Where Did I Put My Keys? Exploring Habits and the Habit Loop

Habit: “An acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary.”—Merriam-Webster Dictionary

I used to misplace my car keys all the time. I would set them down and not remember where I put them. Then I would frantically search the whole house for them, eventually grabbing the spare set so I wouldn’t be late to where ever I was going. Lo and behold, I would later find them in a pocket, or on a desktop, in the bathroom or near the washing machine.

Thankfully, I now rarely misplace my keys. I eventually developed a system of putting them in the exact same place every time I enter the house. It was that easy—not exactly rocket science. This repetition eventually turned into a habit. As we saw in the definition above, a habit is a behavior that becomes nearly or completely involuntary, we don’t even have to think about it. For me, it’s gotten to a point where I don’t even remember putting the keys in their spot, but amazingly, there they are when I go looking for them! Auto-pilot, second nature…whatever you call it, it’s pretty cool.

I find the concept of habits intriguing. Wendy Wood, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Southern California and an expert in the field of habits for over three decades. Her book, “Good Habits, Bad Habits”, states that “We spend a shocking 43% of our day doing things without thinking about them…We do them out of habit.” From the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed, 43% of what we do is done without conscious thought. Ponder that for a moment…almost half of our day is done mindlessly while we are in auto-pilot mode!

Now, some habits that we perform daily are healthier than others. Going for a walk every evening with the dog gets a thumbs up. That nightly ice cream habit, not so much. There is something called “the habit loop”, which consists of three elements: 1. a cue, 2. a routine/behavior/action, and 3. a reward. A cue (anything in your surroundings, the people you are with, your state of mind, the time of day) can trigger a behavior done repeatedly (a routine), which in turn triggers something pleasurable (a reward).

So, how do you swap a less desirable habit for a more favorable one? Design your environment so there are supportive, strong and consistent cues that support your desired actions. For example, make that fruit bowl in your kitchen more prominent so it entices you to eat fruit at night instead of ice cream…or replace the ice cream with frozen fruit so you can make a nighttime smoothie. You get the idea. With repetition, having a smoothie every night becomes the tasty and healthy reward.

When you repeat a behavior the same way enough times and with enough repetition, you can make pretty much any behavior more habitual. That’s good news for anyone else out there who has a habit of misplacing the car keys!