The Science of Micro Habits: How Tiny Changes Impact Your Brain

“I’m going to lose weight.”
“I will read more.”
“I’m going to pay off my credit card debt.” 

How many times have you decided on a goal, started working towards it, yet dropped off within a few weeks? That’s because when it comes to accomplishing a goal, your willpower isn’t enough. 

According to James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, you need to design systems that will propel you towards your goals. The building blocks of your systems are micro habits, small, intentional actions that create long-term behavioral change.

In fact, moving towards your goals in tiny chunks slowly alters your brain until these habits become involuntary actions. Here’s how you can incorporate micro habits to rewire your brain.

What Are Micro Habits?

In Atomic Habits, Clear emphasizes breaking big goals into tiny actions using the 1% rule, which states that if you improve just 1% every day, the compound effect leads to dramatic transformation over time.

Micro habits incorporate a few features: 

1. Small, easy-to-start actions that reduce the mental friction to behavior change.
2. Scalable over time, meaning they grow into bigger habits naturally.
3. Designed for consistency, as success comes from showing up regularly rather than showing up with intensity.

Key Concepts of Micro Habits

1. The Two-Minute Rule

Clear advises that a new habit should take less than two minutes to complete at first. The goal is to create a gateway habit that makes it easier to progress toward bigger behaviors. Instead of “working out for 30 minutes,” start with “Put on my gym shoes and jog in place for 2 minutes.” The more you engage with the habit, two minutes of reading more easily stretches into 5, then 10, then 15.

2. Habit Stacking

Micro habits work best when anchored to existing habits, which make them easier to integrate into daily life. For example, “After I make my bed, I will meditate sitting on top of my bed.” Over time, you’ll realize you’ve habit-stacked your way into a full morning routine.

3. Identity-Based Habits

Clear believes habits are linked to our identities, and encourages readers to engage in micro to shift their identity. When repeated, micro habits help you become the kind of person who naturally does the habit. To be a writer, you only need to write one sentence per day instead of trying to finish a whole chapter.

4. The Plateau of Latent Potential

Clear explains the Plateau of Latent Potential as the space of time between completing the habits and actually seeing results. Starting small may feel like you’re cheating, but micro habits allow people to push past the frustrating phase where your effort feels insignificant. The key to making habits stick is showing up frequently to do them. 

The Science Behind Micro Habits

So you’re engaging in these 2-minute micro habits daily, but is that actually making a difference in your brain? Neuroscience says it does: we can rewire our brains using self-directed neuroplasticity to build positive habits. But what does that mean?

Neuroplasticity is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. Passive or active habits create neural pathways in the brain; the more you engage in them unconsciously, the more difficult they are to break. But engaging in self-directed neuroplasticity allows you to create new pathways with intention.

The brain is wired to seek rewards and is constantly taking note of actions that result in a hit of dopamine; when you’re nervous, biting your nails delivers a small reward. When the brain recognizes a satisfactory pattern between action and reward, it stores the pattern in an area of the brain called the basal ganglia, where we develop emotions and memories. 

Unfortunately, our conscious thoughts and behaviors occur in the prefrontal cortex, so you’ll have to start building the strength of your prefrontal cortex to win the battle of will against your basal ganglia and the desire for dopamine.

The Habit Loop 

Habits are formed by crossing through The Habit Loop, the psychological feedback loop that carves strong neural pathways into the brain. 

1. First, the brain experiences a particular Cue, a trigger that could be an emotion, sight, smell, person, or other stimulus. For example, you feel bored while studying for an exam.
2. Next, a Craving takes over your subconscious, particularly one that will result in a dopamine reward that motivates you to act. For example, you desire to break your boredom with something entertaining. 
3. Your brain (and body) then engage in an active Response to the craving, such as scrolling through social media.
4. Social media offers your brain the Reward of dopamine as it has distracted your mind from boredom and given it content you find shocking, funny, interesting, or pleasing. 

The next time you feel bored, your brain may subconsciously lead you to pick up your phone to open that app. Unfortunately, this is often how undesirable habits are formed, leading to poor grades, social media addiction, and constant distractibility.

However, you can hack the habit loop to integrate positive micro habits. The next time you feel the Craving to break your boredom, replace your Response of social media with a habit you’d like to integrate, whether it’s a few minutes of sketching, stretching, reading, journaling, or sitting in your garden. 

The key is to really check in with how you feel once you’ve engaged in the behavior. Let yourself journal a few words or phrases that describe your state of being once you’ve engaged in a micro habit. Let micro habits leverage your dopamine response to alter old habits.

Building Micro Habits for Long-Term Change with Freedom

When you’re trying to implement your micro habits, oftentimes digital distractions are the greatest obstacles in the way of building your systems. It’s easier to lounge on the couch and scroll instead of dedicating time to exercise or paint, but you don’t have to fall into digital distractions every time. 

Freedom is a multi-platform app that blocks your access to particular sites or apps in a certain time period. You create customizable blocklists that you can schedule for a recurring time period when you want to engage in your micro habits. You can block YouTube in the morning when you want to meditate, or block Instagram during your afternoon writing session to help cultivate focus. 

Whether you want to use Freedom for two minutes or two hours while you build your habits, you can extend the block session for as long as you like.     

Small Steps, Big Impact

If you want to achieve your goals, engaging in micro habits is the key to reshaping your brain for lasting change. No matter what, consistency matters more than intensity, so showing up each day for two minutes will eventually lead you to where you want to go. 

As you work on hacking the habit loop system, apps like Freedom can help you maintain the concentration you need while you build positive habits. Leveraging these atomic actions can still reward you with dopamine bursts that can maintain your desire to keep moving forward. Download Freedom today to pair with your new micro habits!

Written by Lorena Bally