Worked Examples: Two Simple Routines in Action
Let’s translate these principles into concrete, real-world examples. These are not rigid prescriptions, but illustrations of how you can weave these ideas together to create a short, effective, and sustainable routine. Notice how brief and simple they are.
Example 1: The Evening Wind-Down Routine
Goal: Reduce evening anxiety and get better quality sleep.
Identity: “I am a person who values calm and restorative rest.”
Sarah gets home from a long commute, feeling wired and stressed. Her old habit was to collapse on the couch and scroll through her phone for hours, which left her feeling agitated and made it hard to fall asleep.
Her new evening routine is built using habit stacking. The cue is finishing dinner. After she puts her last dish in the dishwasher (her existing habit), she immediately walks to the hallway and plugs her phone into a charger there for the night (decreasing friction for not using it). This is her first new action. This then cues her next action: she changes into comfortable pajamas. Finally, she sits in her favorite chair with a cup of herbal tea and reads just one page from a novel (her minimum viable action). The reward is threefold: the warmth of the tea, the escape of the story, and a profound feeling of quiet and control over her evening. Some nights she reads for an hour; other nights, it’s truly just one page. But she always does it, reinforcing her identity as a calm person and building powerful habits for better sleep.
Example 2: The Morning Focus Primer Routine
Goal: Start the next day with clarity and less decision fatigue.
Identity: “I am a focused and proactive person who sets my own agenda.”
Mark used to end his days by watching TV, then stumbling into bed, leaving his mornings to be a chaotic scramble. His new productive nightly routine is designed to prime his future self for success.
His cue is brushing his teeth before bed. After he finishes (his existing habit), he performs a three-step “shutdown sequence.” First, he walks to his closet and lays out his work clothes for the next day (decreasing morning friction). Second, he goes to his desk and takes out a single sticky note. On it, he writes the one most important task he needs to accomplish tomorrow (his minimum viable action for planning). He sticks it to his laptop. Third, he fills a glass of water and places it on his desk next to the note. The entire sequence takes less than five minutes. The reward is immediate: a sense of closure on the day and the confidence that comes from knowing he is prepared for tomorrow. When he wakes up, his environment is already engineered for productivity. He doesn’t need to waste mental energy deciding what to wear or what to work on first; the path has already been cleared.
