The Magic of 66 Days: How Long Does It Really Take to Form a Habit?
Did you know it takes, on average, 66 days to form a new habit?
Research from University College London (UCL) found that whilst it took some people just 18 day to bed in a new habit, the average was a lot more than that. A timely reminder that you will need to keep mindfully practising any new year resolutions until about mid-March to make them stick!
Interestingly, when I commissioned a YouGov study in 2019, we found something similar. People who persisted with a new behaviour for two to three months were far more likely to still be doing it a year later. But those who gave up earlier than that magic window of 66 days-ish? Their chances of success dropped significantly.
Why Habits Take Time
When you start something new—whether it’s exercising, changing your work habits, or applying what you learned in a course—it feels effortful at first. That’s because your brain is busy wiring in the new behaviour. That takes brain fuel. Given your brain is a ‘cognitive miser’ – stingy with how it spends it ‘fuel’ it will try to drop the new habit – or put it off until tomorrow – where it can
However, over time, with repetition, new habits become automatic – they are ‘wired-in’ to a different part of the brain where there is less brain fuel required to keep them happening.
Here’s the trick: stick with new things long enough to push through the awkward phase. Once you hit that 66-day mark, it’s much easier to keep going.
Imagine It’s 66 Days From Now…
Picture yourself two months from now. You’ve stuck with your plan, and your new habit has become second nature.
- What’s different?
- What behaviours, language, or habits are you using?
- What small turning point helped you stay on track?
Now, flip it around:
- What could have derailed you, and how did you overcome it?
This useful activity of ‘fast-forwarding’ to a new habit being something you are doing already and are now analysing in retrospect, is exactly the kind of reflection and proven positive brain-trickery you’ll find in It’s Not Bloody Rocket Science: The Journal – #2.
And helpfully there is an activity specifically on the 66 day average. You can download it for free here.
66 Days to Change
Download the 66 Days to Change chapter from The It's Not Bloody Rocket Science Journal #2
Making learning stick is one of the key things we do throughout our Tea Break Training sessions – it is one of the reasons we use postcards in our training as handouts – I quite often get delegates to write themselves a postcard about something they want to remember to apply from their learning and send it to themselves with a second class stamp. You get a check-in message from your future self! And there is a reason I sometimes collect them in and send them to everyone at about day 50… it means there’s still time!
5 Simple Hacks to Get to 66 Days
- Keep your goals visible. Set daily reminders on your devices or write your goal where you can see it – I use post-its.
- Take small steps. Focus on one thing you can do in the next 48 hours. With clients I call this ‘eating your elephant in bite sized pieces’.
- Plan for obstacles. Take a minute write down what’s likely to get in your way or what excuses you might make. Have a quick plan to tackle your own diversion tactics!
- Stay consistent. Doing something daily towards your goal, no matter how small. Repetition is key.
- Don’t give up after a bad day. Missing one day isn’t failure – what matters is getting back on track and what you learnt about why you ‘failed’.
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