There's a lot of content on the internet and books about building habits but the simplest and best one I know is actually from Jerry Seinfeld. Here's an excerpt from a book where Seinfeld is giving tips for young comics that explains this simple hack.

He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day.

*He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day.

“After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job is to not break the chain.”*

What I love here, Seinfeld doesnt talk about results or performance. All that matter is not breaking the chain. It's simple but not easy. Just have to choose a task which falls in the sweet spot of it being not too hard or not too easy.

I am really happy with this 19-day chain and have been thinking of doing this for other stuff as well. I don't want to have too many tasks and overwhelm myself and not accomplish any so I am just going to keep this at 5 tiny habits.

• Writing 1 atomic essay everyday (30-45 minutes)
• Workout or run 5 kms (45-60 minutes)
• No sugar and caffeine for 30 days.
• Fast for 16 hours once a week.
• Read a book (min 30 minutes, this is already an established habit but still want this here so that I don't skip)

I just bought the app "Streaks" to record these everyday instead of a calendar (GenZ behaviour?) and I am also going to write weekly check-ins here every sunday.

<aside> ✅ Optimise for consistency before intensity.

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