Building effective habits (edition 1)

Did you know that when engaged in a good or bad habit, brain activity reduces and feels less mental effort? When engaged in a bad habit, this reduced mental effort triggers less resistance to the routine, faulting our self-discipline. However, when engaged in a good habit, the tasks feel less difficult to start and require less effort. Research has shown that you are 2x to 3x more likely to stick with your habits if you make a specific plan for when, where, and how you will perform the behaviour.

This workshop will explore the science of building or changing habits and put theory into practice. You will be asked to perform a self-assessment diary study as pre-work for the workshop so that you can start working on changing your undesirable habits to desired habits in the workshop. Also, during the workshop, we will plan out the creation of a new habit and use a scientifically proven approach to grow your efficacy in creating an effective habit. For full disclosure, building an effective habit is not a magical wand. While the methodology is proven to work, you will still have to stick to it and make it work.

The training will be a live workshop where you will put theoretical models into practice, starting with your habits and requests. The focus is on your expectations, questions and needs. You will do the work via individual exercises, small group exercises and action planning.

Learning outcomes

After having attended this workshop, you will be able to...

• understand what habits are,
• know how to build an effective habit,
• know how to hack an existing habit.

Competences

An important part of preparing for any further professional step is becoming (more) aware of the competences you have developed and/or want to develop. In the current workshop, the following competences from the UHasselt competency overview are actively dealt with:

• personal effectiveness:
  • self-development
  • self-confidence
• task-orientedness:
  
  • organisation and coordination
  • progress monitoring
  • result-orientedness

For whom?

• PhD students & postdocs
• 16 places available

When and where?

• March 25, 2025 - 09:00-13:00
• Location: campus Diepenbeek, building D, room C22

Preparation?

Before the training, participants will be asked to share their learning objectives for the training which will be checked at each relevant chapter of the training, to ensure they have been answered. Participants will need to identify an existing habit that they would want to change and start recording in a simple diary when does the habit occur? What triggered it?

Registration?

• Register here from January 16 until February 27, 2025.
• As places are limited, registering does not automatically imply that you will be able to participate. You will be notified by email after the registration deadline has passed.
• Please cancel your registration at least one week in advance in case you cannot make it (cf. cancellation & no-show policy).

Acknowledged as?

• DS BSH: category 'research management & communication skills' - workshop on general research skills
• DS HLS: category 'transferable skills' - compulsory elective course
• DS ST: category 'research management' - course aimed at developing general research skills