Your Daily Puzzle Ritual and the "Myth" of the 21-day Habit

How long does it take for something to become a habit? The sources we checked offer varying answers, but for a long time, it was widely believed that 21 days was the most popular result. Then some studies came up with 66 days or longer, but most acknowledge that there was a lot of variation among people and their habits. Clearly, some people are more habit-resistant than others!

So how do we start a healthy habit? And how do we maintain it? Habits are routine, automatic and sequential. Sometimes we set a goal like eating healthy all the time, or going to the gym every day or getting a full 8 hours of sleep every night.

Team Solve encourages a more reasonable approach for your daily Solve puzzle ritual -- slowly modify your lifestyle to accept a new healthy habit. We want you to experience the satisfaction and success of daily puzzle solving that you can sustain every day, every week, throughout the year. It’s as easy as choosing to drink water with every meal or doing 30 minutes of exercise daily.

Stay with your daily puzzle ritual and it will become a healthy habit that you can keep without having to plan time for it. It will become part of your day. Sometimes habits are hard to change, so that’s why we support developing a healthy habit that is worth having.

Helpful daily rituals can positively impact your life. A daily puzzle ritual is part of a healthy lifestyle. It provides time for a mental get-away and can be beneficial to your social, emotional, mental and physical health.

Staying positive about the journey of a daily puzzle ritual is key. From the very beginning, it’s easier to manage your expectations and commit to small steps rather than pressuring yourself into thinking you have to do it all at once. Don’t stress about it. If you happen to miss one day of puzzle-solving, you can easily get back on track the next day. This will help you reach your goal and maintain this healthy habit into the future.

We salute Ric from Team Solve who likes to say, “Ask your habit: are we there yet?”

Team Solve wants you to be successful in your puzzle ritual. Get started today and keep the momentum!