My cat Mira likes to do the same things at the same time, every day. At one point I stuck my hand under the bathroom door while brushing my teeth, which she accepted as an invitation to play "try to catch the fingers while rolling cutely across the floor."

Now, every time I brush my teeth, Mira stares at me from the end of the open door, waiting for me to start the game. She has created a loop: if I brush my teeth, she gets to play her favorite game. Living with a cat is all about this kind of loop: things that happen at one time are expected to happen at the same time the next day. Anyone who has ever tried to feed a cat later than usual knows this all too well, but it is more than that. Mira likes to form habits.

Now, you probably think you’re smarter than a cat, and in some ways you probably are. But I’m pretty sure you live in loops, just like a cat—there are things you do every day, like clockwork. Some of these habits you’re probably happy with; others, not so much. To change them, however, you have to recognize them and change the context that triggers them. I’ve been thinking recently that my daily habits are quite similar to Mira’s loops. I’m not all that different from my cat in terms of my habits. I do the same things at the same times every day, and then pick up new little routines as time goes on. But that doesn’t mean I have to keep them all.

Where do these “loops” come from? Researchers at University College London sum it up this way: “As behaviors are repeated in consistent situations, they begin to occur more efficiently and with less thought, because control over the behavior is transferred to cues in the environment that activate an automatic response: a habit.”