How to Stop Popping Your Knuckles

Knuckle popping can be both rude and annoying to the people around you, but like so many bad habits it can be tough to stop. Luckily, our brains have an easily accessible mechanism for behavior correction that anyone can take advantage of called "conditioning."

Instructions

1. Be vigilant. Pay attention every time you pop you knuckles. It's important to first train yourself to notice every time you do so.

2. Pinch yourself. After you've become completely aware of yourself, each time you pop your knuckles, give yourself a little pinch. You can make it as hard or as soft as you'd like, but make sure you do it each time. One good place to pinch is the underside of your upper arm.

3. Be more vigilant. Eventually you'll start popping your knuckles less, and now you need to pay attention to every time you even want to pop them.

4. Pinch yourself more. Once you've started paying attention to simply thinking about popping your knuckles, pinch yourself for thinking about it. Soon you'll think about it less.

5. Continue to do this as long as it takes to completely remove the behavior.

Tips & Warnings

• You also could complete these same steps while wearing a rubber band and snapping the rubber band instead of pinching yourself.