Definition, Examples, and How to Break Them

Habits can be hard to break once they become deeply wired in our brain after many repetitions, but there are ways to change them.

In this article, we’ll go through the definition of bad habits, how to spot and identify them, and ultimately, how to replace them.
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When we form habits, our brain doesn’t have to work as hard. We connect the trigger, behavior, and reward but don’t necessarily connect this to long-term consequences. For example, when you smoke a cigarette, you know it relieves your feelings of stress, so you continue to do it until it becomes second nature (or a habit).

Bad habits like this may feel good at the moment, but in the long term, they have negative physical, emotional, and psychological consequences.

Characteristics of bad habits include:

• Can invoke guilt or make you upset
• Can cause you to lose sleep or have other detrimental effects on your health​

Here are some of the most common bad habits we humans engage in.

1.      Smoking. Research shows that even in small quantities, smoking is bad for you (Jha, 2020). However, the benefits of quitting begin just 20 minutes after your last cigarette (Jha, 2020).

2.      Not exercising. This is a bad habit that is not as obviously bad for you as smoking. But sometimes bad habits can be inaction. Exercising is important for your health and mental state (Mandolesi et al., 2018). It might be helpful to start by doing exercise in small chunks such as 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes after work to get a good half hour of exercise a day.

3.      Not getting enough sleep. Sleep is a necessity in life. Research shows that lack of sleep can increase the risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attack, and stroke (Colten et al., 2006). Most adults need 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night, so you may want to keep this in mind when making your schedule. If you struggle to fall asleep you may want to discuss it with your doctor. 

4.      Too much screen time before bed. One way to get more sleep is to break the common bad habit of looking at a screen right before you go to bed. Some research has shown that light from electronics such as TVs, tablets, and smartphones can mess with the hormones that help us to go to sleep (Gringras et al., 2015). Instead, it may help to do mindfulness mediation or engage in an activity such as reading before bed.

5.      Slouching. A lot of us now have jobs that have us behind a computer screen or sitting at a desk for one reason or another. Slouching or hunching can happen too often and lead to lower back pain (Alamin et al., 2018). It may help to try and improve your posture or take a moment to stand up and walk around your office every so often.

6.      Overspending. One of the common ways to deal with stress is to engage in buying things we don’t necessarily need. It can easily lead to people developing debt if unchecked, so it may help to make a budget or plan to check your accounts often to avoid this.

7.      Procrastination. I know I’m guilty of this, but we often do not give ourselves enough time to do what we have planned. Usually, people procrastinate because they either are a perfectionist or a bit lazy. Either way, it may help to try and make a schedule (and stick to it) to get things done in time.

8.      Negative Self Talk. Too often people are incapable of saying anything nice about themselves. We, as a people, are often taught to be our worst critics and sometimes this can become overwhelming and lead to low self-esteem. That’s why it is good to engage in positive self-talk – encouraging yourself may help you look at the brighter side of situations and ultimately feel better.

Now that we know what bad habits are and have some examples, what causes them? Well, scientists have shown that a ‘habit loop’ involves a cue, response, and reward which is present in everyone (Smith & Graybiel, 2016). However, research suggests that you’re more likely to fall into this habit loop when you experience negative emotions.

These emotions often then become the cues to this habit response. For example, many people report that they’ll eat more when they are bored or when they are tired. Other people drink or smoke more when they are stressed out. These negative emotions thus act as the cue that connects to the response and reward of our bad habit.

Now that we know what bad habits are and what causes them, how do we break them? Sure, people may tell you to just stop, but that’s easier said than done.

Here are some steps that may help you break bad habits:

1.      Identify the bad habit. You may desire to define the actual concrete behavior that you want to change. Sure, you know that smoking is bad for you but what are doable solutions? You may want to switch to nicotine patches or other alternatives to help, or perhaps you may want to stop taking as many smoke breaks at work.

 2.      Identify your triggers. You may want to consider why you find your bad habit so compelling. Why did you develop the habit in the first place, and what drives you to continue to go back to it? It could be as simple as seeing snacks on the kitchen counter prompting you to eat when bored – perhaps moving them into the cupboards could prevent you from overeating. Sometimes the trigger for our bad habits can be emotional. Is it boredom, tiredness, or stress? These are things to consider when evaluating what causes your bad habit.

3.      Cut out as many triggers as you can. It may help you change your behavioral pattern by going for the triggers themselves. Triggers are the event that kicks off the automatic urge in your brain to complete the habit. This can be anything around us that our brain associates with a particular habit. These triggers, such as who you were with and what is around you, can have an invisible but impactful effect on your behavior. You can proactively put those snacks in the cupboard, or if your bad habit is emotional, you may seek out ways to improve your mental health. This could range from working on deep breathing and meditation to relax more, or you may decide to get professional support.

4.      Replace the bad habit. Now, research shows that simply stopping or ending a bad habit doesn’t work (van der Weiden et al., 2020). You developed the habit for a reason, and it fulfilled a need or provided relief. Instead, it may be more fruitful to substitute your bad habit with a good, or at least better, habit. However, what exactly the new habit is does not matter as much as how it makes you feel. The goal would be to feel good about your choices and your new habit. You want to be sure that the new habit doesn’t leave you feeling poorly about yourself.  

5.      Find support. It may help to find people who are trying to break the same bad habit. Groups that meet to quit drinking, smoking, or other bad habits may provide emotional and moral support. This may help you stay accountable and provide someone to celebrate your victories with. Knowing that someone is expecting you to be better can be a powerful motivator as well.

6.      Visualize success. Close your eyes and see yourself throwing away those cigarettes or junk food from the house. Visualize yourself waking up early or going for that after-work jog. Whatever your bad habit is, it can be motivational to visualize yourself crushing it and enjoying your success.

7.      Be patient but persistent. Change takes time, and you may mess up from time to time. No one is perfect, but remember that consistency is the key to success. Over time, new brain connections can form, and new habits can be made. Don’t be so harsh on yourself for slip-ups, just take it one day at a time.
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Below is a video on the methods to break a bad habit.

Bad habits are a universal experience. Here are some quotes from other people’s perspectives on the nature of bad habits:
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• “The difference between an amateur and a professional is in their habits. An amateur has amateur habits. A professional has professional habits. We can never free ourselves from habit. But we can replace bad habits with good ones.” – Steven Pressfield
• “Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.” – Benjamin Franklin
• “The best cure for one’s bad tendencies is to see them in action in another person.”― Alain de Botton
• “The only proper way to eliminate bad habits is to replace them with good ones.” – Jerome Hines
• “Good habits are the key to all success. Bad habits are the unlocked door to failure.” – Og Mandino
• “Once you replace your bad habits with good habits, you can also eliminate the stress and anxiety that those bad habits cause in your life.” – Sarah Devil
• “You cannot change your future; but you can change your habits, and surely your habits…will change your future.” – Dr. Abdul Kalam

​Want to learn more? Check out these articles:​​​

• ​Alamin, T. F., Agarwal, V., Zagel, A., & Qeli, A. (2018). The effect of standing vs. variants of the seated position on lumbar intersegmental angulation and spacing: a radiographic study of 20 asymptomatic subjects. Journal of spine surgery (Hong Kong), 4(3), 509–515.
• bad habit. (n.d.) Segen’s Medical Dictionary. (2011). Retrieved August 3 2022.
• Colten, H. R., Altevogt, B. M., & Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Sleep Medicine and Research (Eds.). (2006). Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem. National Academies Press (US).
• Gringras, P., Middleton, B., Skene, D. J., & Revell, V. L. (2015). Bigger, Brighter, Bluer-Better? Current Light-Emitting Devices – Adverse Sleep Properties and Preventative Strategies. Frontiers in public health, 3, 233.
• Jha, P. (2020). The hazards of smoking and the benefits of cessation: a critical summation of the epidemiological evidence in high-income countries. Elife, 9, e49979.
• Mandolesi, L., Polverino, A., Montuori, S., Foti, F., Ferraioli, G., Sorrentino, P., & Sorrentino, G. (2018). Effects of physical exercise on cognitive functioning and wellbeing: biological and psychological benefits. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 509.
• Smith, K. S., & Graybiel, A. M. (2016). Habit formation. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 18(1), 33–43.
• van der Weiden, A., Benjamins, J., Gillebaart, M., Ybema, J. F., & de Ridder, D. (2020). How to Form Good Habits? A Longitudinal Field Study on the Role of Self-Control in Habit Formation. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 560.