The nature of habits

boohoo, a photo by Annclinations on Flickr.
With the start of school just around a very close corner, that multitude of unstructured leisurely hours to do what I want is nearly at an end.  At work (I am a teacher), it was decided that I would move to a different classroom.  While the new location has lots going for it, there has been a huge amount of work involved in getting it settled.  So my holiday ended a fair bit sooner than usual and I am already mourning the curtailment of my time for Annclinations activities.
This summer, while joining in on Traci Bunkers' 30-day challenge (previous posts), one of the things I learned in the process was that being an artist and creating art is a choice.  It needs to be overtly practiced or it risks being down-classed to a pastime or hobby.  During the 30-days, there were times I really had a hard time "getting my art on."  No matter, snatched bits of moments here and there were all it took to have "something" to show for my time.  The commitment to blog it really helped.  Now that my work-a-day-world responsibilities are looming on the horizon, it is my intent to do more of my art in small snippets.  Here's where I'm realizing, as so thousands have before me, that regular blogging can really help.
It has already been 11 days since my last post.  The photo above was taken on the 23rd.  While the disintegration of my beloved veneer was frustrating, it wasn't that which kept me away from Blogger.  It was lack of habit, I guess.  Habits are tricky things.  Bad ones are nearly impossible to get rid of and new ones just as difficult to establish.  Any insights into the nature, creation and maintaining of habits would interest me greatly.