Time Emotional State Action Task Identifying Cue Experiments

Then there is the task of identifying the cue. Experiments have shown that almost all habitual cues fall into one of five categories:

1. Location
   
2. Time
   
3. Emotional state
   
4. Other people
   
5. Immediately preceding action
   

So when one notices themselves engaging in a habit, they can write down the state of each of these variables. For example, here's one of the notes that the author made while trying to diagnose his own snacking habit:

Where are you? (sitting at my desk)

What time is it? (3:36 P.M.)

What's your emotional state? (bored)

Who else is around? (no one)

What action preceded the urge? (answered an e-mail)