Want a new habit to stick? Doing it often matters, but a 2026 study suggests that how the habit feels matters too. Researchers tracking 254 people for six months found that six factors, including whether the behavior left people feeling energized and pleased, were tied to stronger habit formation. Feeling like the habit was hard was tied to weaker habits.
The study, published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, is one of the more detailed looks yet at what actually drives habit formation in real life. Here’s what it found, plus a practical six-lever playbook you can start using this week.
The Habit Formation Study, in Plain English
The paper is called “What Makes a Habit? Investigating Potential Determinants of Habit Formation.” Its authors are Sebastian Bürgler (University of Zurich), Marina Milyavskaya, Gail McMillan and Rachel J. Burns (Carleton University), and Phillippa Lally and Benjamin Gardner (University of Surrey). It was accepted in March and published online on April 29, 2026.
Lally’s name may ring a bell for anyone who follows habit formation science. She led the well-known 2010 study behind the “66 days to form a habit” figure.
Here’s how the new research worked:
- Who: 254 participants trying to build habits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- How long: Six months, with monthly surveys.
- What was measured: How automatic each person’s chosen behavior felt (the researchers’ working definition of habit), plus 10 possible drivers of habit strength.
- Design: A preregistered reanalysis, meaning the team publicly committed to its analysis plan before crunching the numbers.
The researchers define habits as “automatic responses to specific cues, acquired through repetition in stable contexts.” In other words, a habit is something you do almost without thinking when a familiar trigger shows up.
Two paths: habits that grow, and habits that fade
One of the most useful findings is that people didn’t all follow the same curve. The team found two distinct trajectories: habit formation and habit degradation. Some behaviors became more automatic over time. Others started strong and then slipped.
Which group you landed in was linked to three things: how complex the behavior was, how often people did it, and how stable the context was. That’s a reminder that a habit can weaken even after it seems to be on track.
The 6 Factors Linked to Stronger Habit Formation
Out of the 10 candidate drivers, six were significantly associated with habit strength, according to the study abstract:
- Autonomous motivation (doing it because you genuinely want to, not because you feel pressured)
- Behavior frequency (how often you do it)
- Context stability (doing it in the same place, time or situation)
- Feeling energized by the behavior
- Feeling pleased by the behavior
- Perceived difficulty, which worked in the opposite direction: the harder it felt, the weaker the habit
The team also found that frequency interacted with time, which suggests that how often you repeat a behavior may matter differently as the weeks go on. The authors concluded that tailored support may be “especially important during early formation and to prevent later degradation.”
Your 6-Lever Habit Formation Playbook
The habit formation study doesn’t hand out instructions. But each factor points to a practical move. Here’s how to turn the findings into a plan.
Lever 1: Pick a “want to,” not a “should”
Autonomous motivation means the reason is yours. If you’re starting a walking habit because your doctor nagged you, try reframing it around something you actually care about, like clearing your head or having energy to play with your kids.
Try this: Finish the sentence “I want to do this because…” If the answer feels borrowed from someone else, tweak the habit until it doesn’t.
Lever 2: Repeat it often
Frequency was one of the clearest signals in the data, and it was also linked to whether people ended up on the habit formation or habit degradation track. Daily, or close to it, tends to beat “a few times when I can.”
Try this: Shrink the habit so it’s easy to do every day. Two minutes of stretching daily beats a 45-minute session you skip half the time.
Lever 3: Same time, same place
Context stability means anchoring the behavior to a consistent trigger. Lally has made a similar point. “We know that if you make a clear plan of when and where you will do something you are more likely to do it than if you have a vague intention,” she said in a University of Surrey interview.
Try this: Use an “after I…, I will…” plan. For example: “After I pour my morning coffee, I will write down three priorities.”
Lever 4: Notice the energy boost
Feeling energized by a behavior was linked to stronger habits. Some activities deliver that lift naturally, like a short walk or a quick jog. Our coverage of how 10 minutes of slow jogging boosted mood and focus is a good example of a habit with a built-in energy payoff.
Try this: After you do the habit, pause for five seconds and rate your energy from 1 to 5. Paying attention to the lift can make it easier to come back tomorrow.
Lever 5: Make it pleasant
Feeling pleased was also tied to stronger habit formation. If a habit feels like punishment, it’s fighting an uphill battle.
Try this: Pair the habit with something you enjoy. Save a favorite podcast for workouts only, or make your evening reading spot genuinely cozy.
Lever 6: Lower the difficulty
Perceived difficulty was the one factor that worked against habit strength. The harder something felt, the weaker the habit tended to be.
Try this: Remove friction. Lay out gym clothes the night before, keep a water bottle on your desk, or put the book on your pillow. Make the first step almost too easy to skip.
Does Tracking Help Habit Formation? A Second 2026 Study
A separate 2026 study offers a real-world example of these ideas in action. Logan Fiorella, an educational psychologist at the University of Georgia, published results in Teaching of Psychology from his undergraduate course on the psychology of habit.
Twenty-five students each picked a new habit, such as exercise or reading, and answered a brief daily survey for 10 weeks while applying habit principles from the course. The results:
- Students logged 1,490 daily responses, an 86% response rate.
- On average, they performed their chosen behavior on 75% of intended days.
- 14 students (56%) developed at least some automaticity by the end of the 10 weeks.
It’s a small classroom study, so it’s a proof of concept, not proof that tracking works for everyone. But it fits the bigger picture: frequent repetition, paired with simple daily check-ins, can help many people make progress, and nobody has to be perfect. Skipping a quarter of days didn’t stop students from building some automaticity.
How Long Does Habit Formation Take?
The short answer: longer than 21 days, and it varies a lot. In Lally’s 2010 study, the average time for participants to form a daily habit was 66 days, but the range ran from 18 to 254 days.
Lally herself pushes back on treating 66 days as a rule. “The average time it took for the participants in my study to form a daily habit was 66 days. However, the range was 18 to 254 days,” she told the University of Surrey. “Therefore, what we really showed was that how long habit formation takes is highly variable.”
For a deeper dive, read our explainer on why it takes 66 days, not 21. And if you’ve already slipped up, our piece on the iterative mindset and setbacks explains why treating a miss as data, not failure, can keep you going.
Important Caveats About This Research
Before you treat these six habit formation factors as gospel, keep a few limits in mind:
- Association, not causation. The factors were linked to habit strength. That doesn’t prove that changing them will cause stronger habits. A habit that’s already becoming automatic might simply start to feel easier and more pleasant.
- Self-reported data. Participants rated their own automaticity and feelings in surveys.
- Unusual timing. The original data was collected during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many people’s routines and contexts were disrupted.
- Small Fiorella sample. The tracking study involved just 25 students in one course.
Still, the six factors line up with decades of habit formation research, and the practical moves above carry little risk.
The Bottom Line: Make It Frequent, Stable, Easy and Enjoyable
The latest habit formation research points to a simple formula. Choose something you genuinely want, do it often in the same context, and make it feel good and easy. When it feels hard or joyless, that’s a signal to adjust the habit, not proof that you lack willpower.
Your 7-day challenge:
- Pick one small habit you actually want.
- Attach it to an existing daily cue (“After I…, I will…”).
- Make it take two minutes or less.
- Pair it with something you enjoy.
- Check off each day on a calendar or app, and rate how energized and pleased you feel.
At the end of the week, look at your ratings. If the habit feels hard or unpleasant, shrink it or change the setting. Small tweaks now can keep you on the habit formation track instead of the degradation one.
