Habit Recovery Plan: Write the Rule Before You Miss
A recovery rule needs three parts: what activates it, the smallest action, and what happens when the rule itself fails. Here is how to write all three.
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How to Restart a Habit After a Long Gap
The question is not how long you were away. It is how much of the old context still exists. Here is how to audit that before you restart anything.
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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.
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Habit vs. Routine vs. Ritual vs. System: The Real Difference
Four words, four different jobs. Plain definitions grounded in actual research, plus where ‘system’ fits against the other three.
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How Many Habits Can You Build at Once, Honestly?
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.
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When Does a Habit Become Automatic? A Real Test
Forget counting days. Here are the four signs research actually uses to measure automaticity, and why no single day marks the finish line.
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Habit Reward Examples for Habits With No Payoff
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.
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Habit Friction: Make the Right Thing Easier
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.
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Implementation Intentions: What the Evidence Says
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.
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The Two-Minute Rule for Habits: Floor, Not Stage
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.