Huberman’s Lab: The Science of Habits

All credits to Dr.Huberman.

Lally study: The answer is it varies a lot.
18 days to 254 days to form a habit.
A walk after dinner was the habit that they tested.
Limbic friction = the mental activation energy to overcome tiredness or anxiousness to perform a habit
- How to measure your limit friction to break or form a habit?
Linchpin habits= habits that make other habits form. Those are often activities you like.
- You can perform exercise earlier in the morning, making you more likely to focus on work.

Context depends on the habit: do you do the same thing simultaneously or daily?
- Brushing teeth is an example of this.
How much limbic friction do you need?
- You will have more friction in forming that habits.

Procedural memory = sequences for an outcome to occur.
Think and Imagine through the steps in procedural memory is a reliable tool for building a new habit.
It increases your likelihood of performing the habit.

Basal ganglia have many go and no go systems.
The establishment of behavior is related to habit. Therefore, you bracket and frame the habit of the markers beginning and end of the habit.
Mentally Mark the beginning and end of the habit.

Dr.Huberman divided the day into three parts to help you set up your brain with the write neurochemical context to build a habit.
0-8 hours after waking: make habits you want to build with very high limbic friction because Dopamine is the highest, and we have the highest brainpower.
8-16 hours after waking: Make easier habits you have built already. During this section of the day, the brain has more serotonin
16-24 hours at sleep= we need good quality sleep for neuroplasticity (meaning changes in the neuropathways for building new habits.)
- Do not view bright light before sleep and lower the room temperature by 1-2C.
- Read the Master Your Sleep and Be more Alert When Awake notes for more information on a better night’s sleep.
After you have formed your habits, you can change them into other phases and train the habits context-independent.

Reward Prediction Error: If you expect a reward, and the reward appears, the behavior will be more likely to occur again.
- But what happens when you are not expecting a reward?
  - The amount of reward (dopamine) is more significant if the bonus is unexpected.
For example, if I progress in my writing and check Instagram, the Dopamine will drop after breaking my self-discipline.
Think about the even that precede and follow the new habit. You cast a spotlight on the pattern around a time bi.
Imagine the activity and imagine the reward after building the activity.
- This is not fancy self-talk. It would be best if you were brutally honest with yourself.
Apply reward prediction error to get in and out of the habit execution.
Process over goals, but most of us just want to reach a destination.
Even before you start the goal, such as working out, you can expand your time bin to associate dopamine.

Testing how the habit has stuck
You perform six new habits over 21 days to test them.
There is no punishment for missing a day.
Habit slip compensation.
Chunk 2 days in the 21 days into function-able units. Every two days, you reset.
After 21 days, you automatically see how many you are naturally doing.
Maintain the ones you built after 21 days.
Do not cram many habits.

Tool 6: Break Bad Habits with Post-Bad-Habit “Positive.”

Long Term Depression is the target you want to achieve for breaking a habit. This is the opposite of long-term potentiation.
- The connection strength will be decreased in long-term depression. The connection will weaken if neuron A is active and B is inactive outside the time window.