Quit it! From vaping to doomscrolling, 10 bad habits and how to break them
Share:
Procrastinating? Online shopping too much? Always cancelling? These top tips from experts will help you change bad behaviour for the better. ‘Habit is a great deadener,” wrote Samuel Beckett. And he didn’t even have watermelon vapes and doom scrolling to contend with. Most of us have at least a few behaviours we want to change, but how can you break the habits of a lifetime? We asked the experts ….
![[Photograph of a locked-up laptop]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f9ee99f57ed33439919783b651b056e33cca74f6/0_0_9400_5300/master/9400.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
From scrolling on the toilet to taking your phone to bed, 41% of us feel that we spend too much time on our devices. Hilda Burke, a psychotherapist and the author of The Phone Addiction Workbook, advises creating an “inspiring screensaver” – a visual reminder of what you really want to be doing with the hours that you’re frittering away on your phone. It could be a picture of your dog, your kids or a quote that motivates you.
“Visual cues are extremely powerful, especially when we’re exposed to them over and over again. The average smartphone user checks their device every 12 minutes, so a positive visual cue can work to your advantage,” Burke says. She also advises turning off notifications, unsubscribing from group chats and carving out short periods of the day to switch your phone off or leave it at home.
The app One Sec leads you through a short breathing exercise every time you try to open a designated “danger app”, which might be all you need to avoid checking Instagram (again). We all know that eating unhealthy food between meals isn’t great, but there are ways to curb your hunger without resorting to Ozempic. Alex Ruani is a researcher in nutrition science at University College London and a “recovering snacker” herself.
Share:
More for You
Top Followed
Trending
You Might Also Like
