Overview

• Researchers distinguished habitual instigation from habitual execution, reporting that 65% of behaviors were cue-triggered and 88% were carried out on autopilot.
• Nearly half of all reported actions (46%) were both habitual and intentional, indicating that routines often support people’s goals.
• Exercise differed from other activities, being commonly triggered by cues yet less likely to proceed automatically once underway.
• The team collected 3,755 momentary reports via six daily prompts over seven days, with findings published in Psychology & Health.
• Authors recommend building desired habits and disrupting unwanted triggers to drive lasting change, noting limits from self-reporting, a small convenience sample, and a short study window.