After a long day of classes, work and studying, you finally come home. You tell yourself, “Tonight, I’ll start that project, cook something healthy, read a book and go to bed on time.”
Five minutes later, you’re scrolling on your phone or just lying in bed. Before you know it, your evening plans dissolve.
If you’ve ever wondered why it feels hard to do what you actually want, you’re not alone. Students today are bombarded with health and productivity advice, especially from social media, but are rarely given the tools to apply it.
As behavioral scientist Noa Benzadon of Noatrition explains, “There’s a lot of research out there, but you just end up asking yourself how and why you can start putting it into practice.”
Knowing what’s healthy or productive is easy; doing it consistently is harder. Thankfully, behavioral science helps explain why this gap exists and how to bridge it.
How motivation works
Motivation fluctuates based on factors including stress, sleep, diet and neurological conditions like depression.
Behavioral scientists divide it into two systems:
- Reflective motivation, intentional and driven by long-term goals: “I want to get a good grade, so I’ll sit down and study.”
- Automatic motivation, driven by current stimuli, impulses, habits and quick rewards: “Netflix sounds fun right now.”
The automatic system reacts faster and is more likely to influence your behavior. You may be disciplined in theory and know what you have to do, but because your environment makes it easy to scroll on your phone, it becomes difficult to achieve your goals.
The COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation → Behavior) model demonstrates these barriers in action. “It helps us understand whether someone is challenged because of a lack of capability, motivation or opportunity,” Noa notes.
You may know how to cook healthy meals (capability) and want to eat better (motivation), but a dirty kitchen or limited budget (opportunity) can still derail the habit. Recognizing which COM-B element you’re missing can help you target your solutions more effectively.
Research supports this: a 2021 study applying COM-B to young adults predicted 31% of variance in participants’ physical activity behavior and 23% of variance in their eating behaviors.
How your environment shapes your choices
Your surroundings greatly shape your decisions. A 2025 study found 65% of our daily choices are habitual, “on autopilot.” This isn’t inherently a bad thing. If we had to intentionally choose every action we took, it’d be extremely difficult to do anything.
However, if your habits and environment aren’t aligned with your goals, you can easily find yourself in a self-defeating spiral.
Nudges—small, strategic changes that make good behavior easier—can help, including:
- Keeping textbooks open or notes on your desk
- Charging your phone in another room or blocking time-wasting apps while studying
- Placing water bottles and healthy prepared foods prominently in your fridge
- Dimming lights 30 minutes before bed and removing distractions from your room
These simple tweaks reduce friction and help habits stick.
Why willpower isn’t enough
Willpower is finite and depleted by things including stress and competing impulses. Every decision you make takes some of your mental energy, and at the end of the day, when you’re stressed or tired, you may not have enough will to do what you actually want.
While willpower can help you get started, the systems you implement in your life to make better choices easier and more automatic are what allow you to be consistent.
Because of this, behavioral science recommends minimum viable habits: tiny, specific and repeatable actions that are easy to maintain.
When you start or change a habit, you often try to go all-in. For example, you want to exercise, so you go from zero gym days a week to five. But this big change can be overwhelming and often ends up being unsuccessful.
It’s better to start as small as possible and build from there—go to the gym once a week at first, then twice, and so on. Once something small becomes habitual, it’s much easier to increase.
Anchor steps and trigger steps also help.
- Anchor step: something you already do without much thought in a specific place (getting home and putting your keys on the hook)
- Trigger step: step between the anchor step and desired outcome that makes it easier for you (immediately putting your gym bag by the door and changing into workout clothes)
These actions may feel trivial, but research shows that consistent small habits build long-term routines.
How logic models bridge knowledge and action
Noa’s project also introduced students to her logic model, a behavioral science tool that directly connects daily actions to long-term outcomes. “I helped develop a logic model so you can analyze an action, the mechanism of the action and the final outcome,” she explained.
You may see tons of advice online, but without a framework, it rarely translates into behavioral change. Noa’s logic model directly connects actions to a desired outcome, making goals more concrete:
- Action: Cook and eat a balanced breakfast
- Mechanism: Stabilizes blood sugar and supports cognitive function
- Outcome: Improved focus, steadier energy, better mood
By mapping behaviors this way, you can see the why behind each habit. Combined with COM-B, it can help you design goals that fit your own system, accounting for environment, budget and lifestyle.
You’re not lazy, you just need a system that supports your behavior. With small, thoughtful changes and the right framework, good intentions can become real, lasting action.
Ready to explore behavioral science further?
If you’re curious about using behavioral science tools like COM-B and logic models to improve wellbeing, the Bachelor in Behavior & Social Sciences at IE University offers exactly that kind of training. Y
ou can learn how to design interventions, understand human behavior and apply science to everyday challenges.
