Beth tells us:
Forming a habit is a classic life hack: You want to change something about your life, so you insert a new action into your daily routine. Soon enough, it becomes automatic—that’s the dream, anyway—and then that part of your life takes care of itself. So how long does it take to form a habit? Despite what you may have heard, it’s not necessarily 21 days.
The idea that a habit takes 21 days to form came from a surgeon, Maxwell Maltz, who observed that it seemed to take about three weeks for a person to get used to their new body after an operation like amputation or plastic surgery, James Clear writes. (Having gone through a few minor surgeries, I recall that it takes between two and three weeks for pain and swelling to subside enough that you aren’t constantly thinking about the fact you just had surgery; I have to wonder if that’s related.)
The surgeon’s idea was that it takes 21 days for people to dissolve and re-form a “mental image” of themselves. This isn’t backed by research, it’s just one guy’s gut feeling. But I think it stuck because it fits a lot of our experiences.
How Long Does It Really Take to Form a Habit?
The idea that a habit takes 21 days to form came from a surgeon, Maxwell Maltz, who observed that it seemed to take about three weeks for a person to get used to their new body after an operation like amputation or plastic surgery, James Clear writes. (Having gone through a few minor surgeries, I recall that it takes between two and three weeks for pain and swelling to subside enough that you aren’t constantly thinking about the fact you just had surgery; I have to wonder if that’s related.)
The surgeon’s idea was that it takes 21 days for people to dissolve and re-form a “mental image” of themselves. This isn’t backed by research, it’s just one guy’s gut feeling. But I think it stuck because it fits a lot of our experiences.
How Long Does It Really Take to Form a Habit?
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