If you really love something, like going to the beach, you should avoid making it a habit.
In an interview with The Happiness Project's Gretchen Rubin, University of Southern California psychology Professor Wendy Wood talked about how habits are formed.
Wood says we are naturally habitual creatures, and she's conducted research that shows a massive 40 per cent of our activities are repeated daily.
The rub, Wood says, is that while action tendencies become stronger with repetition, our feelings become weaker.
"When habits are really strong, then you even repeat them when you don't intend to," said Wood.
"Feelings, however, become weaker with repetition. So, the more often you eat icecream, the less pleasure you get from eating it."
Wood says the bottom line is to not repeat things you enjoy in a routine way, which would make it a habit.
"You lose the pleasure in the experience," she says. "Instead, you want to make habitual the necessities in life: that is, regular exercise, a healthy diet, saving money and paying the bills, and working."
"The pleasures in life should be savoured and not performed in a habitual way, including time with family, a great glass of wine, and the sunset over the ocean."
While you don't want things you love to become routine so they become boring, if you withhold them for too long you could end up unhappy.
As Rubin says in her post about why you should treat yourself: "People who go too long without treats often become brittle, drained, and impatient."
So how frequently should you do the things you love?
Wood told Op-Talk firstly it depended on how complicated the experience was - eating an icecream, for example, was easier than paying attention during your favourite movie.
Secondly, Wood says, staying present and aware helps stop the activity or experience from becoming boring, and uses Japanese tea ceremonies as an example.
"You don't lose awareness of the thing that you're doing, and you have to really get yourself in a certain type of a meditative, very mindful state, to stay aware despite the repetition," Wood says.
"That's part of the challenge of rituals: In order to really appreciate them you have to stay aware."
Another way Wood suggests preventing a habit forming, is to "insert some change" into the experience.
"Children are very good at challenging routines and disrupting habits," she says.
"Part of what's so engaging about watching them grow is that they change, and anything that's a routine for very long doesn't stay that way."
You shouldn't hate habits for destroying the things you love, either, but embrace them for taking the thinking out of chores or boring tasks.
In her research, Wood concludes that habits could be advantageous due to "their association with reduced stress and greater feelings of control".
In her interview with Rubin, Wood says habits are also good because they give you the mental space to concentrate on things you care about.
"Through habits, I pay my bills and I write for a couple of hours every morning. I do those things automatically," she says.
"They aren't a struggle and so don't take too much energy and decision making. Instead, I want to think about the activities that are important to me, especially spending time with my husband and sons."
Wood says instead of resisting habits, be thankful that they free up the rest of your mental space to think about the important things, and things you love.
"In relationships, just like in other enjoyable parts of life, the challenge is staying present for the good times," Wood told Op-Talk, "and then for things that just have to be done, like laundry, maybe you want that to be habitual."
