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Brain Circuits
Why are bad habits hard to break, and what can I do about it?
Francesca-Giulia Mereu explains why substitution, not suppression, may be the best way to control your smartphone compulsion and keep you focused.
A conscious focus
The habit-forming part of the brain is a cluster of neurons known as the basal ganglia. To learn something new, we need to focus consciously on a task, but as we repeat it, the basal ganglia take control, enabling us to perform it more or less subconsciously.
This shift from conscious effort to subconscious behavior explains why habits are difficult to change: once stored in the basal ganglia, a habit can be triggered by cues without much conscious thought, making even harmful habits feel like second nature.
That is why willpower alone rarely works. Worse, research shows that consciously trying to suppress an unwanted behavior often backfires: when tired or under pressure, we fall back into the old habit – and each relapse reinforces it.
Drawing on Harvard psychology professor B F Skinner’s notion of operant conditioning (the theory that rewarded behavior tends to be repeated), journalist Charles Duhigg developed the concept of the “habit loop”: a three-stage cycle of cue, routine, and reward that underpins every habit.
Habits can be broken, he suggests, by keeping the cue and reward but changing the routine. In other words, successful behavior change is not about stopping an unwanted behavior, but replacing it.
Reduce the pull of the unwanted behavior by adding friction and putting physical distance between yourself and the
trigger.
So, how do you put substitution
into action?
Be mindful
Identify your “habit loop”. What is the behavior you want to change? What is the cue? What is the reward? Take, for example, a common habit that many of us would like to control: spending too much time on our smartphones at work.
Recent research shows that US workers check their phones an average of 150 times a day, spending more than two hours on non-work screen activity. Here, the cue might be message alerts and the reward a sense of reassurance (real or imagined) that we are in touch with events.
Recognize your triggers
Triggers are the situations or emotions – anxiety, doubt, boredom – that activate the habit. Noticing them is the first step to defusing them. Does the urge take hold in a specific setting, such as a high-pressure meeting or a long presentation?
Make the habit harder
Reduce the pull of the unwanted behavior by adding friction and putting physical distance between yourself and the trigger. For example, lock your phone in a drawer or turn notifications off.
Identify a replacement
Choose a new routine that answers the same underlying need, but more constructively. Instead of checking messages constantly or scrolling aimlessly, schedule dedicated check-in times.
The reward – the sense of being in control or feeling reassured – stays the same, but the habit becomes intentional rather than automatic.
The key takeaway? Don’t try to suppress a bad habit, but replace it with a less damaging alternative that fulfils the same need.
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