Also known as Habits, Habit formation, Habitual behaviour
A behaviour that has become automatic, set off by a familiar situation without much thought. Habits form by repeating the same action in the same context.
In Psychology
A habit is something you do automatically in response to a cue — a walk after Fajr, chai the moment you wake, reaching for the phone in bed. Psychologists define it by that automatic link between a situation and an action, built through repetition. Because habits run with little conscious effort, they keep going after motivation fades, which is why they matter so much for health.
The popular "21 days" figure does not come from research. In a well-known 2010 study, volunteers repeated a simple daily health behaviour in the same setting; the time to reach automaticity averaged 66 days but ranged from 18 to 254, and missing an occasional day did not undo progress.
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