When you got to work this morning, what’s the first thing you did?

Was it read the news while you drank a cup of coffee? Scroll through Twitter? Before presentations do you go through your notes, or do you check your phone for texts from family and friends to catch up?

Although we may not realise it, every day we follow unconscious routines. These habits are established patterns that are an ingrained part of how we work, and whether they are positive or negative, they have an effect on our productivity. It takes time to get back into the flow of your work, so bad habits that take us away from the task make it harder to jump back into work.

The good news is, we are capable of changing our habits.

Breaking bad habit loops – cycles consisting of routines, cues and rewards – to create better, more effective habits can be a challenge, but it’s not impossible. Establishing the right cues and rewards while avoiding instant gratification are key.

Breaking bad habits: understanding your habit loop

About 45% of what we do daily is driven not by conscious decisions but by habits, according to Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business.

Established patterns of behaviour dictate most of what we do while we’re at work. Bad habits, like wasting time checking social media, can have negative impacts on productivity and make it difficult to progress on important tasks.

Habitually checking your email throughout the day, despite evidence that suggests it hinders productivity, is one example of a bad habit that’s hard to break. We know scheduling email checks in three segments throughout the day is better for productivity, and yet most of us likely don’t follow this approach.

Step one in breaking a bad habit loop is identifying it, and we’ll show you how.

The habit loop in three steps

MIT researchers describe the habit loop as having three stages: the cue, the behaviour and the reward.

The cue is a trigger that sets a habit in motion. For the email example, the trigger could be boredom, the time of day when you decide to check, an alert that pops up or even a desire to be connected.

The behaviour is the actual routine of carrying out the habit; in this example, the act of moving your cursor to email to scroll through messages.

Lastly, a reward is the satisfaction you receive from completing the habit. In this case, that would be feeling accomplished by checking your email or getting validation from the messages.

Often, people focus on the behaviour rather than the cue and the reward, and yet both are key to changing a habit, according to Duhigg.

Changing the habit loop

It takes 66 days to change a habit, according to research from the University College of London (UCL). The sheer number of days it takes to alter our behaviour makes it challenging to stick with habit-forming.

One method is to experiment with different rewards according to Duhigg. Instead of checking your email, take a five-minute break to go and get water. Try a new reward for five days. This helps you identify what the reward was in the particular habit loop you’re trying to break.

Next, identify the cue that’s leading to the habit. For instance, do you always check your email right after a meeting? If so, do you actually have to? If not, it could be an indication that you don’t necessarily need to check your email, but the time and preceding event is a trigger that starts the habit.

Once you’ve identified the cue driving the behaviour and the reward, you can become mindful about the behaviour, according to Duhigg. Rather than checking your email after a presentation because you need time to gather your thoughts, try taking a short 10-minute walk around the block instead.

Breaking bad habits: avoiding instant gratification

You might understand your habit loop. And yet, when an email alert pops up or you receive a WhatsApp message, you still may be easily swayed to reach for your phone or check your inbox because it is more pleasurable to see what’s awaiting you.

A message from friends is more exciting than a mundane task you’re in the middle of, but instant gratification can divert our attention away from work, making us less productive.

It’s easy to fall back into your bad habits by giving into instant gratification. Taking steps like muting apps and notifications, exploring negative emotions and setting micro-goals can limit your exposure to instant gratification and external distractions.

Set incremental time blocks during the day for distractions, give yourself breaks, and practise mindful behaviour to identify your motivation for switching your focus. Don’t forget, self-compassion and self-forgiveness are crucial in the fight to form better habits. — Amelia Axelsen