Life Kit — Tools to help you get it together.

Supported by

This newsletter is brought to you by Life Kit intern Mika Ellison

Have you ever accidentally broken a good habit? Like, you forgot one time to floss your teeth and somehow it never happened again? Or you stayed up late for the first time in months, only to find yourself regularly bingeing TV ‘til the wee hours of the morning?

Suddenly, a behavior you spent weeks working on is just wiped out. You did everything right — so what went wrong?

For a habit to stick, you need to do more than just repeat it, says behavioral scientist BJ Fogg, founder of Stanford’s Behavior Design Lab. You need motivation, the ability to do the action, and a reminder or cue to do it. “When those three things come together, the behavior happens.”

It should also feel automatic. “A habit is something you do without really thinking or deliberating,” he says, and don’t dread or dislike — like drying your hands after washing them, or drinking coffee before work.

Fogg shares insights based on the Tiny Habits method, a research-backed approach he developed in 2007 on how to create lasting change.

Keep your good habits

Mininyx Doodle/Getty Images; NPR

🐜 Start small. Give yourself grace and start with what feels doable in the moment, even if it’s just one pushup a day or reading 10 pages before bed. Forcing yourself to start off with an ambitious, unwieldy habit can be difficult to maintain if you’re starting from zero, Fogg says.

⚓ Look for anchor points. Many behaviors are associated with a feeling, an impulse or an action. Fogg suggests using them as springboards for the habits you want to cultivate. For example, if you tend to feel achy in the morning, maybe use that as an incentive to start a habit of doing a morning stretch. If you tend to get stressed in the afternoon, use that as a prompt to meditate on your lunch break.

🗓️ Follow your own schedule. You might feel pressure to upgrade a tiny habit — like a daily, 5-minute walk — into a bigger one — like running a mile every day — as quickly as possible. But that can turn the habit you’re trying to create into an arduous task, not a seamless part of your routine. So follow your own motivation, and start running (or jogging or speedwalking) when you feel like it, not when you feel like you should.

🎊 Celebrate the little wins. Fogg says the positive emotions that come with accomplishment go a long way toward cementing routine in your life. So take a moment to bask in the glory of completing a task, especially in the early days of a habit — even if that task is minuscule.

I'm ready for lasting change

From our sponsor,Amazon Pharmacy

This year, say goodbye to pharmacy lines

This time of year, people try to stay on top of their health, which is hard enough. The last thing you want to think about is managing your medications. Stressing over whether a refill is needed, whether or not the pharmacy has them in stock and long pharmacy lines make things feel even worse. Amazon Pharmacy makes it easy to get meds delivered directly to your door. With Amazon Pharmacy, healthcare just got less painful.

New habits to start from Life Kit

Connie Hanzhang Jin

Dance more. Anyone can dance. As you read this comic, follow each step — and you'll be moving and grooving in no time. Read the story.

Stay hydrated. Do you really need to drink eight glasses of water a day? Can drinking water help you lose weight? Experts explain the science of hydration. Read the story here.

Get into meal prepping. What's for dinner? It's a question that can lead to overspending on delivery, unhealthy meals and dread. FitMenCook founder Kevin Curry shares meal prep techniques. Read the story.

Start a writing routine. Everyone has a book in them. Everyone also has a crummy inner voice telling them it’s not going to happen. This episode will help shut down that voice. Read the story.

Try a free month of Life Kit+

Support public media while getting expert advice on health, finance, relationships and more with Life Kit+. You'll get sponsor-free listening and even some specially curated playlists of episodes by theme (Master your budget, Organize your life, Move your body, and more).

Check out all the NPR+ benefits available at plus.npr.org and use the code "freemonth" for a 30 day trial of Life Kit+!

Explore NPR+

This week on Life Kit's Instagram

Follow @NPRLifeKit on Instagram for mini versions of our episodes on money, health, relationships and more — and meet the team that makes the podcast. Recent posts include:

🥕 How to eat more veggies
🏃 A comic commiserating about cardio
🛌 Advice on how to navigate sleep anxiety

In case you missed it

Andrii Borodai/Getty Images

A snowstorm is on the way. Here’s what to do. This weekend, much of the country is to be hit by a major snow storm. Experts say there are several precautions to take before a winter storm arrives in your area. A meteorologist and emergency preparedness expert share tips to prepare your home, your car and your family ahead of a big snowfall. Listen to the episode here.

The 5-minute daily playtime ritual that can get your kids to listen better. Children's health professionals widely recommend a strategy known as 'special time' to help reduce behavioral issues in young children. This episode explains how to do it and why this simple and free tool is so powerful. Read the story.

Too many goals and too little time? How to focus your attention. Time is precious and we never seem to have enough of it. We have to work, feed ourselves, clean our homes, take care of kids or family members, catch up with friends, sleep ... and on top of that, there are endless hobbies or pursuits we'd want to do if only we had more hours in the week. Is it any wonder we feel like we're constantly scrambling? In this episode, how to carve out time for that passion project. Life Kit experts share tips on how to be intentional about intention. Listen to the episode.

Yes, introverts and extroverts can be good friends. Here's how. Can't seem to match the energy of a good friend? You might be on opposite ends of the personality spectrum — and that's OK. Here's how to foster deep connections despite your differences. Read the story.

Look out 👀 for these upcoming topics

We’re working hard on new episodes. Here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect to learn about in the coming weeks from Life Kit.

🥩 What the new food pyramid means
💅 Nail health
🧘 How to rest your body, mind and spirit

Stream your local NPR station.

Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream.

What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: LifeKit@npr.org

Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here.