Sunday afternoon, calendar open, coffee still dey hot. Na this time good plans dey get written, and na this time almost every one of dem dey collect the one thing wey go kill am, because the person wey dey design get time, energy and clear head, while the person wey go do am on Thursday no go get any of those.
You no go want am less. Leave your target exactly where you put am. The thing wey must change na the size of the daily unit, and the correct size no be wetin today fit hold, na wetin your worst day this month fit hold.
That one sound like compromise but na the opposite. Your best days never dey danger at all. Na your worst days be where you go win or lose everything. Na dem go decide whether this na something wey you dey do or something wey you used to do. Design for dem and you go get both: big target and unit wey fit survive real week.
How big new habit suppose be?
Small enough to fit inside your most crowded day of the month. Size am there and you go do am nine days out of ten, and na frequency be the thing wey dey turn behavior into something wey dey run by itself.
Plenty plans dey sized against fantasy calendar where no train dey late, nobody dey move meeting enter your evening and no pikin dey sick. That calendar no dey exist, and plan wey you build for am dey fail on ordinary Tuesday. Then people go read the failure as say willpower no reach, wey na wrong diagnosis and e dey lead to wrong medicine.
There be second reason to size down wey no concern morale at all. The habit formation work wey British Journal of General Practice summarise find out say automaticity dey plateau on average around 66 days of daily performance, and say simpler actions dey become automatic faster pass complex ones. So small unit no be say e just easy to finish. E dey reach the point where you stop to dey decide, faster pass the big one, wey mean say you go reach the automatic version of the habit before the person wey design something impressive on Sunday.
How I go find the correct size?
Run the busiest day test. Picture the most crowded day for your last month, hour by hour, and ask wetin version of the habit for fit inside am without you canceling anything else.
Do am for three steps and write the answer down.
- Name the day. Real day wey don already happen, no be average day. Average days na story.
- Find the gap. Which place for that day get genuine ten or fifteen minutes hole? Before the house wake up, between two meetings, straight after school run.
- Size the unit to the gap, then remove twenty percent. The floor suppose feel small small too easy on the day wey you write am. That margin na wetin go pay for the day wey turn out worse pass the worst day wey you remember.
The floor na the design spec, no be the fallback. That difference matter pass how e sound. Fallback na wetin you dey drop to when things scatter, wey mean say e dey carry small feeling of failure every time you use am. Spec na wetin the thing be. You do the floor, and anything above am na extra wey you choose to do.
To size down, na the same thing as to aim low?
No be so. The target no move at all. Na only the daily unit you dey size to the worst day, because na for the worst days consistency dey really decided.
Talk am for numbers and the point go land. Person wey dey run five kilometers four times a week for three weeks then stop go cover sixty kilometers. Person wey him floor na fifteen minutes, wey dey pass am most weeks and hold am through the bad ones, go cover far more pass that by March and e go still dey run for June. Nobody for this comparison want am less. Na one of dem design for the calendar wey e get.
Na also why the floor no be ceiling. On good morning you go run the full thing, and you suppose. The floor dey so that the good mornings no go be the only mornings wey count.
Wetin if my floor feel too easy?
Then e probably na the correct size, and you free to pass am any day wey you like. The floor na minimum wey you promise say you go clear, no be prediction of wetin you go actually do.
The trap here na the good week. Three strong sessions pass, the floor start to look like joke, and you quietly raise am. Two weeks later hard stretch enter, the raised floor no fit inside am, and the habit stop. The floor no dey rise because of one good week. Raise am only after real hard month where you clear am every single time, and even then raise am once, small small.
Keep two sizes written side by side: the full version and the floor version. Two columns, one card, one glance. Na the whole tool be that, and na the difference between to dey improvise for ten for night and to just read instruction.
Small version dey really do anything?
Yes, and you fit measure this one, no be motivation talk. One review for the Primary Care Companion to The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry talk say thirty minutes of moderate activity three days a week don reach for the mental health benefits, and say e no need dey continuous, because three ten minutes walk dey do wetin one thirty minutes walk dey do.
The same logic dey work outside training. Fifteen minutes of writing every working day pass fifty hours for one year. Ten minutes of language, wey you hold for one year, go carry you far pass the six weeks sprint wey you abandon for February. Small units dey gather quietly and dem no need make you dey your best, and na exactly why dem dey keep working for the months when you no dey your best.
There be one more benefit wey dey show for the heaviest weeks. Floor wey you size to your worst day mean say the plan no go ever ask you to choose between the habit and the work. E dey fit inside both, so nothing need suffer and nothing need renegotiation for the moment when you least fit negotiate well.
Two sizes, written down before the week start
Take the plan wey you write on Sunday and put second column beside am. Full version for left, floor version for right, and make e specific well well so that tired person fit follow am without thinking. Then run the week from the right hand column and treat everything for left as bonus wey you fit claim.
For the big gym megastudy wey Nature publish, over sixty thousand people pass through fifty four different four weeks programs. Forty five percent of those programs raise weekly gym visits while dem dey run, and na only eight percent produce change wey you fit still measure after the four weeks finish. To make plan work for one month na the easy part. Na sizing be the part wey dey decide whether e go still dey run for week nine.
Keep your target exactly where e dey. Aim high, sign up for the hard thing, tell people wetin you dey go for. Then size the daily unit for the worst Thursday of the month, and you go still dey do am when the people wey design for dem best day don move go new plan.
Sources
- British Journal of General Practice, Making health habitual: the psychology of 'habit-formation' and general practice
- Primary Care Companion to The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, Exercise for Mental Health
- Nature, Megastudies improve the impact of applied behavioural science