Marcus Delacroix keeps a written log of every habit he starts, keeps, breaks and drops. He is not a doctor and does not give health advice: the pieces here are about the mechanics of repetition on one ordinary person, tested before they are written down.
Streak counters are supposed to keep you motivated, but when I tracked how I actually felt during a long streak, the number started working against the habit it was meant to support.
Read the log
After a break in a habit, I kept going back to day one like the previous months never happened. Here is the…
I used to log almost everything about my habits. Cutting most of it out made the habits themselves easier to keep.
I used to think travel destroyed my morning routine. It turns out I was just running the home version somewhere it could…
For two years I blamed my missing motivation for a habit that never stuck. The actual problem was six steps between me…
Some routines I have done for years still require effort every single time. Others became invisible within weeks. Sorting my own habits…
I noticed a pattern across a decade of failed habits: they all fell apart around the same point, for the same reason.…
Every guide says taper a habit slowly. I quit an evening routine cold instead, on purpose, and it worked better than any…
A month of logging the same habits twice, once on paper and once in a habit tracking app, to see if the…
A week at my parents' house for the holidays should have been a break from my routine, not an argument with it.…