We often find ourselves letting temptation and temporary satisfaction take over our lives. The tiny decisions we make hundreds of times a day pile up on one another, making or breaking each day and how we live. Choosing to drink soda over water, opening up Instagram instead of going for a walk and many more decisions we make each day don’t feel like that big of a deal in the moment because, at that moment, they’re not. However, these choices pile up and create habits, making it harder and harder to take control of your life. 

“[Good habits] create a healthy life, make things easy, and make you more prepared for daily tasks,” Javier Diaz, a Tualatin High School senior, said. 

With a little mental effort, replacing negative habits with positive habits is extremely doable. Some experts recommend replacing one habit at a time with a positive one and being disciplined about sticking with it. 

“Good habits can help develop good routines and self-discipline,” senior Owen Stewart said.

Sheer willpower alone usually won’t get you there; you have to incentivize yourself to form these new habits. To find success in transforming your daily habits – whatever you want your new habit to be – you must make it attractive, easy to complete and make it satisfying. Here’s an example: when you walk into a dark room, the darkness is an obvious cue that you must turn the lights on. The light switch is usually placed right next to the door, making it an easy action to complete. The end result of lighting up the room makes it satisfying to our brains, signaling that we should take the same action next time. 

This is a very simple example of a habit, but if you understand it, it makes positive habits a very easy thing to create. If you want to reduce screen time, all you have to do is place your phone somewhere hard to access, such as in the back of a drawer in a different room. This makes you not want to have to go through the trouble of getting up and digging it out from where you put it, making you much less likely to allow your phone to control you. This can help you get rid of negative habits, and simultaneously create new, positive habits.