From the MIT method to quiet weekends to the three Ps rule for bouncing back from a mistake, we tend to be all ears when it comes to genuinely useful hacks that teach us how to prioritise our tasks, organise our days and generally have a better time at work.

Knowing what positive habits to put in place – and how to put them there – to boost our motivation is an important aspect of this, because let’s face it, the 3pm energy slump is very real and even four years into hybrid working, it’s all too tempting to drift off into distraction while logging on from home.

So while the pomodoro method and ‘scary hours’ are great at beating procrastination, research from Harvard Business School suggests that rituals can also be effective at improving performance.

We all have our own work rituals, whether we’re conscious of them or not, from how we commute to what we do on our lunch breaks. However, these routines can also serve as cues to trigger desired behaviours, such as transitioning into a state of flow at work that allows you to be more productive in the moment and over time.

In The Power Of Habit, Charles Duhigg introduces the concept of ‘the habit loop’, which consists of three parts: the cue, the routine and the reward. First, the cue tells your brain to “initiate automatic behaviour mode”; then there is the routine or process, which involves the “desired behaviour actually unfolding automatically”; finally, there’s the reward, which “helps your brain to keep the behaviour prioritised again in the future”. As Duhigg suggests, the more we repeat the process, the easier the habit becomes.

When it comes to introducing habit loops to your working day, the key is to focus on the positive outcome you want to achieve. For example, if your goal is to increase your concentration in the afternoons, take notice of feeling sluggish after eating lunch (the cue), get into the habit of making yourself a cup of tea or popping out for a coffee (routine), which gives you both a caffeine and sugar hit (reward), and makes it easier to get back into the swing of work.

Similarly, if your email inbox is getting out of hand and you’re looking to get it under control, when you start to feel that looming anxiety as the unread emails pile up (cue), allocate yourself a 10-minute window to respond to as much as you can (routine) while popping headphones in and listening to your favourite songs (reward). The more difficult the habit, the bigger the payoff you should get from performing it.

Ultimately, the loop works by “triggering powerful neurotransmitters that the brain really enjoys, especially dopamine, the reward transmitter”. Therefore, the cue-routine-reward method can also be used to psych yourself up for important meetings or public speaking, as well as ticking annoying vampire tasks off of your to-do list – just make sure that it’s as personalised as possible: while a quick walk outside might be a great reward for someone else, five minutes to chat and a trip to the shop for a snack might be most attractive to you. 

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