Tip #3: It Takes 3 Weeks to Form a Habit

Some sources say it takes 21 days to form a habit, some say it’s 24 days, and some say it’s 30. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you do not need to commit yourself to waking up early every day until the end of your life. Just commit to waking up early for … 3 weeks. That’s all. And if you need extra motivation, create a reward for yourself at the end of those 3 weeks. Yes, building a habit takes some time, but 3 weeks will definitely be enough to build a basic early waking habit.

It’s no surprise that you don’t feel comfortable committing to waking up early every day until the end of your life. Indeed, this kind of commitment is extremely hard to make. By committing to just 3 weeks, you make it much easier on yourself. You know you can quit on the 22nd day and start sleeping as long as you want again. But guess what? After 3 weeks, you will not want to sleep any longer. Once you make it a habit, it sticks, and it’s easy to follow. If 3 weeks feels daunting, try starting slowly — shift your wake up time by just 5 minutes a day. It’s easy because you know you don’t have a lifetime commitment, and you can break it if you feel like it.

If you do want to dig deeper into the science of habit building, check the article How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world published in European Journal of Social Psychology in 2009. To quote it, there was…

…considerable variation in how long it takes people to reach their limit of automaticity and highlighting that it can take a very long time.

The other quote I find even more important is:

Missing one opportunity to perform the behaviour did not materially affect the habit formation process.

So if you fail once or twice - ignore it and keep pushing. You are on the way to be your better self.