Mini habits are rooted in autonomy,freedom, and flexibility. The goal is to empower you
to have constant success.We can apply this philosophy to restrictive habit cues by instead
setting a 24-hour deadline with no specific cues.
Have you noticed that bad habits have multiple cues, while everyone suggests that a good
habit should have one cue?It's no wonder bad habits are so strong!They have sprawling
roots tied to many different cues in your life. That's because bad habits grow naturally
through repetition in various circumstances, while we grow good habits artificially with
the "single cuebehavior-reward" formula.It's true that if you only have a single cue, you
will still be more mindful of that behavior.For example, if you think two happy thoughts
at 2 PM every day, then you'll probably think them more in general too.But doing it at
2 PM every day can feel restrictive and forced (depending on your personality). In addition,
when you set a specific time to do something, it can feel wrong to do it outside of that time.
For people who have a morning habit of writing, many of them won't ever write at other t
imes of the day. I write at any and all times of day-whatever fits my schedule best.
Another problem with specific cues is their additional load on your willpower. When you
have to run at some point today, that's flexible. When you have to run at 3 PM, that's inflexible.
The additional pressure to perform the task on time increases willpower cost.Traditional habits
suggest you pair this time-sensitive cue with a big task,making it even more difficult for you
to succeed. But for us, the total willpower required even for "cue-triggered" actions will still
be small because of the mini size of the action.Therefore, mini habits are a better fit into t
he current popular model of "cue-behavior-reward" than traditionally-sized habits are.