Putting It All Together: Two Worked Examples
Let’s see how these principles come together in real life. Here are two short, prose-based examples of routines designed for consistency, not intensity. Notice how they incorporate a cue, a Minimum Viable Action, friction reduction, and an identity-based focus.
Example 1: The Five-Minute Evening Wind-Down Routine
Sarah wanted to become the kind of person who was calm and prepared for the next day, rather than someone who frantically scrolled on her phone until her eyes burned. Her goal wasn’t just to “use her phone less,” but to embody a more intentional identity.
The Cue: She already had a strong, existing habit of brushing her teeth before bed. She decided to use this as her trigger. This is a classic example of habit stacking.
Reducing Friction: To make her new routine effortless, she created a “wind-down station” next to her bed. It held her journal, a pen, and the book she was reading. She also bought an old-fashioned alarm clock and started charging her phone in the kitchen overnight. This dramatically increased the friction of checking her phone in bed.
The Routine (Starting with the MVA): Her Minimum Viable Action was simple: “After I brush my teeth, I will sit on my bed and write one sentence in my journal about the day.” That was it. Just one sentence. On the first night, it felt almost silly, but she did it. On the second night, she wrote two sentences. Soon, she found herself naturally writing a short paragraph. After a week, she added another MVA: “After I write in my journal, I will read one page of my book.”
The Reward: The immediate reward was a feeling of accomplishment and a sense of calm. The long-term reward was waking up feeling more rested and less anxious. Each night she completed the tiny routine, she cast a vote for her new identity: “I am a calm and intentional person.” The routine now takes her about 10-15 minutes, but it started with an action that took less than 60 seconds.
Example 2: The Two-Minute Morning Focus Primer
Mark worked from home and struggled to start his workday. He’d often get his coffee and then lose 30 minutes to checking news sites and unimportant emails, derailing his focus before he even began. He wanted to become a focused, productive professional who owned his mornings.
The Cue: The most powerful and consistent cue in his morning was sitting down at his desk with his first cup of coffee.
Reducing Friction: Mark’s biggest friction point was the open-ended nature of “starting work.” To combat this, he adopted a simple rule the evening before: he would decide on his single most important task for the next day and write it on a sticky note. He then closed all unrelated tabs on his computer and opened only the document or program needed for that one task. He placed the sticky note on his monitor before logging off.
The Routine (Starting with the MVA): His MVA was: “After I sit down with my coffee, I will work on my most important task for just two minutes.” He set a timer. Anyone can do anything for two minutes. He wasn’t allowed to check email or news until after that two-minute block was complete.
The Reward: The magic of this approach is that starting is the hardest part. More often than not, at the end of the two minutes, he was already in a state of flow and just kept going. The immediate reward was a clear win before 9 AM. The long-term reward was a massive increase in productivity and a decrease in work-related anxiety. He was no longer just trying to be focused; he was actively proving to himself, every single morning, that he was a focused person.
