Number of Days Necessary for a New Habit to Form
1.0. Introduction – Existing Papers’ Theories
Habits are routines of behaviour inherently relevant to every single human. They are “repeated regularly and tend to occur subconsciously. Habitual behaviour often goes unnoticed in persons exhibiting it, because a person does not need to engage in self-analysis when undertaking routine tasks. Habituation is an extremely simple form of learning, in which an organism, after a period of exposure to a stimulus, stops responding to that stimulus in varied manners. The process by which new behaviors become automatic is habit formation.” (Wikipedia, 2012) Throughout the years, different people have come up with different research findings that proposing different number of days of repetition required for this habit to be cultivated. So what exactly is the number of days required to form a habit? 21, 40, 66? To find an answer to this, let us first look at a few of these great theories and research findings proposed.
1.1. 21-Days Habit Theory—Dr Maxwell Maltz
This whole buzz about habit creation is believed to have been initiated by Dr. Maxwell Maltz in his book titled Psycho-Cybernetics. Dr Maltz introduced the 21-day period needed to forming a habit by repeatedly doing something for 21 days without any break in between. Initially, he noticed it took 21 days for amputees to cease feeling phantom sensations in the amputated limb. Further research found that brain circuits take engrams (memory traces), and produce neuroconnections and neuropathways only if they are bombarded for 21 days in a row. This means that our brain does not accept new data for a change of habit unless it is repeated each day for 21 days (without missing a day). Thus, he concluded that it took 21 days to create a new habit (Psycho-Cybernetics, 1971).
The essence of the technique Maltz proposed is simply to spend 15 minutes a day engaging in the actions of any habit you wish to create, and repeating this routine faithfully for 21 days. By the fourth
Habits are routines of behaviour inherently relevant to every single human. They are “repeated regularly and tend to occur subconsciously. Habitual behaviour often goes unnoticed in persons exhibiting it, because a person does not need to engage in self-analysis when undertaking routine tasks. Habituation is an extremely simple form of learning, in which an organism, after a period of exposure to a stimulus, stops responding to that stimulus in varied manners. The process by which new behaviors become automatic is habit formation.” (Wikipedia, 2012) Throughout the years, different people have come up with different research findings that proposing different number of days of repetition required for this habit to be cultivated. So what exactly is the number of days required to form a habit? 21, 40, 66? To find an answer to this, let us first look at a few of these great theories and research findings proposed.
1.1. 21-Days Habit Theory—Dr Maxwell Maltz
This whole buzz about habit creation is believed to have been initiated by Dr. Maxwell Maltz in his book titled Psycho-Cybernetics. Dr Maltz introduced the 21-day period needed to forming a habit by repeatedly doing something for 21 days without any break in between. Initially, he noticed it took 21 days for amputees to cease feeling phantom sensations in the amputated limb. Further research found that brain circuits take engrams (memory traces), and produce neuroconnections and neuropathways only if they are bombarded for 21 days in a row. This means that our brain does not accept new data for a change of habit unless it is repeated each day for 21 days (without missing a day). Thus, he concluded that it took 21 days to create a new habit (Psycho-Cybernetics, 1971).
The essence of the technique Maltz proposed is simply to spend 15 minutes a day engaging in the actions of any habit you wish to create, and repeating this routine faithfully for 21 days. By the fourth
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