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Building a habit

How a habit is actually built: from understanding why willpower fails, to small starting steps, plans for the hard moments, and the way back when it slips.

  1. 1 · Article
    Why habits hold, and why they break
    What research says about how habits are actually built, and why willpower is the wrong tool.
    3 min läsning · Everyday · Rationality
  2. 2 · Exercise
    The habit and who you are
    Start not from the goal but from the person you want to become, and let every small action be a piece of evidence.
    10 min · Everyday · Discipline
  3. 3 · Exercise
    The two-minute rule
    Shrink something you have been putting off to a start that takes under two minutes, and do only that.
    8 min · Everyday · Discipline
  4. 4 · Exercise
    The if-then plan
    Turn an intention into an if-then plan that links a concrete cue to an action.
    10 min · Everyday · Discipline
  5. 5 · Exercise
    The high-risk map
    Habits do not break at random. They break in familiar situations. Map yours before they happen.
    11 min · Everyday · Rationality
  6. 6 · Exercise
    Temptation bundling
    Pair a pleasure you love with a chore you keep putting off, so that one pulls the other along.
    10 min · Everyday · Discipline
  7. 7 · Exercise
    The self-contract
    New behaviors do not hold up on their own at the start. Write the contract that pays you until the habit does.
    12 min · Everyday · Discipline
  8. 8 · Exercise
    Back after a break
    Coming back after a broken habit, without the collapse becoming bigger than the slip.
    9 min · Everyday · Compassion

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