Habits in everyday life: thought, emotion, and action.

@article{Wood2002HabitsIE,
  title={Habits in everyday life: thought, emotion, and action.},
  author={Wendy Wood and Jeffrey M. Quinn and Deborah A. Kashy},
  journal={Journal of personality and social psychology},
  year={2002},
  volume={83 6},
  pages={
          1281-97
        }
}
To illustrate the differing thoughts and emotions involved in guiding habitual and nonhabitual behavior, 2 diary studies were conducted in which participants provided hourly reports of their ongoing experiences. When participants were engaged in habitual behavior, defined as behavior that had been performed almost daily in stable contexts, they were likely to think about issues unrelated to their behavior, presumably because they did not have to consciously guide their actions. When engaged in… 
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