Habit formation is the process by which a behaviour, through regular repetition, becomes automatic or habitual. This is modelled as an increase in automaticity with number of repetitions up to an asymptote. This process of habit formation can be slow. Lally et al. (2010) found the average time for participants to reach the asymptote of automaticity was 66 days with a range of 18–254 days.
As the habit is forming, it can be analysed in three parts: the cue, the behavior, and the reward. The cue is the thing that causes your habit to come about, the trigger to your habitual behaviour. This could be anything that your mind associates with that habit and you will automatically let a habit come to the surface. The behavior is the actual habit that you are exhibiting and the reward, a positive feeling, therefore continues the “habit loop.” A habit may initially be triggered by a goal, but over time that goal becomes less necessary and the habit becomes more automatic.
A variety of digital tools, online or mobile apps, have been introduced that are designed to support habit formation. For example, habitrpg is a system that uses gamification, implementing strategies found in video games to real life tasks by adding rewards such as experience and gold. A review of such tools, however, suggests most are poorly designed with respect to theory and fail to support the development of automaticity.