Started by Lin Chen (@linchen_cog) ·
it doesn't take 21 days to form a habit
5 sources · 26 min down the hole
How I got here
- Started with
- How long does it really take to build a habit?
- Ended at
- “lally 2009 habit formation 66 days”
The Trail
- “how long does it take to form a habit” (google.com)
- Habit (en.wikipedia.org)
- Maxwell Maltz (en.wikipedia.org)
a plastic surgeon. his 'minimum of about 21 days' was about patients getting used to changes like a new face
- Psycho-Cybernetics (en.wikipedia.org)
- “lally 2009 habit formation 66 days” (google.com)
What I came away with
A 2009 UCL study that tracked people building a daily habit found a median of 66 days to reach automaticity, with a huge range, roughly 18 to 254 days. Missing a single day didn't seem to matter much. The 21 days comes from a 1960 self-help book and got simplified along the way.
Keep going
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