{"id":34164,"date":"2021-05-03T22:29:54","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T02:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=34164"},"modified":"2025-10-03T10:14:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T14:14:01","slug":"how-to-get-rid-of-bad-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-get-rid-of-bad-habits\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Get Rid of Bad Habits One Tiny Step at a Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Do you want to know how to get rid of bad habits? What have you been missing out on because you&#8217;ve been entangled in your bad habits?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/tiny-habits-method\/\">Tiny Habits Method<\/a> was created by behaviorist BJ Fogg and it helps you learn the best methods for developing positive habits. However, many of Fogg&#8217;s followers realized that the Tiny Habits Method could also be used to rid themselves of bad habits as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to learn how to use the Tiny Habits Method to rid yourself of bad habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p><em>Editor\u2019s note: This article is part of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/hub\/personal-life\/health\/mental\/understanding-habits\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Shortform\u2019s guide to habits<\/a>. If you like what you read here, there\u2019s plenty more to check out in the guide!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-to-get-rid-of-bad-habits\"><strong>How to Get Rid of Bad Habits<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When people begin to cultivate their habit gardens, they usually find a combination of empty, fertile parts, full of space for new habits, and parts that are full of weeds: bad habits that need to be uprooted before you can plant anything new in that spot. Let&#8217;s learn how to get rid of bad habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Initially, the <em>Tiny Habits<\/em> framework didn\u2019t include advice for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-change-bad-habits\/\">eliminating bad habits<\/a>. This was because author BJ Fogg didn\u2019t want to cross over the boundary into giving advice about serious addictions. Tiny Habits isn\u2019t designed for that. But after some of his Habiteers started designing bad habits out of their lives using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/behavior-design\/\">Behavior Design<\/a> principles, he realized that other people could benefit from this too.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before we move on, let\u2019s look at some of the benefits of shedding bad habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-benefits-of-shedding-bad-habits-nbsp\"><strong>The Benefits of Shedding Bad Habits&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When you drop an old habit, it creates space for new things to flourish. This might be a hobby, improved work performance, a relationship, or an identity, or it might simply make you more responsive to the world around you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, Habiteer Juni worked hard over several months to free herself of her sugar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/maturity-continuum-7-habits\/\">dependence<\/a>. One afternoon, at a time when a few months before she would have been sleeping off a sugar crash on the couch, she heard someone <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/advantages-of-laughing\/\">singing<\/a> outside. She went to see what it was and found her autistic son Elijah, who was quietly singing a song of his own creation about dolphins. She sat down next to Ellijah and talked to him, encouraging him to sing more. Juni realized that if she hadn\u2019t kicked her sugar habit, she would have missed hearing him sing\u2014and he would have missed her words of encouragement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-uphill-downhill-and-freefall-habits\"><strong>Uphill, Downhill, and Freefall Habits<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There are three <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/types-of-habits\/\">types of habits<\/a> based on ease of maintenance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Uphill Habits<\/strong> require effort to maintain. Without effort, they\u2019ll probably stop. Getting up early, avoiding social media, and going for a run every morning are uphill habits for most people.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Downhill Habits<\/strong> require no effort to maintain and effort to stop. Sleeping in, scrolling through social media, and going back for seconds are usually downhill habits.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Freefall Habits<\/strong> are addictions and other serious problems that require professional intervention. Tiny Habits is not designed to deal with Freefall Habits.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>We usually use the word \u201cbreak\u201d when talking about stopping a bad habit, but this metaphor doesn\u2019t work in the Tiny Habits context. A better metaphor is<strong> a complicated snarl of knots in a string<\/strong>. We\u2019re unraveling this tangle one knot at a time. When approaching a tangle like this, you don\u2019t unravel it all at once. You don\u2019t go for the hardest bit first. <strong>You work on the <\/strong><strong><em>easiest<\/em><\/strong><strong>, <\/strong><strong><em>most accessible<\/em><\/strong><strong> part first<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think about it as a design issue. If you can engineer a habit you want into your life, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-reverse-engineer\/\">reverse engineer<\/a> a habit you <em>don\u2019t <\/em>want out of your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBad\u201d habits and \u201cgood\u201d habits have the same structure\u2014the only difference is the value that you (or society) have attached to the habit. To unravel these habits, you simply <strong>apply the Behavior Design principles in reverse<\/strong>. You take behaviors that are currently above the Action Line and try to figure out how to push them below it. You can approach this by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Decreasing your <strong>M<\/strong>otivation to do the bad habit<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Decreasing your <strong>A<\/strong>bility to do the bad habit<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Eliminating or otherwise disrupting the <strong>P<\/strong>rompt.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Again, motivation is the trickiest of these. It\u2019s best to tackle this last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s important to work skillfully with emotions when getting rid of bad habits. In both cases, we take judgments such as \u201ccharacter\u201d and \u201cweakness\u201d out of the equation. When unraveling old habits, we bypass the feelings of shame and powerlessness that often accompany habits we\u2019d like to stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-three-stages-for-addressing-bad-habits\"><strong>Three Stages for Addressing Bad Habits<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Fogg recommends a three-stage plan for stopping bad habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Stage 1: <\/strong>Start by adding a new habit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Stage 2: <\/strong>Learn how to stop the old habit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Stage 3: <\/strong>Substitute the old habit for the new one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-stage-1-lay-the-groundwork\"><strong>Stage 1. Lay the Groundwork<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Add some new habits that are unrelated to the problem domain. This helps you get in some wins and gain confidence in an area that\u2019s relatively free of layers of self-critical sediment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s say your ultimate target is reducing casual alcohol consumption. If you\u2019re generally on top of household cleaning and confident in your cleaning skills, introduce a new habit related to cleaning. This is the most direct route to accessing the feeling of success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Making an easy change like this helps to trigger an identity change: Now you\u2019re someone who is successful and competent at making life changes. Sometimes new habits are enough by themselves to shake up your routine and dislodge (or at least displace) old problematic ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-stage-2-design-and-experiment\"><strong>Stage 2. Design and Experiment<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>As with new habits, <em>don\u2019t <\/em>try to work toward abstractions (\u201cBe less stressed,\u201d \u201cDrink less alcohol.\u201d) These are too general to tackle with Tiny Habits. Instead, use the abstraction as inspiration for an inverse Swarm of Bs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps the general version of your unwanted habit is \u201ceating too much sodium.\u201d Write this in the middle of a piece of paper and put a circle around it. Then create your Swarm of Bs. What exact behaviors make up this unwanted habit? (For example, eating french fries with lunch,\u201d \u201csnacking on pretzels after work,\u201d \u201cadding salt to dinner at the table.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019ll probably list more things than you expect. It\u2019s normal to feel a bit embarrassed or ashamed when you see your constellation of bad habits exposed, but these feelings should quickly turn around when you think about tackling some of the easier behaviors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pick one of the more accessible behaviors to begin with. Which behavior feels like it would be easiest to do without? That\u2019s your first target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-target-p-a-and-m-as-needed\">Target P, A, and M as Needed<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1. Target the prompt.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Eliminate it.<\/strong> Turn off notifications on a social media app while you\u2019re at work. (More drastically, delete the app completely.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Avoid it. <\/strong>Keep yourself away from the prompt. Don\u2019t keep ice cream in the freezer. Don\u2019t go into the bakery that sells the delicious chocolate croissants. Don\u2019t spend time with people who have the same habit. Consider developing a routine to pre-empt the prompt. For example, Fogg has developed the Tiny Habit of saying, \u201cNo bread, please\u201d to restaurant servers who approach his table with a bread basket. This Tiny Habit gets rid of a dangerous prompt (having bread on the table), and it\u2019s much easier than resisting the bread once it\u2019s already on the table.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ignore it.<\/strong> In the presence of the prompt, put your attention somewhere else. This is the least preferred option because it exhausts willpower each time. It works okay when you\u2019re feeling good, but can be a problem when you\u2019re under stress.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2. Target Ability.<\/strong> Make the action harder. You can target any link in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/factors-for-success\/\">the Ability Chain<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Design the activity so it takes more <strong>time<\/strong>. In the Fogg household, there\u2019s no rule against eating ice cream, but there\u2019s never any ice cream in the freezer. If you want ice cream, you have to go out and buy it yourself. That\u2019s usually enough to discourage casual ice cream eating.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Design the activity so it makes you spend more <strong>money<\/strong>. This is difficult if you\u2019re working with your own habit. This is the tactic used in \u201cswear jars\u201d that you have to put money into whenever you swear, and systems where your kids pay a few dollars per hour to play video games. Taxes on cigarettes and sugary drinks are an example of the application of this principle on a national level.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Design the activity so it demands more <strong>physical effort<\/strong>. This is Fogg\u2019s favorite chain link to attack. For example, he stores his TV away when he\u2019s not watching it. To watch TV in his house, he has to get it out of storage, carry it to the living room, and plug it in. This means that he only watches TV when there\u2019s a very good reason. But this isn\u2019t as extreme as <strong>the \u201cBike-TV.\u201d<\/strong> As a postgrad, Fogg was living with his sister. To reduce the amount of TV they watched, he bought an exercise bike and paid an engineering student to rig the TV so the bike pedals were connected to the TV\u2019s power switch. If they wanted to watch TV, one of them had to be on the bike turning the pedals. Effect: they both watched less TV and got much fitter.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Design the activity so it demands more <strong>mental effort<\/strong>. This is a very effective plan of attack, because a defining quality of habits is that they\u2019re automatized. Adding extra mental effort gets in the way of this automatization. That\u2019s one of the reasons why Weight Watchers is so successful. Having to count points or calories adds an extra step of mental effort\u2014often enough to disrupt automatic eating habits. Try this method on social media: reset your passwords to something ridiculously convoluted\u2014the one Fogg suggests is \u20181Lik3be1ng0uT51de\u2019 (\u201cI like being outside\u201d)\u2014and don\u2019t save it on your devices. The effort required to spell out a monster password like this may very well deter you.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Engineer clashes with existing valued <strong>routines<\/strong>. This approach is quite tricky. For example, in timeslots where you would typically engage in your bad habit, try to start spending time with your pets or your kids.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>3. <strong>Target Motivation. <\/strong>As with starting new habits, people usually target motivation first when trying to stop unwanted ones. This isn\u2019t the ideal approach, because it\u2019s usually hard to change the motivation levels for Downhill Habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Approach 1. <\/strong>Target motivation indirectly through an added behavior. For example, eat lunch early if you know there\u2019ll be pizza in the meeting room, or go to bed early if you want to get up early and go for a run the following day. One former student of Fogg\u2019s argues that if we set our phone screens to grayscale, we\u2019ll check them less because there\u2019s no cocktail of bright colors to hijack our attention.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Approach 2. <\/strong>Add something demotivating. This could be declaring on social media that you\u2019re done with alcohol, or pledging to make a big donation to a politician you hate if you smoke again, or visualizing how terrible your life will be if you don\u2019t stop eating junk food. Fogg doesn\u2019t recommend this option, as it often backfires or is ineffective. Demotivators don\u2019t get to the bottom of the unwanted behavior. They just add a conflicting motivation that may or may not be strong enough to override the original one.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-stage-3-substitute\"><strong>Stage 3. Substitute<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Fogg offers the following advice for substituting a new habit for an old one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Choose wisely. <\/strong>It\u2019s important that the substitute habit is more motivating and easier than the old one. For example, decide that you\u2019ll watch cat videos on YouTube instead of reading political news.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Refashion the prompt. <\/strong>Find the prompt that triggers your unwanted behavior and begin to associate it with a new behavior. For example, if you usually check your phone immediately after waking up, take three deep breaths instead. Remember to celebrate to lock in this new response.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Manipulate Ability and Motivation for both habits. <\/strong>Make the old habit harder and less motivating; make the new habit easier and more motivating.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Experiment. <\/strong>If it doesn\u2019t work the first time, choose another new behavior and try again. Remember that if you\u2019re shopping for shoes, you usually don\u2019t buy the first pair you try on. Treat finding the substitute behavior like shopping for shoes. If one pair doesn\u2019t fit, keep looking.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Try a substitute behavior for a limited period<\/strong> (three days; a week) and evaluate after that.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Get to know your own weak points and take advantage of them. For Fogg, making a behavior physically difficult is the best way to get rid of it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If nothing changes, <strong>leave the bad habit alone for a while<\/strong>. Go back and sharpen your behavior change skills on other changes. Come back to the habit later.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Bad habits that involve a <em>lack <\/em>of behaviors (arriving late or procrastination, for example) can be trickier. To fix these, focus on introducing new behaviors (setting a timer when getting ready to go out; finding a reliable prompt to start working on a project).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Example: Juni and the Underlying Causes of her Sugar Habit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Juni came across <em>Tiny Habits<\/em> as an early morning radio show host who used sugar to keep herself upright. After her mother died from diabetes, this only became worse\u2014she started to use sugar as a way to avoid her grief, a pattern that was still in place two years after her mother\u2019s death.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Juni knew that her sugar habit was becoming a serious health problem and started trying to find ways to tackle it. She resolved to run a marathon and created a system of healthy eating habits around this. She also realized that incipient feelings of grief acted as a prompt for her to reach for that bucket of ice cream, so she started rewiring her response to these feelings, turning them into a prompt to open her journal or call a friend. As she processed her grief in a healthy way rather than suppressing it with sugar, her sugar cravings decreased, and eating sugar began to feel more like a choice than a compulsion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you want to know how to get rid of bad habits? What have you been missing out on because you&#8217;ve been entangled in your bad habits? The Tiny Habits Method was created by behaviorist BJ Fogg and it helps you learn the best methods for developing positive habits. However, many of Fogg&#8217;s followers realized that the Tiny Habits Method could also be used to rid themselves of bad habits as well. Keep reading to learn how to use the Tiny Habits Method to rid yourself of bad habits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":34251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,7,43],"tags":[273],"class_list":["post-34164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-lifestyle","category-self-improvement","tag-tiny-habits","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Get Rid of Bad Habits One Tiny Step at a Time - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Want to know how to get rid of bad habits? 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