30 One-Sentence Stories From People Who Have Built Better Habits

- My favorite approach is to pick a very tiny version of your habit and track that. For example, I have been tracking the habit of “reading 1 page” for the last month. One reader named Günter did something similar. “I've done a simple workout every day for over half a year now. I managed to stick to it by changing the scope: when I don't have time ... See more

- One reader named Caelan wrote, “I quit smoking by assigning my cheat days progressively farther in the future. I never quit “for good,” I only quit until my next cheat day. This helped with cravings, because the choice wasn’t between “right now” or “never,” it was “right now” or “later.”

- To a certain degree, habit substitution allows you to look for a healthier obsession. Some people are hooked on alcohol. Others are hooked on exercise.

- Shawn used this approach to stop smoking. “I decided to quit smoking and used a fun-sized Snickers candy bar as a substitute until the major cravings went away. I'm still smoke-free years later.”

- One reader named Justin sent me the following message: “I started going to a gym that was less than a mile from my house. This took away the time and inconvenience excuses. I was never consistent at exercise, but now I work out 8-10x a week. Crossfit, running, and cycling. I've been going strong for 2.5 years.”

- Similar strategies can be particularly useful for building new exercise habits.

Chris utilized both environment design and habit stacking to stop sleeping in. He wrote, “I have a bad habit: Hitting snooze. To eliminate it, I “made it hard” and put phone in the bathroom. The phone then became a habit stack. The first thing I do when I wake up: turn off alarm, go to bathroom, brush teeth, etc.”

The simple truth is our environment often shapes our behavior.

Environment Design