Decide the drink before you get home

The drink at six is often a decision you never made. You walk in, the fridge is there, and the can is open before you've thought about it. The plan moves the decision to earlier in the day, when you're not standing in the kitchen.

Plans in the form "if this happens, I do that" are one of the best-tested tools for doing what you meant to. Across nearly a hundred studies, people who made them followed through more often than people with the same goal and no plan. Evidence: solid More on that in the if-then plan. For cutting down drinking in general, the results have been mixed, and I haven't seen it tested on the after-work drink itself. Evidence: worth trying

Make the cue something that always happens: walking in the door, sitting down to eat, finishing the first one. Make the action small enough to do when you're tired.

If the honest reason for the drink is to switch off a low mood, not the day, that's a conversation with a doctor. A plan won't fix that.

If you drink heavily every day, don't stop suddenly. Talk to a doctor first. Coming off alcohol all at once can cause seizures. Evidence: solid