Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything

The Introduction and Chapter 1 set out the basic theory and practice of the Tiny Habits method. These two sections contain information for people to start changing their habits. The rest of the book includes more detailed information on how each part of the system works and how to finetune results.

The Introduction presents the Tiny Habits system; Chapter 1 explains the theory behind the system. The author makes it clear that theory alone won’t change habits; thus, he puts the system first. The theory provides deeper understanding of why the system works, which helps users design better Tiny Habits and understand more thoroughly what makes people behave the way they do.

The author says it’s important to give oneself a pat on the back after each successful exercise of a tiny habit. A good sign that the process is working is the feeling of accomplishment that accompanies each repeat of the new behavior— that’s the underlying source of the “celebration,” and it’s discussed in detail in later chapters. The Appendix includes a list, “One Hundred Ways to Celebrate and Feel Shine” (287), that can enhance celebratory feedback.

The Behavior Model—Motivation, Ability, Prompt—lists the three elements of behaviors in order of importance, but Behavior Design reverses the list to create effective solutions. Motivation is the inspiration for a behavior and the most difficult thing to change: People want what they want, which can be deeply ingrained. Motivation also swells and sags, so it’s unreliable.

Prompts, meanwhile, are the simplest thing to fix, especially if the entire problem can be resolved simply by setting up a reminder to do the behavior. Thus, fixing prompts comes first, followed by improving the ability to perform the behavior with ease. In this system, motivation problems get tackled last.

Sometimes even motivation problems can be solved simply by finding the real motivator. Jennifer believed her failure to continue exercising was a character flaw; when she looked closely at her motives, though, she realized it wasn’t the exercise that she wanted but the camaraderie of doing it in a group setting. Her motive to be fit needed reinforcement with social interaction, which counteracted her dislike of exercise itself.

The Tiny Habits technique improves on the standard approach of using threats to force change. By repairing basic aspects of behavior, the method sidesteps the arguments, resentments, and feelings of guilt and failure that typically accompany brute-force approaches.

The author uses a graph to represent his theory. It’s a Cartesian coordinate graph where the horizontal line represents Ability, which increases toward the right. The vertical line is Motivation, which increases as it goes up. A thick line curves down and to the right, like an opening parenthesis that’s leaning backwards; the author calls this the “Action Line.” Above the curve, where ability and motivation are high, behaviors happen; below the curve, behaviors don’t happen. The goal of the Tiny Habits technique is to increase ability and/or motivation so that a desired behavior migrates from beneath the curve to a place above it. At that point, the behavior happens successfully.

Humans judge themselves relentlessly. It’s a social function: We condemn ourselves for being incompetent, not good enough, and immoral, all of which are ways of punishing ourselves for failing to conform to the standards of our peers. In modern times, though, professionals in various fields have begun to call that practice into question. Scientists and engineers in particular have taken a lead in regarding their work as a quest for knowledge rather than a search for virtue; this attitude also serves the social scientist in understanding the mechanisms of human behavior.

Inventor Sir James Dyson suggests that, in the quest for better ways of doing things, failure is more useful than success: “Failure is so much more interesting because you learn from it. That’s what we should be teaching children at school, that being successful the first time, there’s nothing in it. There’s no interest, you learn nothing actually.” (Cadwalladr, Carole. “Vacuums Are Already Smarter Than People.” The Guardian. 9 May 2014.)

Business leaders lately regard setbacks as steps on a path: “We see business failures as failures of process,” said entrepreneur Dan Andrews, “and that gives us an opportunity to address those problems in a positive way.” (Andrews, Dan. “A Framework for Hiring and Managing Employees.” Tropical MBA. 22 May 2013.)

Fogg, himself a scientist, holds similar views. He suggests that people regard their efforts to improve as experiments of a sort: “I want you to treat your life as your own personal ‘change lab’—a place to experiment with the person you want to be. A place where you not only feel safe but also feel like anything is possible” (37). Accepting this attitude toward self-improvement goes a long way toward clearing out our mental cobwebs and eliminating the self-reproach that does so much damage to us in our daily lives.

The author has a charming name for a user of his Tiny Habits system: a “Habiteer.” The specifics of designing a Habiteer lifestyle are described in the upcoming chapters.