Four Habits to Help Teens Build Better Habits

With their still-developing brains, adolescents can shrink from behaving in ways that serve their long-term interests. It’s easier to punt on geometry homework when Instagram beckons, and delay turning out the light when friends are sending midnight texts. Soiled clothing in a pile on the floor? Not a priority. Like everyone else, even teenagers with the best intentions can fall into habits that undermine their goals and are bewildered about how to construct the habits that will improve their lives.

James Clear’s blockbuster, “Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Ways to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones,” explores the underlying principles of habit formation and destruction and explains in simple steps how to change them. Intended for readers who have an appetite for altering their own habits, the book also provides tools for parents whose children need help adjusting theirs. If 40 to 50 percent of daily behavior is a function of habits, as researchers suggest, then these automatic actions can alter the shape of a life.

There are four essential ways to build the habits you want: “make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, make it satisfying.”

To shed a bad habit, consider the inverse: “make it invisible, make it unattractive, make it difficult, and make it unsatisfying.”

Suppose a 14-year-old wants to be more disciplined about exercising after school. Most days, the teenager flops on the couch and scrolls through her social media when she gets home. In this case, she wants to replace a bad habit (scrolling) with a good one (going for a run.) To make the desired habit obvious, she might put her workout clothes right by the door she enters. This new context—clothes right there—is the cue to change and go. To make it attractive, she might try what Clear calls “temptation bundling,” attaching the sought-after habit with something she already enjoys. For example, if she likes listening to podcasts, she can stack that habit (listening to podcasts) with the one she avoids (exercising). To make it easy, she should start small, by exercising for just a short amount of time; when building new habits, it’s the consistency in carrying them out rather than the duration of the activity itself that makes them stick. Finally, to make it satisfying, she can reward achieving that goal with some small incentive that reinforces her new, desired habit. A week of daily exercising might warrant a pedicure or massage, for example.

Another teenager longs to give up junk food. He can start to make this food invisible by storing the chips and cookies in a high cupboard, out of sight; just catching a glimpse of the Chips-A-Hoy is a cue to eat them.  To make the snacks unattractive, he can consciously reflect on the drawbacks to filling up on food created in industrial-sized vats, and consider the advantages of giving up processed confections. To make it difficult, he might up the “friction” between himself and the food by keeping it out of the house entirely, so that the only way to give in is to travel to the grocery store. And to make the habit unsatisfying, he can conspire with a friend to report back if he slips up. The social cost of admitting the weakness taints the habit further.

The four steps Clear proposes are grounded in the science of habit formation. A four-part feedback loop occurs unconsciously in the brain and compels much of our behavior: it starts with a cue, which prompts a craving, then triggers a response, which provides a reward. Clear’s system for creating new habits and eliminating old ones manipulates the cue-craving-response-reward cycle to generate the sought-after behavior change.

Atomic Habits includes more tips that teenagers might find helpful:

Be specific. When trying to change behavior, start by composing an “implementation intention.” This is a short statement asserting what, when, and where you will make the adjustment: “I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].” For example, “I will run for ten minutes at 3:30 on the treadmill in the basement.” Vague and sweeping goals are easy to ignore; a precise plan that’s tailored to one’s life, much less so.

Little changes compound over time. The high school freshman who decides she wants to exercise right after school does not need to overhaul her very existence to improve her fitness. By making slight adjustments to her daily habits, she can make substantial progress over time. The key to solidifying habits is to do them repeatedly, day after day; consistency in carrying out the behavior is what matters, even if these adjustments seem tiny. Small, achievable goals—say, exercising for two minutes—can grow and lead to significant change.

Adjust systems, not goals. When a teenager gives in to the craving for Doritos, he might be tempted to blame himself and rethink the intended junk-food ban. Instead, he might modify the system he has set up to prompt better eating. Did he delete the food delivery app that makes giving in easy? Has he found an accountability partner to report on his progress? A better system will prevent lapsing into bad habits.

Don’t miss two days in a row. It’s human to err, especially when trying to alter unconscious behavior. What’s important is getting back on track the next day. After tweaking the system, return to the new habit right away.

Thresholds are good times to change habits. Adolescence is defined by change, which gives kids abundant opportunities to try altering their behavior. The beginning of school year, the start of a new semester, or transition into another athletic season are natural times for kids to start fresh.

Consider the social environment. Embracing new behaviors is more natural when peers reinforce them; taking up running will be easier if friends are runners, too. Whether trying to create new habits or break old ones, the larger environment can either aid or thwart the plan.

Teenagers are famously striving to figure out who they are. “The process of building habits is actually the process of becoming yourself,” Clear writes. Working to develop habits that align with their burgeoning identities can help kids in that discovery.