New year, new you: the science of making, breaking and replacing habits

Welp, after what felt like the longest year ever, it’s 2021. And with the new year often comes resolutions — maybe more so this time round.

Perhaps you want to lose some of those “corona-kilos” or simply maintain the good hygiene behaviours drummed into us during the pandemic.

And in January, especially, we must wade through an onslaught of organisations spruiking the latest in get-rich/thin/fit-quick schemes or myths perpetuated by pop psychologists on daytime television.

But there are ways to develop good habits — and make them stick — that are backed by scientific evidence.

And it all begins — where else? — in the brain. But first: what even are habits, and why do we need them?

We really are creatures of habit

A substantial chunk…