Blog
Writing on habit tracking
Mostly what to do when the system stops working. No motivation speeches, no morning routine cosplay.
9 posts
The keystone habit test: what to track first
One habit, picked well, makes the next one cheaper. Here is how to find yours instead of guessing your way through an empty grid.
- keystone habits
- habit tracking
- getting started
Earlier posts
- 6 min read
A morning routine that survives a bad night
Most morning routines only work when nothing went wrong the day before. Here is how to build one that holds up when something did.
- morning routine
- habit tracking
5 min readHow to read a month of habit data
At the end of the month you have a grid full of boxes. Here is how to get something useful out of it instead of just feeling vaguely good or vaguely bad.
- habit tracking
- analytics
- 6 min read
Why habit trackers stop working after three weeks
The drop-off is not a motivation problem. It is usually five setup mistakes, all of which were baked in on day one.
- habit tracking
- consistency
5 min readYou broke a 60 day streak. Now what?
The day after a long streak ends is the highest-risk day in habit tracking. Here is what to do with it, and why the usual advice makes things worse.
- habit streaks
- consistency
6 min readHabit streaks, without the guilt
Streaks are a good motivator and a terrible scorekeeper. Here is how to use them without letting a broken one take the whole habit down with it.
- habit streaks
- motivation
6 min readWhat a month of sleep and mood data can honestly tell you
Two numbers a day will show you patterns worth acting on. It will not show you causes, and the difference matters more than most tracking advice admits.
- sleep tracking
- mood tracking
6 min readPaper, spreadsheet, or app: choosing a habit tracker
All three work. They fail differently, and the failure mode is what should decide it. A straight comparison, including where an app is the wrong answer.
- habit tracking
- tools
6 min readHow many habits should you track at once?
Twelve habits on the first of the month is how you end up tracking none by the twentieth. Here is how to pick the number you can actually hold.
- habit tracking
- getting started