How to build a habit that sticks: start tiny, never miss twice

Start smaller than feels useful

Most new habits fail because they start too big. "Run 5k every morning" relies on motivation, and motivation comes and goes. "Put my running shoes on after breakfast" relies on almost nothing. Once you are in the shoes, you often go further, but the habit you are building is the starting move.

You can always do more than the minimum. The point is that the minimum is never too much.

Anchor it to something you already do

A habit needs a cue. The most reliable cue is an existing routine, because it already happens every day. Psychologists call this an implementation intention; in plain terms it is a sentence of the form "After I [existing habit], I will [new habit]."

• After I pour my morning coffee, I write three lines in my journal.
• After I brush my teeth at night, I floss one tooth (then usually all of them).
• After I sit down on the train, I review my flashcards.
• After I close my laptop, I write tomorrow's top task on a sticky note.

Keep the place and time consistent at first. Repeating the same action in the same situation is what makes it automatic.

Track it, but keep tracking simple

A tick on a chart is a small reward, and a row of ticks is something you don't want to break. Tracking also shows you the truth: you might feel you "never" exercise when the calendar says three times a week.

1. Track two or three habits, not ten. Add more once the first ones feel easy.
2. Tick it straight away, while you're still standing there. Logging at the end of the day is easy to forget.
3. Use counts for things you repeat, such as glasses of water or pages read, with a daily target.
4. Schedule rest days honestly. If exercise is three days a week, set it to three days, so days off don't look like failures.

When you miss a day

You will miss days. Illness, travel and bad weeks happen to everyone. Research on habit formation suggests that missing one day has little effect on how quickly a habit becomes automatic. What ends habits is a run of misses, when "I skipped yesterday" becomes "I don't do that any more".

So the rule is never miss twice. If you missed yesterday, today's habit matters more than any other day's. Make it even smaller if you need to: one page, one push-up, one minute.

Tracking habits in the Habits app

Habits is a free habit tracker that works in your browser, with no account. To set up a habit:

• Add a habit, or pick one of the quick starts. Choose the days it is scheduled, how many times a day (for counts such as water) and an optional reminder time.
• Tap the circle when you have done it. For counts, each tap adds one towards the target. The ring at the top shows how many of today's habits are done.
• Fix a forgotten day by tapping it in the week strip and ticking it off.
• Tap a habit's name to see its current and best streak, 30-day success rate and a 20-week calendar.

Days a habit isn't scheduled don't break its streak, and today doesn't count against you until it's over. Your habits stay in this browser; use Back up from time to time, and add the page to your Home Screen so the browser keeps your data.

Common mistakes

• Starting five habits at once. Pick one or two and add more when they feel easy.
• Making the habit too big. If you skip it on a bad day, shrink it.
• Relying on motivation. Use a cue you already have, such as coffee or brushing your teeth.
• Treating a miss as failure. One miss is normal. Two in a row is the thing to avoid.
• Setting every habit to every day. Rest days for exercise are part of the plan, not a broken streak.
• Chasing the streak number. The streak is a tool. If it makes you anxious, look at your 30-day rate instead.