How a small habit becomes automatic: Conclusion

Introduction

Almost everyone has tried to start a habit and stopped within a month, and almost everyone explains it afterwards as a failure of willpower. That explanation is popular because it is simple, and it is usually wrong. The habits that survive tend to differ from the ones that die in structure, not in effort.

First argument

The first difference is size. A habit that requires a large block of time competes with everything else in the day, and loses on any day that goes badly. A habit small enough to complete on a bad day never has that argument, which means it is still there when the good days return.

Second argument

The second is attachment. A new action performed at no particular time is a decision that has to be made afresh every day. Attached to something already automatic, it stops being a decision: the existing habit becomes the reminder, and the effort moves from remembering to doing.

Counterargument

It is true that some habits cannot be made small, and that the advice to start tiny is sometimes an excuse for never starting properly. Learning an instrument will not happen in two minutes a day. But it will not happen at all if the first month is set up to be abandoned.