Small changes, compounding results

Become the person your habits are quietly building.

You don't rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Learn how habits work, make the good ones easy, and make the bad ones hard.

Start building Open the tracker

How habits work

Every habit runs on the same four-step loop

Understand the loop and you can redesign any behavior. To build a habit, strengthen each step. To break one, weaken it.

1
Cue
A trigger that tells your brain to start a behavior: a time, a place, a feeling, a person, or the action before it.
2
Craving
The motivation behind the habit. You don't crave the action itself, you crave the change in state it delivers.
3
Response
The habit you actually perform. It depends on how motivated you are and how much friction stands in the way.
4
Reward
The satisfying end. Rewards close the loop and teach your brain which actions are worth remembering.

Building good habits

Make it obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying

Make it obvious. Use an implementation intention: "I will [behavior] at [time] in [location]." Put your running shoes by the door, the book on your pillow.
Make it attractive. Pair something you need to do with something you want to do. Only listen to your favorite podcast while walking.
Make it easy. Use the two-minute rule: scale the habit down until it takes under two minutes. "Read before bed" becomes "read one page."
Make it satisfying. Track it. An unbroken chain of check marks is its own reward. Never miss twice in a row.

Breaking bad habits

Make it invisible, unattractive, hard, and unsatisfying

Make it invisible. Remove the cue. Keep your phone in another room, don't stock snacks you're trying to avoid, log out of the app.
Make it unattractive. Reframe it. List the real costs of the habit and the benefits of stopping. Name what you're trading away.
Make it hard. Add friction. Every extra step reduces the odds. Use a commitment device such as app blockers or a timer-locked box.
Make it unsatisfying. Get an accountability partner or a habit contract. A visible cost makes a bad habit painful right away.

Swap, don't just stop

Replace the response, keep the reward

Bad habits solve a real need. Remove one without a replacement and the craving stays. Keep the cue and the reward, change what happens in between.

Bored after dinner

Scroll social media

Ten-minute walk or call a friend

Stressed at work

Snack from the vending machine

Five slow breaths and a glass of water

Can't fall asleep

Check your phone in bed

Read a paper book under warm light

Wake up groggy

Hit snooze three times

Alarm across the room, open the curtains

Habit stacking

Anchor a new habit to one you already have

Your existing routines are the most reliable cues you own. Link the new habit to one of them and write it down.

After I pour my morning coffee, I will write one line in my journal.
After I sit down to eat, I will say one thing I'm grateful for.
After I take off my work shoes, I will change into workout clothes.

Make it satisfying

Your seven-day habit tracker

Add a habit, tick off each day, and watch the chain grow. Everything stays in this browser, nothing is sent anywhere.

Habit

No habits yet. Start with one that takes under two minutes.

Keep going

When you slip, use these

Never miss twice

Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit. Get back on track the very next day.

Show up, even small

On a bad day, do the two-minute version. The goal is to keep the identity alive, not to set a record.

Vote for your identity

Each action is a vote for the person you want to be. "I'm a runner" lasts longer than "I want to run a marathon."

Fix the system

If a habit keeps failing, don't blame willpower. Change the cue, cut the friction, or shrink the step.