The Habit Builder Project was designed by the Learning and Wellbeing Team to help you develop healthy, lasting habits. We offer two opportunities to build new habits — the Habit Builder Workshop and the Habit Builder Study
The Habit Builder Workshop is recommended for anyone who would like a brief introduction to the science of building new habits, key strategies to getting started – such as habit stacking, as well what’s needed to turn a new activity into a lasting part of your daily routine. During this workshop, we hope to help you turn your desire to start something new, whatever it is, into a concrete plan and get you started on the road to a lasting new habit.
We are now enrolling for January 2024!
The next Habit Builder Workshop won’t happen until the Spring and then again in the fall. Please select one of the following dates. Click here. We are offering three virtual events and one in-person event.
None of these dates work?
If none of these dates work, no problem. Just let us know when you are available, and we’ll try our best to accommodate you. Click here to fill out the form.
Download the worksheet
Please download and complete the worksheet that will help you get started thinking about what new habit you would like to do. You can revise what kind of new habit you would like to build at any time. Please have your work sheet on hand for the workshop. If you forget to do it, lose it, or want to change it, don’t worry. You can complete it again on the day of the workshop.
The Habit Builder Study is recommended for everyone who would like put the principles of habit building into action and actually build a new habit. When you join the study, you will be provided with some habit building tools and be asked to complete a survey that will help you identify some of the challenges that you may face when trying to build a new habit. In our most recent, Habit Builder Study, more than 60 people joined the study to track their progress and learn habit building.
Whether or not you have attended the Habit Builder Workshop, you can join the study at any time. To join the study, click on the button below, give us your contact information, and some one from the Learning and Wellbeing Team will be in touch to tell you more about how to get started.
Then for the next five weeks, we’ll give you the tools to help you track your progress and identify the hurdles you may face along the way. Pick any activity that you would like to turn into a lasting habit:
- Getting more exercise
- Eating better
- Being more productive at school or work
- Learning to be mindful
Whether it is loss of motivation, habit drift, or not being able to find the right time or enough time, our weekly diagnostic questionnaire will help you stay on track
More about the workshop
How long does it take to build a new and lasting habit? For a very long time, the widely held view was that a new habit can be formed in just 21 consecutive days of practice. Sounds simple enough. Work hard for three weeks and you are set.
As it turns out, the 21-habit rule is a myth, that can be traced back to the work of a surgeon, Dr. Maxwell Maltz, who, in 1960, was writing about how patients adapt to surgery. However, studies by researchers in the UK have shown that the 21-day habit-building rule is false. In fact, research conducted in the UK has shown that building a new, lasting habit typically takes on average 66 days, and sometimes much, much more, depending on what habit you are trying to build.
In the first part of the workshop, you will learn about the science of habit formation, as well as about all of the strategies and tips that can help you build a lasting new habit that becomes part of your day-to-day lifestyle. In the second part, we will ask you think about one or two new activities (or old ones that you still have not turned into lasting habits) and show you how to schedule and track them. We will get you started on how to use the tracking tools, and how to use these tools to help you understand the different types of challenges that are getting in your way. We will also review to most common challenges that people face and what to do about them. Finally, we would be happy to answer any of your burning questions about habit building that you have that you haven’t been able to answer yet.
