Want to incorporate good habits into your daily routine and/or break bad ones?

Professor Huberman’s advice

The hubermanlab podcast is a show I’ve been following regularly for years.
This podcast is hosted by Professor Andrew Huberman, Associate of Neurobiology at Stanford University School of Medicine, who shares scientific information and science-based tools for everyday life.
Here’s an excerpt from one of his articles presenting two program frameworks for cultivating habits that are in tune with our biology and neurochemistry, making it easier to develop good habits and suppress bad ones. These frames work best when used in combination.

Part A: Programming new habits.

Changing habits requires overcoming what is commonly referred to as “limbic friction” (the energy needed to overcome anxiety, procrastination and/or fatigue).
To increase the likelihood of committing to habits and maintaining them, it’s beneficial to take advantage of the natural rhythms of your brain and body. This can be achieved by dividing the 24-hour day-night cycle into three phases.

Phase 1

The first 0 to 8 hours after waking up. During this phase, your brain and body are more focused and action-oriented due to high levels of dopamine, adrenaline and cortisol. It’s easier to overcome limbic friction at this point. However, be aware that you’re also more susceptible to distractions and reflective multitasking at this time. Don’t give in to that.

Establish 1 to 4 habits to complete during Phase 1.
These habits require energy and focus. Setting a time period to complete them (e.g., 45 minutes of focused reading, work, etc. in Phase 1), rather than a specific start and end time, allows for more flexibility in your schedule. For example, you may decide to exercise, write or study “after waking up but before noon”, which means it can be done at 8am, 10am or 11am, but certainly in Phase 1. Of course, if you can do it at the same time every day, that’s fine, but establishing a wider time slot can be helpful given busy lives.

Phase 2

9 to 15 hours after waking up. Take advantage of your naturally higher levels of serotonin and lower adrenaline, and engage in habits that don’t require overcoming a lot of limbic friction.

It’s an excellent time for behaviors and reflections that can be carried out with less concentration. Creative exploration-type activities are perfect : fiction writing, rough drafts, music composition, games of all kinds, experimentation. Or physical activities requiring less concentration, such as Zone 2 cardio. While Phase 1 is ideal for habits where precise execution is required, Phase 2 is better suited to more flexible activities, such as trying out a new recipe, brainstorming, exploring a new approach to an aspect of work, physical activity, relationships or learning.

Phase 3

This is the 16 to 24 hours after waking up. This is when we reset our ability to overcome limbic friction, as you’ve guessed, by resting and sleeping.

in summary for phase 3 :

• Avoid bright lights.
• Sleep in a cool, dark room.
• Explore supplementation (not melatonin) if necessary.

Part B: Alternating Block Habit Change Program and Test

Based on reading the literature, it is suggested that people choose six new habits to incorporate every day for 21 days, write them down, then aim to accomplish four to six a day. Check off each day on your calendar.

Don’t worry if you only do four of the six new habits a day, and never compensate by doing more than six a day. A system without compensation is the best.

Merging this approach with the structure of Phases 1, 2, 3 above will put you in the best position to succeed. How will you know if you succeed? Take the next 21 days to monitor your behavior without incorporating new habits.

So, it’s 21 days of habit formation and 21 days of testing to see which habits actually became habits, and then back to 21 days of habit formation, using your progress from the previous 21 days to determine if you can add more to your daily list of four to six.

How will you know if you’ve established a new habit?

The strength of a habit is dictated by the amount of limbic friction you have to overcome to accomplish the behavior and by the dependence on context – that is, do you perform the habit no matter what or only when you are calm, rested, in the presence of other people, under the influence of caffeine, etc.

Part C: Breaking habits

It’s simple (alas, not always easy):

To break a habit, you need to bring conscious awareness to the fact that you have participated in the habit you are trying to break.

Then, when you realize you’ve done it, you must immediately engage in positive behavior. The specific behavior is less important than the fact that it comes immediately after the habit you’re trying to break, and that it’s not a negative behavior. Ten jumping jacks or push-ups are good positive behaviors to do anywhere (yes, anywhere), positive because they’re good for us, not necessarily because we enjoy them.

Click on the link below to view the original version

https://www.hubermanlab.com/neural-network/build-or-break-habits-using-science-based-tools