Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything

by B.J. Fogg

Once you remove any hint of judgment, changing your habits becomes an uplifting journey of self-discovery. As you’ll learn from the true stories in this book, a sense of exploration prepares the path to success.

The essence of Tiny Habits is this: Take a behavior you want, make it tiny, find where it fits naturally in your life, and nurture its growth. If you want to create long-term change, it’s best to start small. Here’s why.

With the Tiny Habits method, you focus on small actions that you can do in less than thirty seconds. You

After you put your feet on the floor in the morning, immediately say this phrase, “It’s going to be a great day.” As you say these seven words, try to feel optimistic and positive.

Every morning after dropping her daughter off at kindergarten, she pulled over on the side of the road and wrote one to-do on a sticky note. Just one. Each one was something she could accomplish right away: send out one sales e-mail, schedule a project meeting, draft a quick introduction to a patient guide. The simple act of focusing her energy on writing down one task led to a chain reaction that propelled her entire day and eventually led to the successful launch of her company.

Keeping changes small and expectations low is how you design around fair-weather friends like motivation and willpower. When something is tiny, it’s easy to do—which means you don’t need to rely on the unreliable nature of motivation.

If there’s one concept from my book I hope you embrace, it’s this: People change best by feeling good, not by feeling bad. For that purpose, I have created this exercise for you.

to. It was a narrative running on repeat—“You can’t do what you used to; what’s wrong with you?” At the end of the day, she’d chew on this before having her self-prescribed glass of wine.

From now on, I want you to look at your behavior the way a scientist looks at what’s growing in a petri dish—with curiosity and objective distance. This is going to be a different mindset than the ones in many of the change books you might have read. I’m

The Motivation Monkey tricks us into setting unreasonable goals. He can sometimes help us reach amazing heights, but he will often abandon us when we need him most.

common trap of the human mind—you overestimated future motivation. It happens to the best of us. You are not dumb or frivolous or easily hoodwinked. You are human.

Humans are dreamers by nature, so we’ve all got a few moon shots tucked into our back pocket at all times. But

First, let’s get clear on the difference between three things: aspirations, outcomes, and behaviors. When I teach boot camps and workshops on Behavior Design, one of the first things I ask people is what new behavior they wish to bring into their lives. This is what I hear. “I want to reduce screen time.” “I want to sleep better!” “I want to lose 12 percent body fat.” “I want to have more patience with my son.” “I want to be more productive.” And I say, “Great—I can show you how to make those wishes a reality. But those aren’t behaviors. Those are the aspirations you have or the outcomes you want to get.”

Here’s an easy way to differentiate behaviors from aspirations and outcomes: A behavior is something you can do right now or at another specific point in time.

Behaviour = KR (key results)

This tool is called the Swarm of Behaviors (or Swarm of Bs). Here’s how it works: Write your aspiration inside the cloudlike shape shown in the graphic. Then start filling in the boxes with specific behaviors.

Narrative drama comes from bold action, not from the incremental progress that leads to sustainable success. Which is why I don’t have a camera crew following me around while I do my two post-pee push-ups. (Okay, maybe that’s not the only reason.) My point is that big bold actions on the balance are not as effective as many of us are led to believe.

While small might not be sexy, it is successful and sustainable. When

When you are designing a new habit, you are really designing for consistency. And for that result, you’ll find that simplicity is the key. Or as I like to teach my students: Simplicity changes behavior.

Which leads us to the second critical question we should ask about any behavior or habit we want to cultivate: How can I make this behavior easier to do? I call this the Breakthrough Question, and it turns out that there are only three answers.

The Starter Step is a kind of mental jujitsu—it has a surprising impact for such a small move because the momentum it creates often propels you to the next steps with less friction. The key is not to raise the bar. Doing the Starter Step is success. Every time you do it, you are keeping that habit alive and cultivating the possibility of growth.

Habit to Make Tiny Starter Step Scale Back Read every day Open my book Read one paragraph Drink more water Put water bottle in purse Drink a sip of water Meditate for ten minutes Take my meditation pillow out of the closet Meditate for three breaths Clean the kitchen after every meal Open the dishwasher Clear the table after every meal Take vitamins daily Put vitamins in a small bowl Take one vitamin Eat blueberries for a snack Pack blueberries in my work bag Eat two or three blueberries Pay my bills online Visit one bill payment website Pay one bill

But this is the crucial nugget: No behavior happens without a prompt.

Don’t leave prompts to chance.

Here’s how it worked: Amy would drop her daughter Rachel off at kindergarten every morning, and Rachel would wave good-bye and shut the car door. The door shutting was Amy’s prompt. She would immediately drive to a nearby parking space at the school, then she’d do her habit—writing down her most important task on a Post-it. Once she was done, Amy would stick the note to her dashboard, clap once for herself, and say, “Done!”

If you’ve created a Context Prompt and it’s not working, you are not doing anything wrong. You probably don’t lack motivation or willpower. Do yourself a favor—don’t blame yourself. Redesign the prompt instead. Find what prompt works for you.

An Action Prompt is a behavior you already do that can remind you to do a new habit you want to cultivate. This is a special type of prompt. The Action Prompt is one way you hack your behavior with the Tiny Habits method.

Location is the most important factor when you pair Anchors and new habits.

Businesses that help customers create habits will have a huge advantage over those that don’t.

After I feel insulted, I will think of something nice to do for myself was her winning Habit Recipe.

Why it rippled out so positively is the underlying secret to why Tiny Habits works so beautifully: People change best by feeling good, not by feeling bad.

The definition of a reward in behavior science is an experience directly tied to a behavior that makes that behavior more likely to happen again. The

habit. Negative emotions seem to shrivel the roots of automaticity.

Remember that you change best by feeling good, not by feeling bad.

Celebration will one day be ranked alongside mindfulness and gratitude as daily practices that contribute most to our overall happiness and well-being. If you learn just one thing from my entire book, I hope it’s this: Celebrate your tiny successes. This

Beginning your habit design process with a clear aspiration will lead you naturally to your own specialized mix of Growth Habits and Multiplication Habits.

If you’re feeling lost, here’s the default: Start with three super easy habits—that’s what most Habiteers begin with—and add three new habits each month.

Step 5: Rehearse using the new bin seven to ten times and include a celebration each time. Feel Shine.

Start there. Remember this truth: Change leads to change.