To Break a Bad Habit and Create a New One, Neuroscience Says Just Make One Simple Change

I like to think I’m fairly disciplined. I can sit and write all day. I can do mundane physical tasks for even longer. (My superpower, if I have one, is the ability to perform mindless manual labor for hours.)

But I’m also prone to rabbit-holing. I can look for a research study to support a premise, shift to finding a quote from someone famous to back it up … and somehow find myself watching Anatoly prank unwitting gym-goers.

Did I decide to watch a silly video? Yes and no.

While we may think we make a lot of decisions throughout the day (and we do), we don’t make nearly as many as we think. A study published in Society for Personality and Social Psychology shows approximately 40 percent of the things we do aren’t based on decisions.