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.
Two habits started the same month, with the same amount of motivation behind them. Three years later one is automatic and the other is a folder of half-used notebooks. Here is what actually separated them.
Read the log
I used to keep every habit indefinitely because starting felt hard and I did not want to waste that effort. Now I…
The advice on missed workouts splits into two camps: skip it and move on, or double up to catch up. I tried…
The claim that any habit locks in after 21 days is everywhere, but it does not hold up once you start timing…
After years of trying to start several habits at once, I narrowed everything down to a single rule. It is not exciting,…
I called myself disorganized for years. It turned out that a cluttered desk was charging me a setup tax before the actual…
Every habit that actually stuck for me started so small it felt pointless. Here is what happened when I stopped trying to…
Notification settings barely moved the needle. Putting the charger in another room did, because it gave me three seconds to notice I…
A move across town wiped out habits I thought were permanent. Watching which ones came back on their own, and which ones…
I went back through a year of attempted habits and sorted them into two piles. The survivors have almost nothing in common…