Habits can be an enormously powerful tool to reach our goals. Beneficial and purposeful practices allow us to become successful at the things that are valuable and important to us. But likewise, the poor ones can drag us down.
That’s especially important when dealing with depression because it often disrupts our usual routine. It’s regularly the case that we must create a new schedule to improve both our mental and physical health when dealing with severe mood issues.
Taking myself as an example, I needed to start exercising again and adhering to a sleep schedule by going to bed and waking up at the same time each day. I quit doing those two things for so long to the point where they weren’t part of my usual routine any longer.
It’s essential information because depression often breaks customs and diminishes motivation. That’s why we need to know how long we need to persevere before things most likely become easier!
For those who are not interested in reading the whole article, it takes about 59–66 days on average to turn a conscious behavior into an unconscious habit. But the formation of a custom can range anywhere from 18 to 254 days, depending on the complexity. The more complicated the pattern, the longer it takes to assemble.
How long does it take to create a new habit?
On average, it takes about 59–66 days to create a new habit. But the formation can range from 18 to 254 days. The more complex the practice is, the longer it’ll take.
- One particular study about the duration of habit formation conducted in the United Kingdom analyzed how long it would take for adults to create a simple health habit.
All participants needed to choose a minimal physical and dietary activity that they were not currently practicing to turn a new physical or dietary behavior into a habit.
They attempted to transform that behavior into a custom by cueing a single case during the day. For example, doing 50 sit-ups after morning coffee, walking for 10 minutes after breakfast, eating a piece of fruit with lunch, drinking a glass of water after breakfast, and walking for 10 minutes after lunch.
They concluded the following:
“On average, it took 66 days before habits became automatic for participants.”
Although not significant, physical activity behaviors, which are arguably more complicated than eating or drinking around a mealtime, took 1.5 times longer to become automatic than eating or drinking.
This illustrates that more complex combinations of behaviors required to prevent disease (routines) are likely to take considerably longer than the 66-day average found for the simple, single behaviors in this study.
In addition to the potential differences between the types of behavior, the time to form a habit varied considerably across individuals. In the same study, habit formation ranged from 18 to 254 days. Such variability makes it difficult to form expectations for how long it would take a patient to adopt a simple health behavior. This reinforces the importance of tailoring health advice and treatment expectations to each person.
Furthermore, the analysis notes that an important part of forming a routine is the need for consistent repetition of the behavior that one is trying to turn into a habit.
They also found that some people in the study took much longer to establish their habits. This raises the possibility that some people are more “habit-resistant” than others.
Critical to note is that not performing the behavior for one day did not have long-lasting negative effects on the time to establish a habit. This means that occasional non-adherence to the program does not mean the end of the world. It’s most likely about consistency.
- Another randomized controlled trial about habit formation attempted to model the habit formation of an everyday nutrition behavior and analyzed whether habit formation and plan performance are different when individuals plan to enact their behavior in response to a routine-based versus time-based cue.
192 adults participated in the study (age 18–77 years) and were randomly assigned to a routine-based cue or a time-based cue intervention. They then selected an everyday nutrition behavior and linked it to a daily time clue or daily routine.
This is what they discovered:
“As indicated by asymptotic curves, it took a median of 59 days for participants who successfully formed habits to reach peak automaticity.”
Group-level analyses revealed that both routine-based and time-based cue planning led to increases in automaticity and plan enactment, but no between-condition differences were found.
Repeated plan enactment was a key predictor of automaticity.
The two studies that I’ve examined found that 59–66 days is the average that was found in the studies for simple single behaviors.
This means that depending on the complexity of the habit you’re trying to establish, it might take much longer.
Conclusion
We can conclude that the time it takes to build a particular ritual depends on the complexity of the habit, the type of custom, and the individual.
We know that it takes about 59–66 days on average to establish a new tradition. However, the formation can range from 18 to 254 days depending on the complexity.
The main takeaway is that everyone can form practical, simple routines. While it requires a conscious effort at first, it will become less straining and mentally fatiguing over time because the behavior will be performed unconsciously after a while.
This process of carrying out our actions without having to think about them frees up valuable energy for our conscious mind to make influential decisions.
That’s vital information because depression often breaks routine and decreases motivation. But now we at least know how long we need to persevere before things most likely become easier!
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