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How does a small action turn into a habit?

At first an action needs a reminder; later, a familiar situation may seem to start it for you. A study of daily routines found that reported automaticity developed at different rates, complicating promises that every habit takes a fixed number of days.

3–5 min

Questions you could explore

  • What is the difference between doing something often and doing it automatically?
  • How can a recurring cue help connect a context with an increasingly automatic action?

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When a question reshapes a memory

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