How Long Does It Take to Form a Habit - A Few Days?

Mar 20, 2025

By Will Moore

Have you ever wondered why some people can stick with a new habit, putting in the reps they need to build up a super fit body, become an expert guitarist, score a 3-pointer 40% of the time, or speak multiple languages fluently?

Many people wonder how many days it takes to create a habit, but research suggests it varies widely based on the habit itself and the individual forming it. It’s all about the number of times that you repeat the action, also known as the habit loop.

Even then, it varies dramatically from person to person. It also depends on the type of habit you’re trying to form and a lot of other factors. Either way, it all comes down to persistence.

It also depends on the type of habit you’re trying to form and a lot of other factors. Either way, it all comes down to persistence.

So, why is it that some people are more persistent when it comes to building habits? How can they continue to learn and improve while the majority of us fall off track and never pick it up again?

Ask any teacher the best way for kids to learn and they’ll tell you that if the lesson is too challenging, the kids will get frustrated and switch off. If the lesson’s too easy, they’ll get bored, lose concentration and all hell will break loose. Well, the principle is exactly the same when it comes to habit formation and there’s a really good reason.

Your Brain Loves a Challenge But…

…only if it’s “just hard enough.”

In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear demonstrates this concept with a clever analogy he calls the “Goldilocks Rule.”

The Goldilocks Rule states that:

“Humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right.”

Or as I like to think of it—“just hard enough.”

A few years ago, I played my first year of paddle tennis. It’s a brilliant game that was created for those enduring frigid winters, looking for something to do other than count the days to spring. Unlike regular tennis, it’s played on a smaller court, with doubles teams, and you can hit the ball off the back screens like racquetball.

As a beginner, I was placed on the lowest-skilled team, but because I had a tennis background, I quickly realized that my skill level matched only about 10% of my team. Each week, we’d seek each other out to play together because we knew we’d have much more fun competing against similar abilities.

The next year, I was placed on a “Goldilocks team”—a group where all players were closely matched in skill. Every game was competitive, making me push harder and improve every time I played.

…and that’s exactly how habits work.

If the challenge is too difficult, you’ll feel anxious, frustrated, and more likely to give up. But if it’s too easy, you’ll become bored and lose motivation.

The key is finding that “just hard enough” challenge that keeps you engaged.

How Many Days to Develop a Habit?

The truth is, while some habits can form in as little as a few weeks, others take months of sustained effort to stick.

The 66-Day Habit Formation Rule

The European Journal of Social Psychology studied how long it takes to form a new habit and found that, on average, it takes 66 days—though this depends on the habit and individual

It depends on

Repetition: The more you perform an action, the stronger the habit becomes.
Consistency: Habits form faster when they are done at the same time, in the same place.
Engagement: The challenge must be “just hard enough” to keep you interested.

So the question of how long to make something a habit doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all answer. It depends on consistency, repetition, and finding a way to make the habit stick in your daily routine.

Get in the ‘Flow State’ to Build Habits Faster

The flow state is that sweet spot between the challenge of the task and your skill level. Scientists have even pinpointed it to about 4% beyond your current ability—just enough to push you without overwhelming you.

By pushing yourself just 4% harder each time, you’ll create that flow state that enhances learning, retention, and motivation.

The best part? The flow state isn’t only responsible for helping you achieve higher performance. There’s also a direct connection between being in a flow state and happiness. At the same time its important to understand how to set goals in life. It’s that feeling when you’re so engaged in a task and feeling truly content that time flies, and the world around you fades into the background.

To use the flow state to build momentum and take your life to the next level, the real trick is to seek out challenges that are in line with your overall life goals. Working on those challenges just enough that they push you to your limits so you continue to make progress and stay motivated.

At Moore Momentum, I’ve come up with a simple equation you can apply. I call it…

The “Equation of Life”

I like to see life as a game. And like all the best games, it’s not easy to win but it’s a hell of a lot of fun to try. To master the game of life, you have to create success habits in all Five Cores areas of life:

Mindset: Getting your mind working FOR instead of against you. Becoming an unstoppable growth owner who fails beautifully, sees obstacles as temporary roadblocks waiting for solutions, and gives fear the finger.
Career & Finances: Doing what you love and are great at, executing your purpose, and exponentially growing your wealth along the way.
Relationships: Connecting with people and maintaining deep, fulfilled relationships and allies to help you achieve your goals.
Physical Health: Taking care of your physical body to ensure looking good, feeling good, and gaining the energy and stamina to propel you through life.
Emotional Health & Giving Back: Managing stress, expressing your passions regularly, and making sure the world is better, not worse, for having you in it.

That starts by challenging your belief system about who you are and what you’re capable of. Reprogram all that glitchy code by identifying the habits that hold you back – and replacing them with success habits.

Repeat those actions enough, and your success habits will work on autopilot building momentum the same way those failure habits kept you from achieving true happiness and fulfillment.

This is The Equation of Life. And the aim of the game is to get it working FOR you instead of against you. Hitting the reset button on your broken belief system to center around your Five Cores, and shifting your actions so they start forming the success habits that will compound you into a winning player.

A key element in The Equation of Life is ‘Repeated Actions’ + ‘Time’. So getting in a flow state with healthy habits in each of your Five Cores is absolutely vital.

But there’s a problem with that, because the “just hard enough” rule for challenging yourself and getting in the “flow state” aren’t always enough to build momentum. There’s one more piece of the puzzle that we need to look at because…

The Greatest Threat to Success Is Not Failure… It’s Boredom!

Any habit that we want to build has to be attractive and satisfying to the brain – otherwise it’s an uphill struggle. But for any behavior to stay attractive, it needs to stay fresh and interesting. There’s a saying that “variety is the spice of life” and, while familiar things can also feel very comfortable – when it comes to building new habits, I have to agree with the saying!

Without variety, habits become routine, and they become less interesting and less satisfying. We get bored – plain and simple. Think about it, even your favorite junk food, sex, video games, gambling, social media…

If you do it every day, you lose interest, and you start looking elsewhere to scratch the itch. The thing is, Humans crave predictability; your brain is busy looking for patterns all the time so it can make sense of the world. When the brain recognizes a pattern, it gets logged and becomes a default. But when no patterns exist, the brain goes into overdrive, prioritizing ‘working this stuff out’ over other functions like self-control, moderation, and boredom.

In short, humans need novelty.

Read About: Top 10 Habits of Successful People

If you’ve ever asked someone a question while they were playing a video game, chances are the only response you got was a mumbled: “Sure, ok, whatever”. Well, that’s exactly what’s going on here. When you’re engrossed in a game, you’ll agree to almost anything to shut out the distraction so you can keep playing.

In psychology this is known as a ‘Variable Reward’; the more variety in the reward – the more dopamine floods our system – and the more motivated we are to take action. Variable rewards keep your brain busy, shutting down the defenses and creating the space to plant the seeds of a new habit.

The sweet spot is a 50/50 ratio of success to failure. Just enough “winning” to be satisfied and just enough “wanting” to experience desire. Hence the “just hard enough” rule to stay motivated.

And if you think about it, this also connects directly with The Equation of Life – to create true happiness and fulfillment in life, you can’t sit back and rest on your laurels – you need to keep challenging yourself to level up. Because with no challenge there is no excitement and you’ll fall back into old failure patterns. If you’re not growing, you’re dying.

Anyone can work hard when they feel motivated, but…

…the real key to success is the ability to keep on working when motivation is lacking.

There are so many examples of famous athletes, journalists, actors, scientists, entrepreneurs who were only able to achieve the top of their game by doing what they had to do… even when they didn’t want to do it.

So what’s their secret? How is it that they were able to stick to the schedule while the rest of us let life get in the way?

The answer is actually pretty simple, most, if not all, of these successful people do one thing to ensure that motivation doesn’t slip.

They visualize their progress by tracking their wins. It works because the human brain needs a way to see that progress is being made. And at the end of the day, small changes lead to big results. So, keep going!

Learn More: Motivation Vs. Discipline

A New Way to Level Up Your Life by Gamifying Your Habits

At Moore Momentum, I’ve found a way to bring everything together—the “just hard enough” challenge, flow state, variable rewards, and progress tracking—to make habit-building easier and more effective.

We all know breaking bad habits is tough, but forming new ones isn’t any easier. The problem is, habits become boring and repetitive, making it easy to lose motivation. That’s why keeping things engaging and rewarding is key.

Successful people don’t just rely on motivation—they track their progress, making small wins visible so they stay on course. Seeing progress fuels momentum, and that’s exactly where my app comes in.

The Moore Momentum App—A Smarter Way to Build Habits

I created the Habit tracker app to make habit-building fun instead of frustrating. By using psychology of gamification and progress tracking, the app removes the friction that usually makes habits hard to stick with. It helps you:

Stay motivated by tracking small wins that add up over time
Make habits exciting with built-in variable rewards
Reduce friction so you can focus on progress, not discipline

Using gamification and progress tracking, it helps you build habits in the Five Core areas essential for happiness and success:

Mindset: Training your brain to work for you, not against you.
Career & Finances: Building skills, growing wealth, and creating meaningful work.
Relationships: Strengthening connections and creating deeper bonds.
Physical Health: Staying active, energized, and feeling your best.
Emotional Health & Giving Back: Managing stress, finding purpose, and making a difference.

Big tech has spent years figuring out how to keep us hooked—usually on things that don’t serve us. I built this app to flip the script, using the same science to help you build habits that actually lead to success and happiness.

🚀 If you’ve struggled to stay consistent with habits, this is your chance to turn things around—by making them work for you, not against you.

Final Thoughts: How Long Does It Take to Form a Habit?

Forming lasting habits isn’t about following a fixed timeline—it’s about finding what works for you and making it stick.

By using flow state, progress tracking, and gamification, you can transform new behaviors into automatic habits that propel you toward success and happiness.

By embracing the flow state and seeking out challenges that align with your life goals, you can build positive habits in all Five Cores and create true happiness and fulfillment. And with the Moore Momentum app, gamifying your habits becomes easier, reducing friction, and paving the way for success.

So, keep pushing yourself, tracking your progress, and embracing the power of gamification to level up your life and become the winning player in the game of life