The Trick to Stop Touching Your Face During COVID-19
If you’re like most people, you bite your nails, twirl your bangs, or rest your chin on your hand when you’re thinking. We’ve done it all our lives, but all of the sudden those simple, mindless acts have become hazardous to our health. With the average person touching their face about 3 times a minute, it seems like a cruel joke to ask us to refrain from human nature. And yet, we must—for our safety and the safety of others.
Here is the two-fold trick I used to break the habit of touching my face subconsciously while I work-from-home.
STEP 1: Wear a mask all day for 1 whole day.
I know, it’s a huge nuisance to wear a mask around town, let alone while you’re relaxing in your own home. But it’s just one day and it will help you change your habits for a lifetime (even when COVID-19 is gone, touching your face still spreads germs!). If you notoriously touch your eyes, I suggest trying to find blue-light glasses to wear.
Try to find a breathable mask and if you don’t have one you can always wear a bandana, scarf, or anything that covers your face. Remember it’s not a fashion show, you’ll be home alone so use whatever is easiest.
The role of the mask (and glasses) in this exercise is not just a physical boundary to stop the spread fo germs, but it will also help you realize when you are trying to touch your face. When you subconsciously and habitually touch your face, you don’t realize it…until something stops you. Reaching up and running into a mask or glasses will give you a reality check and pull you out of whatever daydream had you resting your chin on your hand.
Once you have your mask on, go about your day, but keep a notepad and pen with you or start a page of notes on your phone. Every time you reach up to touch your face, mark a tally in your notes and jot down what exactly you were going to do (i.e. bite nails, rubs eyes, pick nose, ect).
It’s time to track your habit and study it. By the end of the day, a pattern will most likely appear. After a day of studying my subconscious habits, I realized I twirl the ends of my hair around my cheek. This means all the germs from my hands, plus whatever pollutants have gotten into my hair are being rubbed on my cheeks daily. This had to stop.
STEP 2: Find something to substitute for the habit.
Now that you are fully aware of your habit—what specifically it is, what triggers it, and how often you should be looking out for it—you can move past it by finding a substitute action for when you want to touch your face.
Habit Expert James Clear, says the best way to begin on the journey of breaking a habit is to find a substitute. In his New York Times bestselling book, Atomic Habits, Clear breaks down the small steps that lead to big changes in your day-to-day habits. He explains that by finding a substitute for the habit you are creating a plan of action for when you are feeling weak and vulnerable to temptation.
The alternative should be something that involves your hands. For me, squeezing a stress ball was a relaxing alternative. I even kept the stress ball in my hand when my hand wasn’t busy typing. My colleague decided to spin his pen every time he reached to run his fingers through his hair. There are many toys on the market for fidgeting like a clicker cube, a fidget spinner, or even a good old fashion yoyo. Find an alternative that works for you.
If you find yourself continuing to subconsciously touch your face after a day of wearing a mask, you may want to spend another day in the mask to draw your attention to your habits even further.
Stopping yourself from touching your face may feel like a big habit change, but if you take it one small step at a time as Clear suggests, it’s a manageable and lasting goal.
