How can you develop new, better habits?

New Year’s is when we make resolutions that only too soon fade away.

How can we combat that?

Rob Rouwenhorst, a University of Iowa associate marketing professor in the Tippie College of Business, teaches students three ways to establish good habits leading to professional and personal success:

“If you eat an apple, that’s healthy, but you also eat lard. Your apple habit won’t help,” he said. ”If you go for a run at 8 a.m. without stating your goal of a location and a time, you can’t say yes, I accomplished my goal.”

Starting small, Rouwenhorst said, is more powerful.

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While some people can make a 180-degree change quickly, most cannot. Instead of starting with an hour of exercise, try 10 minutes until that is a habit. Walk a half block, then one block, then two blocks, and, later, 1 mile.

That way you build on a good habit.

Rewarding yourself depends on the individual, whether the reward is a cookie or a full meal. It’s known as “the aggregation of marginal gains.”

If you want to drink more water, make it easy by keeping a water bottle nearby. Eventually you get better and better at drinking water.

If you want to eat healthier, keep apples — not Wheat Thins — in the kitchen.

‘Habit assignment’

Rouwenhorst developed an ungraded, but life-changing, assignment for one of his marketing classes that became “The Habit Assignment.”

It became so successful as an add-on to his daily quizzes that he adopted it for all his classes.

When he saw students starting to accomplish their goals outside the classroom — like losing 20 pounds, detoxing from social media, quitting smoking — he knew these new habits would help them in their careers.

When he saw that one of students’ chief goals was cutting down on social media, he suggested setting time limits on phone apps, moving the app’s icon to the third screen, or switching their phone screens to black and white so it was less rewarding.

“I began my health journey by swimming daily,” Rouwenhorst said. “At first, my reward was a pot of pasta (with butter and Parmesan cheese) afterward — not too healthy. Then my reward became a healthy lunch, and later, it was just feeling good and seeing the weight change in the mirror.”

After dropping 45 pounds, Rouwenhorst said he read “Atomic Habits” by James Clear, “which gave me the science behind changing habits.”

“Then a student asked to use that book for a project, and ‘The Habit Assignment’ developed from there. For zero points, I asked students about a new habit they wanted.

“It worked for several of them, so I rolled it out to all my classes. Eventually, 66 percent to 75 percent of my students said they accomplished a new habit.”

Conclusion: By setting specific, incremental goals, and rewarding yourself when you achieve the goal, people can make better habits a permanent part of their lives.

A new year starts Wednesday.