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.
I dropped a habit expecting to feel productive with the extra time. Instead I got a strange, unstructured half hour that I did not know what to do with, and it taught me something about why habits are hard to quit in the first place.
Read the log
The habit that failed hardest was the one I cared about most. The habit that survived was one I barely thought was…
The habit that finally stuck was so small I did not tell anyone about it for months. Here is why that embarrassment…
A running streak count is supposed to be motivating. For a few months it did the opposite for me, and I want…
I like the idea of less is more. What I do not like is people using it as an excuse to quit…
Never miss twice in a row is repeated everywhere as the fix for broken habits. I used it for four months to…
Rigid rules like never skipping a habit no matter what are supposed to build discipline, but a bad week showed me they…
On any list of tips, these two habits would score the same. Same time commitment, same simplicity, same clear cue. One is…
Every fall, without meaning to, I let a whole set of habits fall apart. It took me several years to notice the…
I thought I had no self-control around snacks. It turned out the chips were just at eye level and the fruit was…