom-scrolling, it could be because doing so provides an escape from reality. Understanding this habit loop of cue-routine-reward can help us in creating new habits. 

Learn what you enjoy

Just because a friend starts running every morning doesn’t mean that we have to do the same. Even if it’s a good habit but if it’s not something that we’d genuinely enjoy, it’ll be very hard to keep at it. Learn what energizes you every time you’re doing it. Find what brings you joy! 

Do it your way 

Everyone is different and so is our process in picking up new habits. If you want to start reading a book and you know that you can only handle a few pages per day, go for it! It’s very easy to compare our progress with other people. However we need to remember that we’re all in different phases of the process. Our day #1 is not an equal comparison to someone else’s day #30. 

Change doesn’t come overnight

All champion weightlifting athletes started with light weights before gradually turning up the difficulty when their body and mind have been strengthened over time. The same applies to any new habit that we want to have. 

When we want to start creating a new habit, we need to start with something small that we can handle doing at the moment. It’s important to understand that it takes time to build that habit.  It’s better to start small and keep on building consistently over time. 

Written by: Jonny

02/2024

References

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Learning Center. (n.d.). Changing habits. https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/changing-habits/