How to break bad habits?

I feel it's useful focusing on the emotions driving those habits instead of the habits themselves. They serve a purpose -- what is that for you? How can you fulfill that need in another way that's also fulfilling? And if you can't, maybe the habit doesn't need to go away just yet. Especially the coffee thing doesn't seem to be that bad imo. It's fine to not have your life optimized down to the last penny you spend. As for the sleep thing, you need to find out which emotional state you are in when you chose to stay on your laptop instead of going to sleep.

Habits are habitual.

Behavioural modification requires discipline, and it takes 2 weeks to form new habits.

For sleep, start your wind down earlier each night so you train yourself to go to bed at the time you want. As a former night owl, this helped me a lot.

With regards to coffee, it sounds like you enjoy the ritual of acquiring coffee rather than the coffee itself. As a freelancer, is this the only time you step out of the house for a break? Breaking this habit could be as simple as making coffee at home and going for a walk to drink it.

The best way to break bad habits is to replace them with good ones (easier said than done). To do that, you need to reduce friction for the habit you want to begin, and increase friction in the habit you want to quit.

So, for me I struggle with Instagram and youtube use- like it's bad. I compulsively check my phone and veg out. Now, restricting my access/planned time for those apps hasn't worked for me- I just break the restriction/self imposed friction and continue with the bad habit. BUT I want to read more, so instead when I find myself picking up my phone to scroll- I put my phone down and pick up my book (I still end up scrolling, but it's managed down my activity a lot).

So, if you want to go to bed earlier, I suggest setting an alarm for 8:30 or something, and that's your alarm to get ready for bed to go read. Then you can read in bed until your goal bed time- and help yourself wind down. A wind down routine is crucial for a stable sleep schedule (it's just as important for me as it was for my dog when he was little)

As far as coffee goes- what is really causing you to go out and get the coffee? Is it the social aspect of starting your day by leaving the house? If so, find a more constructive way to fill that need. If it's just that you don't like making coffee at home- get a Nespresso maker and still spend the $$ on coffee, but damn good coffee 💁‍♀️

Just another note on your getting up early and getting enough sleep problem:

Banning my phone (and other devices like laptops, tablets etc.) from my bedroom solved that problem for me in a single day. Seriously. I leave my phone in the kitchen overnight to charge and set the alarm loud enough to hear from the bedroom. In the bedroom itself I only have a silent sunrise alarm clock that starts simulating a sunrise and gradually goes brighter and brighter for around 30 minutes before I need to get up. This has multiple benefits:

- No more staying awake watching something on your phone when you should be sleeping

- No more waking up at night and "looking something up" out of boredom and then having trouble falling asleep again

- Your first glance in the morning is not at your phone and you won't procrastinate getting out of bed because you are already reading messages

- the sunrise alarm wakes me slowly and gently and then the phone alarm ringing in another room makes me actually, physically get out of bed when it's time instead of just hitting the snooze button and going back to sleep

Also an obvious note: Caffeine stays in your body for a long time. For me it's no more caffeine in any form (including black tea, soda that contains caffeine or coffee based sweets or desserts) after 4 p.m. and I have less trouble falling asleep and sleep deeper since I started that habit

Yes I completely agree with setting multiple alarms to break the "sleepcrastinating" habit.

It is very difficult to change one's natural circadian rhythm, so it's of the utmost importance that you strictly force yourself to follow a wind-down schedule and stick to your sleep schedule.

Recently I have had to make the change from waking up at 2pm-4pm to 7am for my new job. What helped me was three alarms:

First: Brew some sleepytime tea and take melatonin, start wrapping up whatever activity I was doing.

Second: Actually get into bed and start reading a book or writing in my diary. No screen time allowed.

Third: Lights out and sleeping mask on, try to sleep a calculated 9 hours.

Also I don't drink full-strength coffee after noon, I switch to decaf, or oolong tea if I need more caffeine.

You put a pound sign in front of the 1k for coffee so I’m assuming you are in the uk. Get yourself a monthly pret subscription, it’s either £20 or £25 a month, can’t remember which but that gets you up to five hot drinks per day !!

read Atomic Habits?

I want to get up earlier to exercise. Of course I always press the snooze button. I do go after work, but I would also like to get a morning workout in.

as far as i know, a good way to deal with that is to replace habbits. you have a coffee problem and a wake-up-late problem. well, what if you woke up early a few days a week - baby steps - and made yourself a good fresh tasty home-made cup of coffee? the cofee would serve as a motivation to wake up early. making your own cup of coffee would save you money and could also become a nice morning ritual, so waking up early wouldn't sound so terrible (i understand that because i'm definitely not a morning person).

you can replace the coffee for something else, but it has to be something you like. that would solve the wake-ep-late problem.

now if you want to replace the coffee for some reason (mabe you drink too much of it? didn't think so by reading your post, but coffee is quite addictive), you can try a nice healthy breakfast, or some other beverage like tea, or juice, the possibilities are endless!

and remember to be patient and build the new habbits slowly.

Listen to the Huberman podcast about sleep!! Everyone needs minimum of 7.5-8 hours of sleep to be able to be fully recharged, functional, creative and have the space in their minds for creativity, etc. there are around maybe 5-10% who can function on 6 hours of sleep but they are minimal.

As for the coffee, I’m the same as you. I bought the most expensive coffees to make at home and the best machine, and I can’t drink it. It doesn’t taste good at all for me 😭😭😫😫😫 so I am spending $10 a day on coffee. Fml 🤦🏼‍♀️ I’ll keep trying until something works.

Caffeine pills. This bottle is the same as 200 cups of coffee for $10 Natrol High Caffeine Tablets, Energy Support, Helps Enhance Endurance and Mental Focus, Caffeine Supplement, Fatigue, Pre-Workout, Extra Strength, 200mg, 100 Count https://a.co/d/2UszU19

No teeth staining, less upset stomach from acidity