How to: Improve your Bad Habits

People are creatures of habit. While every day is different, you engage in a ton of repetitive behaviours on a daily basis that ultimately make up the fabric of your life. The kind of food you eat, if you use alcohol or drugs, if you drive to work each day or take transit, if you exercise or not and more are all examples of common daily habits. Habits can be small (ex. choosing to floss your teeth each day, or not), or they can have a much bigger impact in dictating the events of your life (ex. how you choose to spend your money). We all have a few habits that we know aren’t good for us, but we continue to engage in them due to the comfort they create for us. For example, you may love eating deep fried foods on a regular basis because they taste great, even though you know they’re not good for your health.

When we say “bad” habits, what we mean is any kind of repetitive behaviour that’s irrefutably harmful to your health (whether that be physical health, mental health, financial health and so on). These kind of habits are objectively bad for you; you may still engage in them, but on some level you know, either from factual evidence or experience, that they are not good for you. Sometimes bad habits don’t seem that harmful at the time, but there’s always a negative long-term outcome from engaging in them. From our prior example, even the habit of never flossing your teeth can have a negative impact. Skipping flossing can lead to the development of gum disease, which increases the amount of inflammation in your body and has been linked to contributing to heart disease.

It’s important to note that just about every bad habit translates into a drain on your monetary resources in addition to all the negatives it causes elsewhere in your life. For example, if you’re a regular smoker, you risk your physical health while also putting yourself at a financial disadvantage; you’ll spend hundreds of dollars on cigarettes, lighters and so on in just one year (not to mention all the healthcare costs you’ll incur in the future due to the negative effects of the habit). Or, if you like to stay up late on work nights even when you know you’ll be tired the next day, it may not have the same “bad” connotation as smoking does, but you’ll still affect your physical health, the quality of work you can produce and you’re going to be more likely to spend on coffee and sugary snacks to keep you up throughout the work day. Sometimes the negative financial consequences of a bad habit won’t arise immediately, but those can often be the most detrimental ones of all. For example, most people don’t feel the physical effects of a sedentary lifestyle in their youth, and in theory, you probably save money in the present if you rarely exercise as you’re not spending any money on athletic equipment, clothing or services. However, a sedentary lifestyle is well-known to be a cause of chronic health issues later in life, so you’ll not only physically feel the effects of not exercising as you age, but you’ll likely pay tenfold what you would have spent on athletic gear in healthcare costs in the future. As such, if you’re concerned about your long-term financial health, you have a vested interest in engaging in healthy habits.

When you notice a bad habit starting to create negative consequences in your life (particularly when it starts to affect your bottom line), it’s a natural reaction to want to change the behaviour that’s causing you to fall behind. However, as you’ve likely come to figure out already through experience, changing ingrained habits is easier said than done. There’s a significant amount of research that suggests that for a person to succeed in making a long-term habit change, they need to work on daily repetition for at least 66 consecutive days. While it doesn’t completely throw you off if you miss a day or two, if you’re really trying to change a habit, that means you need to stay engaged in the process of trying to change on a daily basis for almost 10 weeks! Research also suggests that some habit changes are easier to achieve than others. For example, results from a clinical study by the European Journal of Psychology showed that participants had an easier time adopting the habit of drinking a glass of water when they woke up than doing 50 sit-ups each day after their morning coffee, as naturally, learning to drink a glass of water each morning takes much less discipline and motivation than doing 50 sit-ups a day. That means, if you’re ready to evolve, you need more than just desire: it’s important to have a plan for how you’re going to do so. As such, we’ve compiled a few techniques you can incorporate into your habit-changing strategy that will help you reach your goals and kick your bad habits to the curb.

Get Specific
If you’re going to put in the effort to change your habits, it’s not enough to simply say “I am going to change”. That leaves out too many important details of how you’re going to to get from point A to B, what specifically you’re going to do, who you’re going to do it with, when and where, and why you’re doing it in the first place. If you leave yourself ambiguous wiggle room while you’re trying to change your habits, you’ll be likely to take advantage of it, which can derail your entire effort. The more detailed you can make your plan, the better. So, if you’re trying to eat more fruit and vegetables, you need to outline the specifics of how you’re going to do so. Instead of saying “I’m going to eat fruit”, you could say “I am going to eat one apple with my lunch today.” Whereas the first one leaves questions about what kind of fruit, how much, and when and where you’ll do it, the second one clearly defines the action you need to take to stay on track. You’ll be more likely to follow your own rules if they’re clearly defined, so take some time to think about the specifics of how you’re going to change.

It’s also important to determine how you’re going to track your progress. Do you have a timeframe you need to achieve this goal within? Are there metrics you could be using to track your progress? Using the above example, you could have a goal for how many servings of fruits and veggies you should be eating in a day. Keeping a running tally each day will show you clearly when you’re succeeding, and when you need to re-focus and get serious. For most goals, success won’t be a linear path, it won’t come quickly, and it won’t come all at once. Instead, progress with your goals is going to be a winding road, complete with ups and downs as you continue to change your habits. If you don’t have a system in place to measure that progress, you may not give yourself credit for small victories, or experiencing a setback might convince you that you’ve made no progress at all and throw you off of achieving the big picture goal.

Write Notes
The average person can’t reliably organize their thoughts in their mind the same way they can on paper. If you’re working on making some long-term behavioural changes, the act of writing down your plan can help to clarify what you’re trying to accomplish, gives you something consistent to refer back to and will help reinforce concepts in your memory. Particularly if you find that you forget your “to do” items easily, you should be using written reminders as you work towards your goals. For example, you could leave yourself Post-its in key locations around your home reminding yourself to stay on track. These notes don’t even need to be explicit reminders to accomplish a task; they could instead be motivational, and serve to remind you as to why you wanted to change your habits in the first place. So, if you’re trying to cut down on the amount of online shopping you do, you could leave yourself a note at your computer reminding you about what you’d rather spend your money on, or simply that you don’t want to be in debt anymore.

However, perhaps the most effective strategy you could take would be to invest some time in setting up and maintaining an agenda. An agenda, of course, serves as a place to check-in with yourself daily and ensure that you’re on track with all the various responsibilities of your personal and professional life, but you can also use it to track your journey with habit changes. You can make any habit change a daily task to complete in your agenda; for example, you could write “take vitamins” as a task for every day, so you’ll have a daily reminder to stay up to date. You’ll also be able to see how many days out of a week you failed to do so, so you’ll have clear evidence of when you need to switch up an ineffective strategy. You can also incorporate your “why” into your agenda, and include it at the header of each week. If something is motivating you to improve your bad habits, write it at the top of each page so you see it every day. Even when we really want something, it can be easy to forget the big picture in those split-second moments where slip-ups happen, so having a constant reminder that you see on a daily basis might really help you stay focused. Finally, many people find the simple act of crossing a completed task off a to-do list to be a mood booster; it feels great when you’re able to cross off every task on your agenda for the day, and can make a very positive contribution to your overall sense of self-worth. You’d be surprised at how motivating one little “check” can be!

Involve a Friend
Involving a friend or a family member in the process of changing a bad habit will offer you extra support in a couple key ways. First, if you feel you need to invest some money as you work on reaching your goals, you can split those costs between you and your buddy. For example, if you and a friend are trying to get active and want to invest in weights or other gym equipment, you could split the cost of the gear and share it. That way, you don’t need to commit as much of your own resources but can still reap the benefits created by attaining items that will offer you extra support in reaching your goal. Second, and more importantly, it’ll keep you accountable with your goals. If you have someone checking in on your progress and vice versa, you’ll be more likely to stay on track when you feel the desire to slip up, and you’ll have a vested interest in keeping your partner engaged in the process. Working towards a goal with a teammate means you’ll be able to support each other the entire way; you’ll have someone to commiserate with when things get challenging, but you’ll also have someone to celebrate with when you reach major milestones. In this way, if you’re working with a close friend or a family member, working on a habit change together may even bring you closer together and add a new dimension to your relationship.

Come Up With a Contingency Plan
Research suggests that in moments of stress, it’s a common response to revert back to the comfortable, bad habit you’re trying to rid yourself of. For example, after a tiring day at work, you may feel the desire to order in some comfort food instead of cooking for yourself. These are the moments that ultimately define your journey with habit forming; your response to stressors will determine your success rate with reaching your goal. As such, it helps to be prepared for when these moments occur. What can you do to help ensure you won’t cave the next time you have a stressful day?

Think about how you can prevent yourself from slipping up when faced with stress, and create a plan for those moments. You won’t be able to predict how every slip-up could arise, but if you keep caving during the same type of situation, there must be some way you can encourage yourself to achieve a different result. You should also think about what you’re going to do after your slip up. You shouldn’t take on a mentality of assuming you’re going to fail, but it’s prudent to assume that you’ll face some challenges along the way. In the moments after a setback with your goal, it can be easy to beat yourself up for the mistake; however, that can be a harmful thought process to follow, as with that kind of negative response you might convince yourself that reaching your goal isn’t possible and trigger a much larger setback than necessary. Instead, make a plan for how you’re going to get back on track after a mistake. You’ll have a roadmap to follow when things get tough, and you’ll be more likely to get back on the horse and try again.

Remove Temptation
If you find that you constantly spend money indulging guilty pleasures, do your best to eliminate temptation wherever possible. Many people would consider themselves to have poor impulse control when it comes to their bad habits; once something is easily available to you, it’s hard to get your mind off the track of wanting it. While it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to completely forget about the things that tempt you, if you don’t have instant access to them all the time, it’ll be much easier to resist them entirely. For example, if you know you have a sweet tooth and you’re trying to cut down the amount of sugar you eat, it makes sense to skip buying sweets altogether most of the time. That isn’t to say you need to go cold turkey with junk food, but if you do buy it and always have some in the cupboard at home, you’ll have a much harder time resisting and you’ll be likely to fall off track more often. Beyond just that, you’ll reduce the amount of money that you spend on junk food in the process. You could also delete all take-out apps off your phone or try to avoid watching any recipe videos that come up on your social media feeds featuring elaborate desserts. Though these seem like small actions that won’t have much of an effect on a large problem, you’d be surprised at what eliminating temptation can do in regards to reaching your goals.

If you find that you have specifically have difficulties with impulsive spending, you may find that QUBER is exactly what you need to stay on track with your financial goals. By sending your extra money to the QUBER Vault, you won’t be able to access it at a moment’s notice, meaning you’ll be more likely to keep it saved; of course, you can still cash it out in full at any time if you need it, but you won’t get it back for a couple business days. That means you won’t have it on hand in a moment of weakness, so you’ll be likely to just leave it be instead of opting to spend it on non-essentials. If you’re interested in getting started, you can download QUBER by clicking here.

Understand the Cost of Failure
Finally, while we wouldn’t recommend letting fear dictate your lifestyle, you can use a bit of concern to your advantage when it comes to achieving your goals. Be sure you understand all the consequences, financial or otherwise, of failing to achieve your goal; what will happen in the long run if you give up on changing your bad habit? For example, you already know your long-term health will suffer if you live a sedentary lifestyle, but have you taken the time to read up on the effects of heart disease, cancer or mobility issues caused by lifestyle choices? Do you know how much it costs to treat chronic health issues? If those consequences sound scary to you, you can use that get you motivated to exercise on a more regular basis. The key part here is that once you’re in the routine of practicing good habits like eating well and exercising, they become self-fulfilling; once you feel the positive effects, you shouldn’t need to use fear as a motivator to keep you going (you’re more likely to continue with your new behaviour because of how good it makes you feel, not of because of what’ll happen to you if you stop). If the thought of experiencing the worst case scenario for your given habit scares you, use that feeling to keep you motivated through tough times.

We hope these tips help you create a strong plan to help you make improvements with bad habits where you see fit. Admittedly, the good habits in life aren’t always the most fun ones to engage in, so we aren’t suggesting you should completely give up on things you love if they’re considered “bad habits” by most. Instead, work to find a balance where the good habits outweigh the bad so that you still enjoy your daily life while maintaining peace of mind that you’re doing what you need to to preserve your physical, mental and financial health.

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