The Healthy Programmer

Goal 1

Change one habit

Pick a simple habit of yours and change it. A good example might be walking to the vending machine at work to buy a candy bar every afternoon. If you want to change a habit like this, you’ll need to do three things:

Identify the Cue

Sometimes cues are obvious. Your morning routine is probably cued by an alarm clock. The habit of putting on your seat belt is cued by sound of starting a car. Other cues are subtle. However, they all fall into one of five categories: location, time, emotion, social setting, or action. To identify your cue, try answering each of the following questions as soon as you feel the urge to indulge your habit:

• Where are you?

• What time is it?

• How are you feeling?

• Who is with you?

• What action preceded ...