What is a cue?
Short answer
A cue is the moment that sets off a habit: a time, a place or something you already do, like "after my morning coffee". Tying a new habit to a reliable cue is what makes it automatic.
Key points
- Good cues happen every day without any effort.
- "After I brush my teeth" works better than "sometime in the evening".
Habit research describes habits as actions set off by a situation, rather than decided afresh each time. Pick something that already happens every day and attach the new behaviour straight after it. Over repeated days, the cue starts the behaviour on its own.
Related questions
How long does it take to form a habit?
Not 21 days. In a well-known study of people adding one daily behaviour, the time for it to become automatic ranged from 18 to 254 days. Doing it consistently, in the same situation, mattered most.
Read the full answerWhy should you start smaller than you think you can?
Because the first weeks are about building the routine, not the result. A small step taken every day becomes a habit; a big one taken twice and then skipped does not.
Read the full answerDoes missing one day ruin a habit?
No. In the best-known study of habit formation, missing a single day did not materially affect how the habit developed. What matters is getting back to it at the next opportunity.
Read the full answerThanks. That helps us improve this answer.