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101 Examples of Habits

John Spacey, updated on January 18, 2024

Habits are repeated patterns of behavior that an individual acquires by their own free will. In some cases, habits become almost automatic and involuntary in the short term but are changeable with sustained effort. Habits are customarily categorized as good or bad but many habits are also grey areas that may have both benefits and drawbacks. The following are common examples of habits.

Addictive Behaviors	Arguing / Debating
Asking for Help	Avoiding Action Items
Avoiding Distractions	Avoiding Risk
Bedtime	Being Late
Being on Time	Boasting
Body Language	Building Relationships
Candor	Checklists
Cleaning	Commute (e.g. cycling to work)
Complaining	Conformance to Norms
Contacting Others (e.g. calling parents)	Cooking
Critical Thinking	Criticizing Others
Cruel Wit	Daydreaming
Delivering to Commitments	Design Thinking
Diet	Diligence
Dramatizing	Emotional Thinking
Entertainment Consumption	Exaggerating
Exercise	Fashion (e.g. dressing professionally)
Fidgeting	Figures of Speech
Gambling	Getting Up Early / Late
Gossiping	Gratitude
Greeting People	Helping Others
Hobbies	Honesty
Humor	Immersive Experiences (e.g. Video Games)
Interrupting Others	Introspection
Intuition	Knowledge of Performance
Learning	Leisure
Listening	Lying
Managing Risk	Measuring & Optimizing
Media Consumption	Messiness
Mise en Place	Missing Deadlines
Multi-tasking	Name Dropping
Negative Thinking	Nightlife
Not Listening When Others Speak	Overspending
Overthinking	Personal Hygiene
Personal Reflection	Politeness
Politicizing Things	Positive Thinking
Preparing for Meetings	Procrastinating
Questioning Authority	Reading
Recreation	Repetitive Movements (e.g. shaking leg)
Researching When Curious	Safety Practices (e.g. signaling before changing lanes)
Saving	Self-Criticism
Self-Direction	Self-Improvement
Shopping	Single-Tasking
Social Comparison	Social Meals
Spiritual & Meditative Practices	Supporting Others
Sustaining Relationships	Systems Thinking
Taking Action Items	Taking Risks
Tracking Budgets & Spending	Trusting Others
Undermining Others	Use of Cliches
Voicing Opinions	Word Choice
Worrying

Good Habits

Habits are commonly viewed as either good or bad. In practice, there is much nuance with respect to habits whereby it depends on the details of what you are doing. For example, cleaning is a good habit but could be inefficient or even problematic if you're doing it too much. The following are arguably good habits.

Bad Habits

Habits that may produce negative outcomes overtime. For example, a habit of being sarcastic that may provoke negative responses and damage relationships over time.

Notes

Knowledge of performance is the process of examining how well you have behaved or performed to identify improvements. For example, thinking about how you could have done better after a presentation.

Self-criticism is the process of identifying your own shortfalls in order to improve. For example, calling yourself on your own bad behavior or misguided thoughts.

Mise en place is the practice of preparing your work area before beginning a task. This is arguably a good habit but can also resemble procrastination. In many cases, the truly productive have a messy desk.

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