The Habit Audit: List What You Never Chose to Do
A short, honest exercise for surfacing the habits that accumulated without a decision, adapted from James Clear’s Habits Scorecard.
A short, honest exercise for surfacing the habits that accumulated without a decision, adapted from James Clear’s Habits Scorecard.
Four words, four different jobs. Plain definitions grounded in actual research, plus where ‘system’ fits against the other three.
Every source gives a different number and none cite a study. Here is the real mechanism behind the advice, and an honest answer instead of a fake one.
Forget counting days. Here are the four signs research actually uses to measure automaticity, and why no single day marks the finish line.
Flossing does not feel good. Here is the test for whether something is actually working as a reward, and when a habit needs no reward at all.
A habit lives at an address. Here is how to place cues so they stay noticed, and the portability cost nobody warns you about before you commit.
Friction only works when it sits before the automatic part of the sequence, and when you cannot undo it in ten seconds. Here is where to put it.
If-then plans have real research behind them. Here is the effect size with its source, what the evidence does not cover, and who it works less well for.
Two different rules share this name. Here is the habit version, how it differs from David Allen’s, and why the two-minute floor should never be retired.
Everyone says start small and nobody says how small. Here is the floor test, the two conditions that make a habit too small, and what small costs you.