Trying not to break the good habit
Certain strategies can help you keep the new ones started in lockdown
The coronavirus pandemic has brought with it a global economic downturn; unemployment in the U.S. has reached its highest level since the Great Depression, and many people whose jobs have not been outright eliminated have seen their work, and lives, radically transformed. But as old daily rituals are leveled, for better or worse, new ones have emerged and taken their places.
Perhaps you are fitting in frequent runs or a consistent yoga practice or maintaining better correspondence with friends.
Wendy Wood, a professor of psychology and business at the University of Southern California, wrote in her 2019 book, “Good Habits, Bad Habits,” that “major life changes are stressful times full of uncertainty.” But at the same time, she noted, “we are freed up to practice new behaviors without interference from established cues and our habitual responses to them. Discontinuity forces us to think. By making fresh decisions, we act in new ways — ones that may work better for us.”
Habits don’t just motivate actions, they also play a role in structuring your thoughts. This makes it so something like, “‘Let’s go for a run’ feels very much on the menu of options in a way that, maybe a couple of months ago, it wasn’t,” said Fiery Cushman, a professor of psychology at Harvard. In an otherwise challenging and dismal time, these beneficial developments present a small consolation.
So, how do you maintain these new, good habits upon reentering the world? Unfortunately, the science says you’re basically going to have to relearn them once you resume your pre-lockdown schedule. “Habits are such slowforming memory traces that they’re also very slow to decay,” Wood said. “When you are put back in the same context, even if it’s been a while, your old habits will be activated.”
But there’s good news: Certain strategies can help you learn these new habits again, and you can start preparing now.
Take note of what has worked — and what hasn’t.
In 2012, seeking a positive outlet during a period of depression, runner and activist Alison Mariella Désir started to train for a marathon. “The discipline, the sense of freedom, sense of community, connection to something bigger than myself: All of those mental health reasons are what kept me outside,” Désir explained. “It’s important to know what your motivation is, because then you can feed that motivation.”
There’s science to back that up. Gabriele Oettingen, a professor of psychology at
New York University, recommended interrogating what will be the most worthwhile for you through a process called WOOP, short for “wish, outcome, obstacle, plan.” You set a specific postlockdown wish, and then vividly imagine the primary positive outcome of achieving it, as well as the potential obstacles to it, such as an old, pernicious habit.
Once you’ve mentally experienced these obstacles, you’re better prepared and more energized to respond to them, and you can execute a plan.
Make it easy.
Awareness of what has worked — and hasn’t — will permit you to set up your environment in a way that reinforces, and doesn’t undermine, your new activities. Habits rely on repetition, so make it easier to repeat them.
“There’s no handicapping in habit formation; challenge is not the point,” Wood wrote in “Good Habits, Bad Habits.” If you’re planning a morning run, lay out your running clothes before going to bed. And if you’re hoping to maintain a consistent bedtime, Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, recommends turning off at least half the lights in your home an hour before you go to bed. Light sources inhibit the production of the hormone melatonin, which signals to your body that it’s time for sleep.
Incorporate your desired habit into your routine.
“Stacking” the new habit onto existing routines, Wood said, can encourage you to repeat, and therefore maintain, a series of behaviors. Feed your sourdough starter on Thursday evening and Friday each week, perhaps while cleaning up from meals, so it’s ready to use when the weekend rolls around. You probably set your alarm to wake up each day; Walker suggested getting into the practice of setting a bedtime alarm, too.
There are other ways to make space for new habits. Désir sets calendar invitations for herself, so she knows she has allotted time in her schedule for her runs. Her son, belted into a running stroller, is her constant companion, so she can balance running with child care.
Similarly, a bicycling habit picked up in quarantine can be applied to your commute. Or if you’ve been cooking regularly, Klancy
Miller, a cookbook author, recommends keeping a list of recipes that you’ve discovered you like and making one or more of them weekly. “Take note of your favorites and treat yourself to them,” she said.
Allow yourself to adapt, and be realistic.
You might not run, cook, wash your hands perfectly, get to bed on time or resist online shopping every day. That’s OK. If you’re feeling fatigued or overwhelmed, try lowering the stakes; be realistic about what you can do. Cook something familiar or simply order in; fire off a quick postcard or email to your pen pal, instead of writing an entire letter; run without your watch or app, or schedule rest days into your routine.
“Whatever your routine has been through this quarantine is going to change, so it’s another period of adaptation,” Désir added. “Self-compassion and grace helps you get onto a routine faster.”