Average 66 days
Hi Gretchen, I believe it does take 21 days to change or create a habit although I think the statement should be rephrased to say it takes approximately 21 days of consistent daily behaviour combined with belief, faith, determination and emotional leverage or sincere desire to succeed to form new habits. I think the AVERAGE amount of time it will take to form a habit (with fewer than 5% of lapses during the habit formation period) is about 90 days. Changing a habit, barring anything unusual, should take roughly twice as long; about 180 days. And that's how society started spreading the common myth that it takes 21 days to form a new habit (or 30 days or some other magic number). Where to Go From Here. At the end of the day, how long it takes to form a particular habit doesn't really matter that much. Whether it takes 50 days or 500 days, you have to put in the work either way. The only way to get to Day 500 is to start with Day 1. So forget about the number and focus on doing the work. Although the average was 66 days, there was marked variation in how long habits took to form, anywhere from 18 days up to 254 days in the habits examined in this study.  On average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact. And how long it takes a new habit to form can vary widely depending on the behavior, the person, and the circumstances. In Lally’s study, it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit. [1]. Where to Go From Here. At the end of the day, how long it takes to form a particular habit doesn’t really matter that much. Whether it takes 50 days or 500 days, you have to put in the work either way. The only way to get to Day 500 is to start with Day 1. At the end of the day, how long it takes to form a particular habit doesn't really matter that much. Whether it takes 50 days or 500 days, you have to put in the work either way. The only way to get to Day 500 is to start with Day 1. Where to Go From Here. At the end of the day, how long it takes to form a particular habit doesn't really matter that much. Whether it takes 50 days or 500 days, you have to put in the work either way. The only way to get to Day 500 is to start with Day 1. So forget about the number and focus on doing the work. On average, it takes more than two months before a new behavior becomes automatic -- 66 days to be exact. And how long it takes a new habit to form can vary widely depending on the behavior, the person, and the circumstances. In Lally's study, it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit. Where to Go From Here. At the end of the day, how long it takes to form a particular habit doesn't really matter that much. Whether it takes 50 days or 500 days, you have to put in the work either way. The only way to get to Day 500 is to start with Day 1. So forget about the number and focus on doing the work. So how long does it take to establish habits? While the well established rule on habits is 21-28 days, the UK Health Behaviore Research Centre recently came out with research that found it took 66 days to form a habit.  When he became interested in how long it takes for us to form or change a habit, psychologist Jeremy Dean found himself bombarded with the same magic answer from popular psychology websites and advice columns: 21 days. The simple answer is that, on average, across the participants who provided enough data, it took 66 days until a habit was formed. As you might imagine, there was considerable variation in how long habits took to form depending on what people tried to do. On average it took 66 days for the participants to start a habit. (That’s March 6 if you are attempting a New Year’s resolution). Another interesting result of the study was the amount of variation. Even though 66 days was average, the number of days for habit formation varied wildly from 18 days to 254 days. So, there really isn’t a magic number, just an average. There was also variation in how strong the habit became, based mostly on the type of habit.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-happiness-project/200910/stop-expecting-change-your-habit-in-21-days http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-clear/forming-new-habits_b_5104807.html http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/09/how-long-to-form-a-habit.php http://jamesclear.com/new-habit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-clear/forming-new-habits_b_5104807.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-clear/forming-new-habits_b_5104807.html http://blogs.psychcentral.com/adhd/2010/05/how-long-does-it-take-an-action-to-become-a-habit-21-28-or-66-days/ https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/02/how-long-it-takes-to-form-a-new-habit/ http://exerciseinc.com/how-long-does-it-take-to-start-a-habit/
how long does it take to take up a habit