In the pursuit of reaching the ultimate potential of yourself, these two principles go hand in hand: good habits and focus. One promises consistency without thinking; the other demands full mental presence and deep effort. In a world that glorifies occupational stress and burnout, it’s easy to overlook how different these tools are. The real question is: which one truly drives better performance—or are we missing the point by treating them as separate?
The Case for Building Habits
Human behaviour is governed not by the decisions they make, but by the habits they keep – repeated actions that, over time, shape our identity. Yet, despite the widespread emphasis on self-discipline, the process of developing habits is far more complex and gradual than popular wisdom suggests. Research conducted by Lally et al. (2009) found that, based on individual results, habits take 18 to 254 days to form, depending on the complexity of the habit. [1] Similarly, a systematic review confirmed that healthy habits typically take 2 to 5 months, with median times between 59 to 66 days and extremes reaching up to 335 days. [2] But why is this timeframe a spectrum? This is because it depends heavily on behaviour, consistency, and environment. For example, a habit like drinking a glass of water after waking up every day can become automatic fairly quickly, while intensive actions like exercise or going for a jog at 5 am can take significantly longer.
The Four Pillars of Habit
The process of habit formation is not random – it follows a psychological loop. In Atomic Habits, James Clear outlines the framework that leads to habit formation, based on 4 laws: cue, craving, response, and reward. A cue is a trigger that initiates an action, and craving addresses the motivation behind a habit. It can associate positive emotions with the desired habit to make it more appealing. The routine is the action itself, and the reward reinforces the habit by providing a sense of satisfaction or benefit. For example, you wake up in the morning and see your gym clothes laid out on the bed (cue), you feel energized and motivated to go to the gym (craving). You spend 2 hours in the gym working out (response) and return home with a feeling of success and accomplishment, with a small endorphin boost (reward).
Habits are more likely to form when they get linked with other rituals, such as studying right after lunch or exercising as soon as you get home. The more predictable and context-dependent the behavior, the more automatic it becomes. This is why habit-building strategies often stress starting small, being consistent, and creating cues that are easy to follow.
How Focus works
Focus is all about depth. It tests your ability to give your attention to a task without distraction. In contrast to habits, which thrive on autopilot, focus demands active engagement. It’s the gateway to what productivity expert Cal Newport calls "deep work"—the kind of cognitively demanding, high-value work that leads to breakthrough results. But focus requires training. The world around us is full of distractions, whether it is the recurrent notifications on your phone or your usual “brain rot” scrolling on social media. It is difficult to concentrate even for 30 minutes without interruption.
A study using wearable fNIRS with university-aged users found that after a single social media session, participants showed reduced working memory and impairments in inhibitory control, suggesting increased cognitive load and decreased executive functioning. [3] This shows how the increasing use of gadgets can negatively impact a human’s ability to focus. Studies have also shown that continuous exposure to fast-paced content overloads the memory, making it difficult to focus on tasks that require cognitive thinking. [4]
Focus vs. Habits: A False Dichotomy?
Now we come to the real question. Between the two, which one improves performance? It would not be fair to give priority to one of them over the other because habit and focus are not competitive strategies – they are complementary tools. Focus is the precursor to building a habit. When you think about building a new habit, e.g, starting a new book, you’ll need to sit down at your desk every day and make yourself read until you reach your desired number of pages. This requires a lot of focus, and without it, you’ll never be able to build a habit in the first place. If you are engaged in an activity that requires creative work, such as animation, painting, or technical writing, having focus is essential for producing quality work. A student might use habits to ensure that they study at the same time each day, but rely on focus to grasp challenging material during that session. Similarly, an athlete might build the habit of showing up to training consistently, but require intense focus to refine technique during each drill.
The Ideal Strategy: Use Both Intentionally
The most effective approach is to use habits to create stability and focus to deliver excellence. Firstly, try building habits that protect your focus. Now this can be either no-phone mornings or scheduled deep work blocks. Secondly, use habits to train your brain for certain tasks, e.g, using the same workplace, repeating the activity at a certain hour, etc. Your focus can also be trained by certain practices like the Pomodoro Technique, Yoga, Breathing Exercises, etc. Over time, focused work can become habitual, and habits can reinforce focus-friendly environments, like working in a distraction-free space or setting digital boundaries.
Improving performance isn’t about choosing between habits and focus—it’s about understanding when and how to apply them. Habits provide the structure, consistency, and mental clarity needed to stay on track, while focus delivers the intensity, quality, and creativity that elevate your results. When used together, they create a powerful system for sustained excellence—one that doesn’t just help you work harder, but smarter.
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References:
- Phillippa, Lally, et al. “How Are Habits Formed: Modelling Habit Formation in the Real World.” Ispa.pt, John Wiley & Sons, 2016,repositorio.ispa.pt/entities/publication/fae72a1c-b2b6-4991-9951-5d20b607f688. Accessed 2 Aug. 2025.
- Singh, Ben, et al. “Time to Form a Habit: A Systematic Review
and Meta-Analysis of Health Behaviour Habit Formation and Its Determinants.” Healthcare, vol. 12, no. 23, 9 Dec. 2024, p. 2488, www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/12/23/2488#B5-healthcare-12-
02488, https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12232488. - Yousef, Ahmed Mohamed Fahmy, et al. “Demystifying the New Dilemma of Brain Rot in the Digital Era: A Review.” Brain
Sciences, vol. 15, no. 3, 7 Mar. 2025, p. 283, www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/15/3/283, https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci15030283. - Krenn, Jamie. “Doomscrolling: Why Can’t We Stop?” Psychology Today, 2025, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/screen-time/202502/doomscrolling-why-cant-we-stop.