How To Stop Alexa Routine? The 13 New Answer

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You can ask Google Assistant to help you with tasks throughout the day. Say a command and Google Assistant can perform multiple actions.

For example if you say:

“Hey Google, good morning”, Google Assistant can turn on the lights, tell you the weather, play music or news and much more.

‘, Google Assistant can turn on the lights, let you know the weather, play music or news, and more. “Hey Google, let’s go home”, Google Assistant can give traffic information, send and read texts, play a podcast and much more.

“, Google Assistant can give traffic information, send and read texts, play a podcast and much more. “Hey Google, bedtime”, Google Assistant can set an alarm, turn off the lights, play sounds to fall asleep and much more.

To find other routines to get help with, follow steps 1 through 4 below.

With Alexa Routines, you can schedule your lights to turn on and off, change brightness, and change colors. You can even create schedules for your lights to turn on on specific days and times. Today we show you how.

What lights can you schedule with Alexa?

Not sure if your lights will work with Alexa? You can actually schedule any lights with Alexa, even if they’re not smart devices. These include light strips and incandescent lamps.

If your lights aren’t smart devices, you’ll need to plug them into a smart outlet that’s connected to Alexa. You then need to schedule the smart plug with Alexa or an Alexa-powered device like the Amazon Echo.

If your lights are smart devices, check if they support Alexa. You’ll know a smart light supports Alexa when you can find “Alexa compatible”, “Supports Alexa”, “Works with Alexa” or something similar on the packaging or product description. You can then follow the steps in the next section to plan your lights.

Unlike regular lights, you can often schedule your smart lights without Alexa or an Alexa-powered device. Instead, when you buy smart lights, you can use the manufacturer’s app to set up schedules. However, you must check the app to confirm that scheduling is supported.

How to schedule lights with Alexa

To schedule your lights with Alexa, make sure they are connected in the Alexa app on your smartphone or tablet. Make sure you can find them by tapping Device at the bottom of the app, then tapping Lights.

To start planning, go to the Alexa app and tap the “More” tab at the bottom of the screen. Then select “Routines”.

Go to the New Routine page by tapping the plus sign (+) in the top right corner.

Select “Enter Routine Name” and enter a name for your light routine. Consider using a simple name like “strip lighting routine” or “bulb lighting routine”. When you’re done entering a routine name, tap Next in the upper-right corner.

The app will take you back to the New Routine page. From here, select “When This Happens” and then tap on “Plan”.

Scheduling at a set time of day

If you want your lights to turn on at a specific time, use the At Time option.

Under “Repeat” you can select the days you want to schedule your lights. All days are selected in black by default. You can tap a tag to deselect it, which will turn it grey.

Now select a specific time to turn on your lights by tapping “At Time”.

When you’re done, tap Next in the top right. Then tap Add Action and scroll down to select Smart Home.

To find your lights, tap All Devices. This lists all of your available devices. Find the lights you want to schedule and tap the name. Your lamps can have a variety of functions, including:

Power: Turns your lights on or off.

Turns your lights on or off. Brightness: Changes the brightness of your lights.

Changes the brightness of your lights. Set Color: Change the color of your lights.

Depending on your lights, you might just have the power function. You will see all the available features your light offers in the Alexa app. To keep things simple, we’ll just show you how to schedule your lights to turn on and off.

To schedule your lights to turn on, tap the “Power” option. Then tap the toggle switch and make sure it says “On”. (The switch turns blue.) To schedule your lights to turn off, tap the toggle switch until you see Off. (The switch turns grey.)

Tap Next in the top right corner when done, which will take you back to the New Routine page.

Now tap on the “Add Action” option again. Scroll down and select the Wait action. The Wait action sets delays between your actions. You need this to schedule your lights to turn on and off in a single routine.

For example, let’s say you set your lights to turn on at 7:00 a.m. and you want them to turn off at 10:00 a.m. You can add a two hour wait delay and then add another action to turn off your lights.

The longest delay you can add is four hours in a single Wait action. Add multiple wait actions for longer delays. When you’re done creating your routine, tap Save in the top right.

Planning at sunrise or sunset

To schedule your lights to turn on at sunrise or sunset, use either the Sunrise or Sunset options instead of the Set Time option. Your sunrise and sunset times depend on where you are.

From here you can follow the same steps outlined in the section above. The only different feature is the “time offset” option, which allows you to shift your lights’ schedule up to an hour before or after sunrise or sunset.

How to plan your lighting with Alexa. Why not create schedules for all your lights? Just remember that if you plan to schedule regular lights, you’ll need to get yourself some smart plugs.

Waking up can be difficult, but Alexa can make it easier. Alexa won’t make you less sleepy or wake you up from bed, but it can make your morning routine much more efficient.

Weather, traffic, lights and snooze routines

If you’re like many people, you wake up (eventually), try to read the news, check your email, get dressed, find out weather and traffic conditions, and drink coffee (maybe even breakfast!) before heading to work walk . There’s a lot to do, and it probably doesn’t help that you hit the snooze button three or four times — even though you swore that yesterday was the last time you would ever do it again.

What if you could at least make your mornings more productive? Instead of having to pull out your phone to check the news, then the weather, then the traffic, you could have a routine that takes care of all of that. If you have smarthome technology, you can even institute routines to turn on the lights, turn on the coffee maker, and warm up (or cool down) the house. With a few late-breaking routines, you can even make lights glow slowly, like a sunrise clock.

If you want to take it a step further, you can add echo buttons to your routines and give you a physical object to slap that will snooze Alexa, like old alarm clocks. We’ll show you how to put together some morning routines to make getting out of bed more bearable — or at least save yourself some time in the morning.

Put the routine together

Creating morning routines follows similar steps as any other routine you create. Open the Alexa app, then tap the hamburger menu.

Tap on “Routines”.

Tap the plus (+) button in the top right corner to create a new routine.

Tap the plus icon to the right of When this happens.

Tap on “Schedule”.

To the right of Current, tap Select.

Choose your desired start time. Although in this case we want to wake up fully at 6:30 am, we choose 6:00 am so that we can ramp up the light slowly. To the right of Repeat, tap Select.

Select the days you want the routine to be triggered. If you work Monday through Friday, you can select days of the week. Then tap Done.

Tap Next in the top right.

Tap the plus icon to the right of Add Action.

Tap “Smart Home” to control smart home devices. We show how to turn on smart lights like Philips Hue or LIFX bulbs.

Tap Control Device to turn on a single bulb, or tap Control Group to turn on a group of lights you’ve set up in your bedroom.

Tap the name of the smart light or group you want to turn on.

Tap on “Brightness” and lower the slider to 5%. This will initially turn on your light at 5% brightness, and we’ll gradually increase the brightness from there. Then tap “Next” in the top right.

Tap Add Action.

Tap on “Wait”.

Change the duration to six minutes, then tap Next. Alexa will wait that many minutes before performing the next action you have configured.

Repeat these steps to add the same smart light and wait actions, increasing the brightness of your smart light in 20% increments each time until you reach 6:30 am and 100% brightness.

Tap Add Action.

Tap on “Alexa Says”. This category also includes actions such as singing a song or telling a fun fact. We will use a morning greeting.

Tap on “Good morning”. This action prompts Alexa to greet you in the morning, and Amazon says it should offer a fun fact – but we’ve never heard one.

Tap Next in the top right.

Tap Add Action.

Tap Weather to hear a weather report for your area.

Tap Next in the top right.

Tap Add Action.

Tap on “Traffic”. If you haven’t already set traffic options, you should do so.

Tap Next in the top right.

Tap Add Action.

Tap Music to have Alexa play music from a service like Pandora or Amazon Music.

Enter the name of a song or playlist you prefer, then tap “Select Provider” and choose a provider like Spotify or Amazon Music. Then tap the timer option to set a time limit (if you’ve selected a playlist). Alexa stops playing music after the time limits you select. Otherwise it will play to the end of the playlist or you turn it off.

Tap Next in the top right.

Check that all your routine actions are arranged correctly, they will be performed one after the other. If something is in the wrong place, tap and hold the two lines on the right side of the action, then drag them up or down. If everything is correct, tap “Save” to complete the routine creation.

And now you have a routine that slowly turns on the lights, gives you weather and traffic updates, and plays music to start your day. You can change individual details, add more smart home options or play news instead of weather. But what if you need to take a nap? If you have an Amazon Echo Button, you can create a routine that turns it into a snooze button.

Setting up an echo snooze button

Next, let’s set up a snooze button. This can technically work with any routine that plays audio, but works well with your morning routines that broadcast news or music. This guide assumes you’ve already paired your Echo buttons. If you haven’t, we have a handy guide to walk you through the process.

Create a new routine as before. After tapping the plus icon to the right of “If this happens,” select the Echo button.

When prompted, press the physical Echo button you want to use, then tap Add.

Tap the plus icon to the right of Add Action.

Select “Device Settings”.

Select “Stop Volume”.

If the button is paired with the Echo you use for morning routines, leave Associated Device enabled. Otherwise, check for the correct echo. Then tap Next.

Tap Next.

However, we need to play music again, so let’s add a delayed action to play music. Tap Add Action.

Select the Wait option.

Choose a time you want to snooze, e.g. B. 10 minutes. Then tap “Next” in the top right.

Now that we have a wait, we need to restart the music. Tap Add Action.

Select the “Music” option.

Use the same music, provider, and timer options you chose for your morning routine.

Then tap “Next” in the top right.

If you want to limit the ability to snooze over and over again, here’s an optional step to make this only work once. To the right of “Anytime,” tap the “Change” option.

Expand the Suppress for section and select 1 hour. Then tap Next.

Now tap “Save” to finish creating this routine. Now when you hit the snooze button in the morning, the music will pause for ten minutes and then restart.

You can tweak some of these variables to suit your needs, but using routines will make your mornings easier – if not happier.

alexa alexa alexa Calling up Amazon’s virtual assistant for each command to turn on a multitude of smart home devices one by one can be tiring. But did you know you can set up Alexa Routines and create a single voice command that triggers a variety of different actions?

To design routines, you must use the Alexa app. Once you create one, you can use an Alexa speaker, smart display, or other smart home device with Alexa built-in to trigger a Routine. You can also schedule routines or trigger them from third-party smart home devices by closing alarms or using Echo buttons.

Not using Alexa at home? We also have guides on creating Google Assistant Routines and using Siri Shortcuts.

How to set up an Alexa Routine

Open the Alexa app on your phone or tablet, tap the More tab at the bottom, then select Routines. You can find some preset routines in the Featured tab. To create your own routine, tap the plus icon and you’ll be prompted to choose a name for it.

Tap When this happens to choose your trigger and Add action to choose what should happen. Here’s an example: When I say “Alexa, good night,” the lights go out, the bedroom curtains close, and Alexa says “sweet dreams.”

You can add as many actions as you like. Most actions are self-explanatory, from starting a call to sending an email to triggering a music playlist. In the smart home space, you can trigger actions on devices like smart lights, security cameras, and robot vacuums if you’ve already added them through the Alexa app. If not, just tap the More tab and select Add device at the top.

You can always edit or delete routines later, so it’s worth experimenting. If you can’t find the action you want, try the Customized option above and type in what you want Alexa to do.

If that doesn’t work, consider using IFTTT (If This Then That). You can create “applets” to do just about anything through the IFTTT website, and if you link your Amazon account, the applets you create will appear via the Add IFTTT option in the Actions list when you use an Alexa -Create routine. This can be a good way to have an Alexa command trigger a device or service that isn’t directly compatible.

For more information on Alexa routines and ideas for new ones, click here.

What you can do with Alexa Routines

You can use routines to trigger the usual responses, announcements, and actions that Alexa is capable of, but they can be layered for different purposes. With the right connected devices, you can also trigger lights, cameras, TVs, music, and whatever fun and useful Alexa skills you have installed. The possibilities are nearly unlimited.

There are too many to go through each option here, so here are a few sample routines you may find useful:

In this video you will learn how to edit or delete a routine in the Amazon Alexa app.

Before you can edit or delete Routines, you must first connect your Somfy myLink™ to Amazon Alexa and then create a Routine with your Somfy-based products.

To edit the Alexa Routine:

To edit a routine, go to your Alexa app and click on your routines, select the routine you want to edit.

You can change the activation phrase. For example, instead of saying “Alexa, good morning,” you want to say “Alexa, time to wake up.”

You can also change, add, or delete actions associated with the activation phrase. Go ahead and try what works most naturally for you. Enjoy all your smart home devices working in unison with Somfy powered window treatments.

To delete a routine, select the routine to delete.

From the Edit Routine screen, select the menu (…) in the top right corner. Then select DELETE.

Your routine is now cleared!

To learn more, visit us at somfysystems.com.

With a feature called Routines, Alexa makes it easy to control all of your smart home devices at once. For example, you can turn on all the smart lights in your home when you wake up every morning. Or you can turn off your smart lights, smart thermostat, and smart TV all at the same time just by saying “Alexa, good night.” Here’s everything you need to know about setting up Routines for all your smart home devices that work with Alexa.

How to create a routine on Alexa

To create a Routine on your Alexa devices, open the Alexa app and tap More in the bottom right. Then go to Routines and tap the plus sign icon in the top right corner and enter a name, set a trigger and choose an action. Finally, tap Save in the top right.

Open the Alexa app. If you don’t have the app, you’ll need to download it from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Then tap More. It’s the three-line icon in the lower-right corner of your screen. Next, select Routines. Then tap the plus sign icon. You will see this in the top right corner of your screen. Note: You can also tap the Recommended tab at the top of the screen to see a list of pre-made routines you can use. Next, tap Enter Routine Name. Then enter a name and tap Next. The name doesn’t really matter. It’s just to help you identify your routine in the Alexa app itself. Next, tap When this happens. Then set a trigger and tap Next. This determines what the routine begins. In this example we’re using the voice trigger, which means our routine will be triggered when we’re near an Alexa speaker and we say the voice command we set up. However, there are many other triggers you can use: Schedule: Triggers the routine at the times you specify. For example, you can turn on all your smart lights every weekday at 8:00 when you wake up.

: Triggers the routine at the times you specify. For example, you can turn on all your smart lights every weekday at 8:00 when you wake up. Smart Home: Triggers the routine when one of your smart devices detects movement or sound. However, this only works with certain smart home devices such as smart cameras and smart speakers.

: Triggers the routine when one of your smart devices detects motion or sound. However, this only works with certain smart home devices such as smart cameras and smart speakers. Location : Triggers the routine based on your phone’s location. For example, you can set your smart thermostat to turn off with your phone when you leave the house. To do this, however, you must give Alexa access to your “precise location” at all times.

: Triggers the routine based on your phone’s location. For example, you can set your smart thermostat to turn off with your phone when you leave the house. To do this, however, you must give Alexa access to your “precise location” at all times. Alarms: Triggers the routine after an alarm is dismissed. For example, if you end the alarm by saying “Alexa, stop,” the routine begins.

: Triggers the routine after an alarm is dismissed. For example, if you end the alarm by saying “Alexa, stop,” the routine begins. Echo Key: Triggers the routine when you press an echo key. However, the Echo Button device has been discontinued and you can no longer buy it from Amazon.

: Triggers the routine when you press an echo key. However, the Echo Button device has been discontinued and you can no longer buy it from Amazon. Sound detection: Triggers the routine when one of your Alexa speakers hears snoring, devices beeping, coughing, water sounds, a dog barking, or a baby crying. However, this new feature is currently in public preview.

: Triggers the routine when one of your Alexa speakers hears snoring, devices beeping, coughing, water sounds, a dog barking, or a baby crying. However, this new feature is currently in public preview. Guard: Triggers the routine when Alexa Guard is enabled or disabled. After setting up the routine trigger, select Add action. You’ll see this at the end of the section where you set up the trigger. Then choose an action. This will determine what happens after the trigger. There are too many actions to list individually, but they include controlling your smart home devices, launching your Alexa skills, playing music, getting the weather, news or traffic updates, and more.

For example, if you choose Smart Home, you can choose which smart devices are activated after the trigger. When choosing your smart lights, you need to choose which lights or groups of lights you want to control. Finally, you can turn them all on and off, adjust the brightness and color, and more. Note: You can only set an Alexa Routine to perform a single set of actions at a time. This means you need to create a routine to turn on all of your smart lights, and then create a separate routine to turn off all of your smart lights. You can’t use the same routine to run both (unless you want them to run in sequence). Finally tap Save. You will see this in the top right corner.

Note: You can add more actions to a routine by tapping Add Action again. You can also rearrange the order of each action by holding down the dots next to each command and dragging them up or down.

READ ALSO: The Best Alexa Commands You Didn’t Know

Once you’ve set up an Alexa Routine, you can test it by tapping the blue play button to the right of the Routine’s name.

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Alexa-enabled devices with cameras can be your eyes when you’re on the go, but any Amazon Echo device can become a second pair of ears whether you’re home or not. A surprisingly powerful new beta feature called Sound Detection lets Alexa listen for sounds other than just the wake word (typically “Alexa” but doesn’t have to be). When your device detects these sounds, it can run a series of commands in response.

Alexa can listen for a dog barking or a baby crying, or for people to snore and cough. However, since there aren’t any sound-based Alexa Routine templates to choose from in the Featured tab, it’s up to you to create the reaction you want Alexa to have on some or all of these sounds. Read on for creative ideas.

Here we show you how to use Alexa’s sound recognition feature to trigger a routine, and give examples of each type of sound your Amazon Echo can currently recognize (in case you’re wondering how Alexa could help with a cough, for example). fit). Just a reminder, this feature is still in beta. If something goes wrong (or not), you can send your feedback to Amazon to improve the function.

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Creating Alexa Routines can get a little rough

Routines can be daunting, but this routine and the ones that follow are particularly easy.

Background: I have a 70-pound boxer that I call Mucho because it’s just so extra. One of the things he does too often is bark, so I created a routine that will set off a loud alarm when Alexa hears him woof.

Well, I’m not a Pavlov, but you know what? It worked. At least a bit. He seems to bark less now, as his food bell brain expects an air raid siren every time he cheers on a delivery man.

Brett Pearce/CNET

To create this or any other routine in the Alexa app, first tap the “More” menu in the lower-right corner, then tap “Routines” at the top of the next screen. Next, tap the + (plus sign) in the top-right corner.

1. Tap Enter Routine Name and come up with something fun, like “Sonic Barkinator” (you need to capitalize the letters manually), then tap the back arrow in the top-right corner.

2. Tap When this happens, and then tap Sound detection (beta). At the top, tap Dog Barking.

3. The next screen will ask you which device you want to listen to dogs barking. It seems that each device requires a separate routine, so choose the one that is most likely to catch your dog in the act. After tapping the device you want, tap Next.

4. By default, Alexa will stop barking on weekdays from 9am to 5pm. and wait 15 minutes before doing the routine one by one. You can tap Change if you want to change any of these parameters (then tap Next to return to the previous screen).

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

5. Tap Add Action. This is the fun part, where you create the series of commands you want Alexa to execute when your dog barks.

6. First I tapped Device Settings, then Volume, then turned the slider all the way up to 100%. Use your discretion – 100% is loud. Then tap Next twice (the app will confirm your choice).

7. Tap Add Action in the middle of the screen, then scroll down and tap Sounds. The app doesn’t play samples, so you’ll have to decide which one to use. I selected “Bells and Buzzers” and then “Buzzer,” but there are options under “Crowds” for “Crowd Applause” and “Crowd Cheers” that are less nerve-wracking than an alert, but still grab attention – one of these might as well well working.

8. This is the most important step if you want to save your hearing: Tap Add Action again, then Device Settings, then Volume and restore your Alexa speaker to its normal, comfortable volume. Otherwise it will get stuck at 10, so the next time you ask for the time or the weather it will sonic attack you.

9. Tap Save in the top-right corner, then choose which speaker you want Alexa to answer from (presumably the same speaker that hears the barking). The message Routine created successfully flashes at the top of the screen.

That’s it. Now it’s a waiting game. The irony for me was actually hoping my dog ​​would bark just so I could see this routine in action.

I’ve simplified the steps in the remaining examples now that you’re more familiar with the process.

Juan Garzon/CNET

Alexa can take over the nanny service at no extra charge

My daughter is school-age now, so my personal cry detection routine looks a little different than it would for a toddler (she hasn’t triggered it yet, but Alexa will tell a joke to cheer her up when she does). Since this is a bit of a niche, I created what I think Amazon intended when they implemented this feature.

Note that you really don’t want to rely solely on Alexa to hear if your baby is crying. Real baby monitors are chock-full of security, privacy and reliability features that can give you the peace of mind that you will be notified when your child needs your attention. Digital voice assistants are still a relatively young technology and smart speakers, including Amazon Echoes, are notoriously unreliable.

I would rather use this as a backup. If you’re momentarily out of earshot of your baby monitor walkie-talkie, Alexa will alert you on your phone that your baby is crying. How to set this up:

1. Navigate to the Routines screen, tap the + (plus sign) and name your routine.

2. Under When this happens, tap Sound detection (beta), then tap Baby is crying and choose which speaker to listen to.

3. By default, duplicate alerts are suppressed for 5 minutes, which is as little as possible. Tap Change to make it longer.

4. Tap Add Action, tap Messaging, and then tap Notification. Enter a message to yourself, e.g. B. “Your baby is crying.”

5. Optionally, you can add more actions. On the Messages tab, tap Send Announcement to have Alexa notify you from one or more of your Amazon Echos. You could have Alexa play a sound, like in the previous dog barking routine (just probably not as loud). If your baby responds well to music, you can have the Echo speaker play lullabies in her room while you walk over to her by selecting Music & Podcasts from the Add Activity menu.

Amazon

Alexa can mask snoring noises

A sleeping companion that snores is pure kryptonite for light sleepers, but there’s a chance Alexa can fix it before the logs being sawed wake you up. I’m not a light sleeper, nor do I share a bed with a snorer, but I use Alexa as a noise machine to both help me fall asleep and stay asleep, so this is familiar territory for me.

If you’re a light sleeper, you probably have a favorite sound that you enjoy playing to help you fall asleep or stay asleep. To me, that’s brown noise – most people only know white noise, but there’s actually a whole range of color-coded sounds, each with different EQ levels across the tonal spectrum. Use whatever works best for you for this routine.

Begin creating the routine as in the previous two, except select Snoring from the Sound Detection (Beta) menu.

If your preferred Add Action sound is from a third-party app like White Noise or Sleep Sounds, you should tap Abilities, then your Abilities, and then find the app you’re using in this list. If you’re listening to a music file hosted on your favorite streaming service (e.g. Spotify or Apple Music), select “Music & Podcasts” and direct Alexa to that track.

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

If you’re completely baffled as to where your favorite sound is coming from, you can always select the first option in the Add Action menu called Custom. Tap that and then literally type in the command you speak to Alexa to get the sound you want on the next screen, then tap Next. The only problem with Custom is that the app then won’t let you add any more actions after the custom command, so you won’t be able to do that next part.

If you don’t want the sound to play all night, you can add another action and select “Wait” at the very bottom of the menu and then choose how long you want the sound to play. After that, just add one more action – tap Device Settings and then tap Stop Audio. Now select your bed device and tap Next.

Alexa, how much did I (um) cough?

I couldn’t figure out what Alexa could do for a cough (other than maybe order cough syrup?), so I asked Amazon. The answer turned me into a real head-knock emoji: once you routinely turn on cough detection, Alexa will notice every time you cough. Then, if you feel like you’re getting sick, you can ask, “Alexa, how many times did I cough yesterday?” Or the day before, or the day before ad infinitum.

Setting up this routine isn’t that intuitive, so follow closely and no, I haven’t left anything out:

1. Navigate to the Routines screen, tap the + (plus sign) and name your routine.

2. Under When this happens, tap Sound detection (beta), then tap Cough and choose which speaker should pay attention (if you have multiple speakers, you’ll need to set this up for each one individually). Then tap Next.

3. By default, Alexa will stop coughing on weekdays from 9am to 8pm. and wait 5 minutes before doing the routine one by one. You can tap Change if you want to change any of these parameters (then tap Next to return to the previous screen).

4. Tap Save.

That’s it – you don’t need to add an action like you do with most routines. Now Alexa listens to coughs and can report back the frequency.

Can we talk about pauses in our relationships for a second? I’m talking about the little ruts we sometimes find ourselves in when we’re in a serious, long-term, happy (!) relationship. Especially in cohabitation (as J and I find ourselves) routines can get a little boring. Forget the dreaded dry spell, I’m talking about a *social* period. It happens to the best of us, but there’s a way to get that excitement back. Promise.

? www.bildquelle.com

I recently spoke to some of my sworn friends and realized that we’ve all experienced this similar “social rut” with our longtime boys. Think about it: Especially when you live together, your routine often determines your life. You get up, go to work, cook (or order something if J and I have crazy work hours), have that “how was your day?” chatting and eventually merging on the couch to watch a bravo night (or some variation of the above). And your evenings? It’s dinner at the same old Italian eatery down the block, or a drink at your local watering hole. I’m right? The weeks start to repeat themselves and you wait for those highlights on the calendar: holidays, parties, vacations. You know, something else to look forward to.

Ladies, going through a lull like this doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with your day-to-day life (or your relationship). It’s just something that happens when you’re with the same person every day. And I’m not saying that having a routine is boring, because most of us like predictability (I plan everything out), but sometimes you need a little pick-me-up during the month. I’m right?

J and I have actually gotten more social since we’ve been living together: we plan double dates, group trips, date nights, and weekend getaways with friends. But we’ve also started spending more time apart. We realize the importance of having a life of our own while building a life together. And honestly, since the big move, it’s been easier to spend time apart because I know I’ll see him at the end of the night. But it’s definitely work to keep things exciting. After ten months of living together, we figured out a few tricks to break the rut:

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Yes, going cold turkey on your phone is unrealistic. Maybe just say you check social media once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the evening instead of every hour — and use the time you come back to take a quick walk around the office or the block and close with a pen doodle and paper, or read a printed book or magazine! Yes, they still exist!

Share on Pinterest Everyone has habits and there’s nothing wrong with that. Some are pretty useful — maybe get your clothes ready for work the night before, or automatically turn off lights when you leave a room. But other habits, like nail biting, drinking caffeine too late in the day, or hitting snoozes too often, may not be as beneficial. Breaking unwanted habits can be difficult, especially if you’ve been at it for a long time. But understanding how habits form in the first place can make the process easier. Habit Formation There are a few theories about how habits form. The idea of ​​the 3 Rs is one of the most important: Reminder. This is a trigger or cue, which can be a conscious behavior like flushing the toilet, or a feeling like nervousness.

This is a trigger or cue, which can be a conscious behavior like flushing the toilet, or a feeling like nervousness. Routine. This is the behavior associated with the trigger. Flushing the toilet prompts you to wash your hands while feeling nervous triggers biting your nails. Doing something over and over again can make the behavior routine.

This is the behavior associated with the trigger. Flushing the toilet prompts you to wash your hands while feeling nervous triggers biting your nails. Doing something over and over again can make the behavior routine. Reward. The reward associated with a behavior also helps retain a habit. When you do something that brings you joy or relieves stress, the pleasurable release of dopamine in your brain can make you want to do it again. With the idea of ​​the 3 Rs in mind, here are 15 tips to help you break that old, stubborn habit.

Identify Your Triggers Remember, triggers are the first step in developing a habit. Identifying the triggers behind your habitual behaviors is the first step to overcoming them. Spend a few days tracking your habits to see if they follow any patterns. Notice things like: Where does the habitual behavior take place?

What time of day?

How do you feel when it happens?

Are other people involved?

Does it happen right after something else? Let’s say you want to stop staying up after midnight. After tracking your behavior for a few days, you find that when you start watching TV or chatting with friends after dinner, you tend to stay up later. But you go to bed earlier when you read or go for a walk. You decide to stop watching TV and turn off your phone until 9 p.m. on weeknights. Removing the trigger — watching TV or talking to friends — complicates the routine of staying up late.

Focus on Why You Want to Change Why do you want to break or change a particular habit? Research from 2012 suggests that it may be easier to change your behavior if the change you want is valuable or beneficial to you. Take a few minutes to consider why you want to break the habit and what benefits you see from the change. Listing these reasons can help you think of some that you haven’t thought of yet. For extra motivation, write your reasons on a piece of paper and keep it on your fridge, bathroom mirror, or some other place you see it regularly. When you see the list, you can keep the change you want to make fresh in your mind. If you happen to fall into that habit again, your list will remind you why you want to keep trying.

Get a Friend’s Support If you and a friend or partner both want to break an unwanted habit, try it together. Suppose you both want to quit smoking. Dealing with food cravings on your own can be difficult. Quitting with a friend won’t make the craving go away. But they might be easier to deal with when faced with someone else. Make it a point to cheer on each other’s successes and encourage each other through setbacks. A friend can still offer support even if they don’t have any habits they want to change. Consider telling a trusted friend about the habit you are trying to break. They can encourage you in times of doubt and gently remind you of your goal when they notice you falling back into old habits.

Practice mindfulness Mindfulness can help you become more aware of your thoughts, feelings, and actions. This practice simply involves observing impulses related to your habit without judging or acting on them. As you become more aware of these routine behaviors and the triggers that lead to them, you may find it easier to consider other options, such as: Practicing mindfulness can also help you see how your habit is affecting your daily life. As you begin to see these effects, you may feel more motivated to work on changing the habit.

Replace the habit with another You may find it easier to break a habit if you replace the unwanted behavior with a new behavior, rather than simply trying to stop the unwanted behavior. Let’s say you want to stop reaching for candy when you’re hungry at work. If you simply try to avoid the candy dish, you may fall back into the habit when you can’t resist the hunger pangs. But if you bring a Tupperware of dried fruits and nuts to keep at your desk, you have another snacking option. As you repeat the new behavior, the impulse to follow the new routine develops. Eventually, after you see the rewards of the new habit—more energy and less sugar crash—the urge to continue that behavior might outweigh the desire to continue the old habit. Replacing harmful habits like substance abuse with more positive ones can have many benefits. But it’s important to remember that “good” habits like exercise can still be overdone. Even a “healthy” diet can have negative effects in extreme cases.

Let Reminders Leave You Using stickers, sticky notes, or other visual reminders wherever the habitual behavior occurs can help you revisit the action if something triggers you. Here are a few ideas: Would you like to break the habit of drinking soda with every meal? Try leaving little stickers on your fridge that you’ll see when you reach for a can.

Do you try to remember to turn off the lights when you leave a room? Leave a note for yourself at the light switch or on the door.

Would you like to keep your keys in a specific place so that you don’t lose them frequently? Leave a key for your keys in the first place you see them when you return home. You can also use a smartphone for reminders. Set your alarm and add a motivating note to yourself, e.g. B. “Time to turn off the TV! :)” or “After-dinner walk – remember how good it feels!”

Prepare for slip-ups Breaking a habit can be challenging, although some habits are easier to shake than others. “It’s very easy to fall back into old patterns, especially when the new ones aren’t established yet,” said Erika Myers, LPC. “Change is difficult. Remember, these habits took a while to build, so you won’t lose them in a day.” Try to mentally prepare for slip-ups so you don’t feel guilty or discouraged when you do this. Perhaps commit to writing down three bullet points about how you felt doing the habit, or do a quick breathing exercise. Try to learn from your slip-ups. Be honest with yourself about what caused the setback, and consider whether changing your approach might help you stay on track better.

Let go of the all-or-nothing mindset Accepting that you’re likely to make a mistake a few times when you try to break a habit and come up with a plan is one thing. Preventing feelings of frustration and failure when you make a mistake is a different story. When you fall back into an old habit, you might ask yourself, “Can I really do this?” You might start to doubt yourself and feel inclined to give up. Myers recommends looking at your accomplishments instead. Maybe you try to quit smoking and you succeed 3 days in a row. On the fourth day you smoke a cigarette and spend the rest of the night feeling like a failure. “Smoking a cigarette after not smoking for a few days doesn’t take away the past few days,” Myers said. Remember that tomorrow you can make a different choice. “They’re looking for movement in a certain direction rather than perfection,” Myers added. “Rather than focus on your end goal, consider this: everything you do is good.”

Start Small Trying to break multiple habits at once? The image of a new, improved self can be a powerful motivator, especially when you first decide to change unwanted habits. That can work sometimes. If the habits fit together, you may find it easier to address them at the same time. For example, if you’re trying to quit smoking and drinking, and you always do those two things together, it may make the most sense to quit both at the same time. However, experts generally recommend starting small. The goal is to change one habit at a time. Taking habits step by step can also help, even if these steps seem too small or easily manageable at first. Thinking back to the “soda with every meal” example, you could start by not drinking soda with dinner for a week. Then build it up to not eating it for lunch or dinner for the next week.

Change your environment Your environment can sometimes have a big impact on your habits. Maybe you’re trying to break the habit of always ordering takeout because it’s costing you too much money. But every time you step into the kitchen, you see the to-go menus hanging on your fridge. You could try replacing the menu with printouts of simple recipes that you know you’ll enjoy. Other examples include: leaving a journal, book, or hobby items (sketchbooks, crafts, or games) on your coffee table to encourage you to pick them up instead of scrolling through social media

Spend 10 or 15 minutes tidying up your house every night to encourage you to stay organized

Alter your morning commute so you don’t miss the coffee shop with the tempting, overpriced latte. Remember that the people you surround yourself with are also part of your environment. Consider taking a break from spending time with those who are contributing to your habit or not supporting your process of breaking one.

Imagine yourself breaking habit. You can also mentally practice new replacement habits. Imagine you are in a triggering environment or situation, such as the morning before your performance review. How would you normally react? You may find yourself biting your nails anxiously or banging your pen on your desk. How could you react instead? Imagine practicing deep breathing, walking to drink some water, sorting through old notes or files, or tidying up desk drawers—anything that keeps your hands busy and helps you calm down. Practicing a different reaction in your mind can help you become more familiar with it when you face the real-world situation.

Practicing Self-Care Many people find it easier to make positive changes in their lives when they start from a place of well-being. If you’re already struggling with other challenges like work stress, relationship problems, or health issues, trying to break a habit can cause more stress than the habit itself. When breaking a habit, it’s especially important to put your own well-being first. Not only does this increase your chances of success, but it also helps you stay empowered in the face of challenges. Try these self-care tips: Take the time to get a good night’s sleep.

Eat regular, nutritious meals.

Contact your doctor for long-term concerns.

Try to be physically active most days.

Make at least a little time each day for hobbies, relaxation, or other things that improve your mood.

Motivate Yourself with Rewards for Success Remember that breaking a habit can be incredibly difficult. Make sure you acknowledge how far you’ve come and try to reward yourself along the way. Even small motivators, like telling yourself what a great job you are doing, can boost your confidence and drive you to keep trying. When you focus on the progress you’ve made, you’re less likely to become discouraged or engage in negative self-talk, which can affect your motivation. “Celebrate your victories,” Erika recommended. “You may not be ready to run a marathon just yet, but if it’s easier to run a mile this week than last week, that’s achievement.”

Give it time There’s a common myth that it takes 21 days to make or break a habit. But where does this number come from? It likely came from a study of people who had plastic surgery. Most adjusted to their changed appearance within 3 weeks. This is very different from actively working to break ingrained habits. Experts estimate that it realistically takes around 10 weeks (2 to 3 months) or more to stop an adverse event. Of course, some habits take more or less time to break. How long it takes to break a habit depends on several things, Myers said. These include: how long you’ve had the habit

the emotional, physical, or social needs that the habit fulfills

if you have support or help with breaking the habit

the physical or emotional reward the habit provides When a few weeks have passed and you feel like you haven’t made much progress, it can be helpful to reassess your approach. But you might also consider seeking help from a mental health professional, especially with habits that are more ingrained in your behavior or cause you a lot of stress