Putting It All Together: Two Worked Examples
Let’s see how these principles come together in real-world scenarios. We’ll design two simple but powerful routines, one for the evening and one for the morning, incorporating all the elements we’ve discussed.
Example 1: The Evening Wind-Down Routine
Goal: To improve sleep quality by reducing evening screen time and creating a calming pre-sleep ritual.
Identity: “I am a person who prioritizes rest and recovery.”
The Plan:
Let’s imagine your current habit loop. The cue is finishing dinner and cleaning the kitchen, around 8:30 p.m. The action is to sink onto the couch and scroll through your phone or watch television for two hours. The reward is a sense of numb distraction from the day’s stress. We’re not going to fight this; we’re going to redirect it.
First, we’ll design the new environment. We conduct a friction audit. To increase friction for the old habit, you could set a “downtime” on your phone that locks social media apps after 9 p.m. You could leave the TV remote in a drawer in another room. To decrease friction for the new habit, you can create a “wind-down station” next to your favorite chair: a book you’re excited to read, a journal and pen, and a box of herbal tea.
Next, the new routine. The cue remains the same: finishing the dinner cleanup. The new Minimum Viable Action (MVA) isn’t to read for an hour and journal three pages. It’s simply to make a cup of herbal tea and sit in your wind-down chair for two minutes without your phone. That’s it. It’s so easy you can’t say no. On most nights, you’ll naturally stay longer, read a few pages, or jot down a thought, but the only requirement is those two minutes.
Finally, we add social accountability. You text a friend, your “accountability partner,” whose goal is similar. At 9 p.m., you both agree to text each other a simple message: “Winding down.” It’s not a long conversation. It’s a simple, gentle check-in that reinforces your commitment. The knowledge that your friend is expecting that text can be the tiny nudge you need to put down your phone and pick up your teacup. The new reward becomes the feeling of calm, the satisfaction of keeping a promise to yourself, and the quiet connection with your friend.
Example 2: The Morning Focus Primer
Goal: To start the workday with proactive intention instead of reactive chaos.
Identity: “I am a person who is focused and in control of my day.”
The Plan:
The common, problematic loop: The cue is your alarm going off. The action is to grab your phone from the nightstand and immediately start checking emails and news, flooding your brain with other people’s priorities before you’re even fully awake. The reward is a hit of cortisol-fueled urgency and a false sense of being “on top of things.”
Let’s re-engineer this. The friction audit is crucial. The single most effective change is to increase friction for the old habit: charge your phone in another room overnight. This one change breaks the old loop completely. To decrease friction for the new habit, place a notepad and pen right where your phone used to be. The cue is still the alarm, but now when you reach over, you find the notepad, not your phone.
The new Minimum Viable Action (MVA) is not to plan your entire day in meticulous detail. It is to simply write down your single Most Important Thing (MIT) for the day. What is the one task that, if completed, will make you feel accomplished? It takes less than 60 seconds. This small act primes your brain to focus on your own priorities first.
For social accountability for habits like this, a shared document can work wonders. You and a coworker or a partner could have a shared Google Doc titled “Daily MITs.” Before 9 a.m. each day, you both commit to writing your one MIT in the document. It’s a passive but powerful form of accountability. You see their entry, they see yours. It fosters a sense of shared focus and encourages you to be decisive about your priorities. The new reward is a feeling of clarity, control, and purpose as you begin your workday, a stark contrast to the reactive anxiety of the old routine.
