Start a micro-habit to nudge your way to better health

Like compound interest, adopting micro-habits can transform small daily actions into something substantial over time.

A micro-habit is a tiny, almost effortless action that can lead to significant personal improvements in your health. Research shows it’s a great way to trigger a cascade of positive behaviour change.

By Paula Goodyer

If you know you need to make some health changes, but you still struggle to eat better or move more, try micro-habits – small, easy changes in routine that act as building blocks to a bigger, better habit.

“Small, consistent changes add up to lifestyle change more effectively than trying to make big changes,“ says behavioural scientist Dr Gina Cleo, author of The Habit Revolution, a new book that shows how we can rewire our brain to establish healthier habits.

“Simple changes require less motivation than large or complex changes. If your goal is healthy eating, it’s easier to eat a piece of fruit each day than overhaul your diet overnight, for example.”

In other words, if you want to build an exercise habit, it’s easier to start with a daily 15-minute walk than attempt to run 5 km.

Make changes small and sustainable

“There’s a misconception that big changes require big grand actions – that to lose weight we should be on a very restrictive diet, or to get fit we should exercise vigorously every day, but we can rarely sustain these big actions,” explains Dr Cleo, Adjunct Professor at Bond University’s School of Health Sciences and Medicine.

“This is why it’s more productive to initiate bite-size habits that you can perform consistently.”

Eventually, your brain will rewire itself and recognise that habit as second nature.

“If you give yourself a realistic goal like reducing screen time by 5 minutes, for instance, and you achieve that goal, your brain triggers a reward pathway that helps you experience pleasure and satisfaction. This reward pathway ignites motivation and plays a crucial role in prompting you to repeat that behaviour.”

Adopting healthier habits shouldn’t be like climbing a mountain - in fact, it’s better to make it simple and small so it will stick.

So how small can a micro-habit be?

If moving more is your goal, you could start with:

• Staying in a wall sit position while waiting for the toaster
• Doing a few air squats while you watch TV
• Walking around the block

“As a micro-habit starts to feel natural and automatic, you can add other micro-habits to your routine or increase a micro-habit’s intensity, duration or frequency until you achieve your goal. If you want to walk 10,000 steps a day, start with 2,000 steps and build up,” is Dr Cleo’s advice.

Why triggers are crucial to making - and breaking - habits

Triggers are the external or internal cues that prompt a habit – for good or bad.

Sitting in the car cues us to clip on a seat belt – and pouring a drink can cue smokers into lighting up.

“By identifying and modifying the triggers that lead to unwanted habits, we can reprogram the brain to stop performing unwanted habits or to form better habits,” Dr Cleo says.

Categorising our habits - which do you want to change?

Most habit cues fall into 5 categories:

1. Time

If you want to use time to trigger a new habit – like putting on running shoes to go for a walk or a run – use an alarm, calendar or app notification.

2. Location

“Environment is a strong driver of behaviour; sitting on the couch might trigger mindless phone scrolling, for instance,” says Dr Cleo. “If being in the kitchen triggers non-hungry snacking on certain foods, put those foods in a hard to reach spot.”

Conversely, if you want to eat more fruit, keep it ready to eat at eye level when you open the fridge, she suggests. “If you want to reduce mindless scrolling, have a book or a journal beside the couch ready to pick up instead of the phone.”

3. Preceding event

Many habits are automatic responses to preceding events, like brushing your teeth then having breakfast.

It’s important to attach your new habit to something that would naturally occur with your new habit. “If you want to start a flossing habit, for example, it makes sense to attach it to brushing your teeth,” suggests Dr Cleo.

Learning new habits can increase the density of the myelin, or the white matter in your brain, which may help improve performance on different mental tasks.

4. Emotional state

No one loves uncomfortable emotions but sometimes we avoid or distract ourselves from negative feelings by developing unwanted habits like snacking when we’re bored, or drinking when we’re stressed, says Dr Cleo.

“The solution is replacing the unwanted habit with something that helps tackle the negative emotion - for instance "when I’m feeling bored I’ll listen to a new podcast," or "when I’m feeling stressed I’ll go for a walk."

“Listing your gratitudes – the things you’re grateful for, or listening to music can also help tackle negative feelings.”

5. Social situation

If you want to change a habit, it helps to spend time with people whose own habits help support your goals – if your partner goes for a walk each morning, you’re likely to do the same.

If you want to cut down on alcohol, it helps to hang out with like-minded people rather than heavy drinkers.

“Social accountability also helps embed habits. You’re more likely to go to a yoga class if you sign up with a friend rather than go alone,” Dr Cleo adds.

Helping changes stick

Track your progress

Monitoring your progress with a habit tracker helps you stick with the habit and gives you a sense of reward. Dr Cleo also has a list of free and paid habit tracker apps that can help.

Reward your changes

“Reward has a powerful influence on behaviour. Rewards can include anything that you enjoy – a bath, a movie or buying new clothes,” Dr Cleo says.

Appreciate the good

Develop an appreciation of how this change can do you good. For example, "I’m motivated to practise a good sleep routine every day because I appreciate how important sleep is for my health and wellbeing".

Just do it

“I can’t tell you how many times I planned to go to the gym and came up with a hundred reasons to stay in bed,“ Dr Cleo admits.

“‘It’s too cold, it’s too hot, I’m tired, I have a big day'. It’s best not to think too much and just do it. Now I wake up and get on with it – the less I listen to my thoughts, the more likely I am to follow through with my workout.”