Nailbiter to keen runner: the three secrets to turning a bad habit into a good one

From looking at my phone too much to sucking air through my teeth and biting my nails, I have habits I'd like to change. Can a treadmill desk and cookery lessons with my girlfriend help?

I am going to talk to Wendy Wood about my bad habits. Professor of psychology at the University of Southern California, Wood researches how habits guide behaviour and has written a new book about it: Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick. Not market-driven self-help, it is based on research, data, actual science. I hope she will help me to understand my bad habits, change them, and maybe even pick up a few good ones.

What are my unwanted habits, though, since I quit smoking? I should probably look at Twitter a little less, but that's everyone, right? Or Facebook, Instagram; whatever it is you look at your phone for. There is a chapter at the end of Wood's book, How to Stop Looking at Your Phone So Often. You have to start off by noticing you are doing it, then use some of the tools you have hopefully picked up in the preceding pages, such as controlling the cues to the behaviour, adding friction ... we will get to some of that.