Break a Bad Habit, Build a Good One in English | English Podcast | Learn English Fast

Have you ever said "Starting Monday, I'm going to change," and by Wednesday the old habit was back? You're not the only one. In this English conversation podcast, John and Lisa give you five steps to break a bad habit and build a better one, with the English you need for each one. John promised to take twenty minutes a day away from his phone. It lasted two days. Lisa has wanted to write in English every night for four months, and her very nice notebook is still empty. Today they find out why, and at the end they each start a seven-day challenge in front of you. And John tells you his new number. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 4:20 Step 1: Find the bell 8:54 Step 2: Don't count on willpower 13:33 Step 3: Make it hard to reach 18:28 Step 4: Make it easy to see 23:54 Step 5: Don't break the chain 28:41 Listening game 33:02 Recap THE 5 STEPS 1. Find the bell: from "I have no willpower" to "Every time I sit down on the sofa, I pick up my phone." "I caught myself..." "Out of habit." 2. Don't count on willpower: from "Tonight, I'm going to be strong" to "I'm cutting down on my phone at night." Break a habit, quit, give up, cut down on. 3. Make it hard to reach: "I'm keeping it out of reach." "Out of sight, out of mind." The phone in the kitchen drawer. 4. Make it easy to see: "in plain sight." The notebook next to the remote. "Instead of scrolling, I read two pages." 5. Don't break the chain: "I've done it five days in a row." "I'm on a seven-day streak." "So far, I've..." Keep track of it with an X on the calendar. Plus: a listening game at normal speed about our neighbor Mrs. Kim, and two seven-day challenges. QUESTION OF THE DAY Write your seven-day challenge in the comments: "For seven days, instead of..., I'm going to..." RESEARCH MENTIONED Nicolas Dumay and M. Gareth Gaskell (University of York), "Sleep-associated changes in the mental representation of spoken words," Psychological Science 18(1), 2007. People learned new made-up spoken words. Those who learned them in the evening and then slept showed the words settling into memory the next morning; those who learned them in the morning showed that change only after a night of sleep. John and Lisa are fictional characters with AI-generated voices. Their stories are written for English listening practice.