Making an Exercise Habit That Sticks

I am pretty sure that getting more exercise is the most common New Year’s resolution. I have made it every year for the last thirty! And I do—for a while. But a few days or weeks into a new routine, my good intentions fall apart. Can you relate?

How do you bridge the divide between setting the intention and actually doing it? Katy Milkman, in addition to having a super name, is also a behavior change expert. She offers the following tips, backed by science, to help nudge us toward a better, longer-lasting exercise habit.

1. Give it a month.

Commit to about four weeks of exercise—research suggests that this can help you build a new routine. It turns out there’s no magic number of days it takes to build a new habit, but repetition is key. This is why the fad of “challenges” seems to motivate people to keep up a behavior they want to become a habit.

2. Try temptation bundling.

No, not that kind of temptation bundling! It really means to combine something that you enjoy with something that’s healthy for you. You can increase the rate at which you exercise if you combine a real pleasure that you look forward to with your exercise. For example, that podcast you love? You can only listen to it while you take a walk.

3. Set goals—but don’t be a slave to them.

Make sure your exercise goal is achievable and even a little ambitious—but give yourself grace if you fail to meet it. (Perfection is not the goal!) Milkman calls this trap the what-the-hell effect and we have all experienced it.
The what-the-hell effect says that if we fail to hit our goals, we can throw in the towel and just go crazy. That’s the risk of goals. If they’re too tough and then you don’t make it, you can give up and actually be worse off. So give yourself a pass if you miss a day here and there. You are only human!

4. Let flexibility be your friend.

This may be contrary to your beliefs—it was to me. Milkman was part of a team that studied whether it was more effective to work out at the same time every day or build a more flexible routine. They (and I) expected to find the answer was that it works better to exercise at the same time, every day. Nope. The people who worked out at the same time every day did form a more lasting habit around exercising at that time. But here’s the catch: That was the only time they ever worked out. They fell victim once again to the what-the-hell effect and gave up exercising for the day if they missed their regular time. Given the busyness of our lives and our jobs, it might be better if we were okay to mix it up sometimes.

5. Make it social.

I think most of us know this one from experience. Schedule your exercise with a friend and you’ll be more likely to show up.

I would love to hear your tips for making exercise (or any positive behavior) a habit. Drop me a line!
Dan

Source: Aubrey, A. (2018, December 15). How to make exercise a habit that sticks. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2018/12/12/676142159/build-an-exercise-habit-that-sticks