I began by collecting examples of other people’s inventive treats: browsing through art books, cookbooks, or travel guides; taking photographs on a walk; napping; having a session of “fur therapy” (petting a dog or cat); wandering through a camping store; looking at family photo albums; keeping art postcards in the car visor for a quick diversion

I imagine myself as the client, a fabulous celebrity—and like all fabulous celebrities, I have a manager. I’m lucky, because my manager understands me completely, and she’s always thinking about my long-term well-being. These days, when I struggle with a habit, I ask myself, “What does my manager say?” I was considering scheduling an hour a day to

Rewards pose these dangers, and to make matters worse, we often choose a reward that directly undermines the habit—as with my friend’s reward of chocolate cake. When I told her that I thought rewarding herself with cake was a bad idea, she protested, “But what will be my reward for losing ten pounds?” I laughed. “Losing ten pounds!”

Not everyone (e.g., certainly no Rebel) is attracted by the idea of having each day ordered, but I love the monkish horarium, or “table of hours,” the highly specific routine that runs on an annual cycle, with variations for the days of the week and the seasons. Every part of the day has its own character and purpose, with time set aside for

A friend who works in his studio apartment figured out a way to avoid the distractions of napping and snacking. Every morning he makes his bed, eats breakfast, and “goes to work” for the day, which means he doesn’t allow himself to sit on his bed or go into the kitchen, except at mealtime.

Questioners resist anything that seems arbitrary;

“Say you want to start packing lunch for work. Instead of thinking, ‘As a reward for preparing and bringing in my own lunch, I’ll splurge on a lunch at an expensive restaurant on Friday,’ you think, ‘Now that I’m bringing in lunch every day, I’m going to splurge on a fabulous set of knives, so my habit of cooking is more fun.’ ” “What’s the

when I set my UP band to vibrate whenever I sit still for forty-five minutes, I learned that I was doing a lot more sitting than I’d assumed.

If they want the new behavior to become a habit, they should use if-then planning from the Strategy of Safeguards to decide, in advance, how to proceed after hitting the finish line—perhaps by continually setting themselves new goals, just as my friend with the bad knee replaced one goal with another, or by deciding what the everyday habit should