On my way home from work recently, I passed by the gym and suddenly thought: that 3-month membership I signed up for at the beginning of last year—how many days did I actually go? Twenty times? No, honestly it was probably less than fifteen.
But strangely, the English study I started around the same time has continued for 6 months. 15 minutes a day, on the subway during my commute. It doesn't seem like much, but it's accumulated to over 90 hours. The gym and English study—what was the difference?
The answer was surprisingly simple. For the gym, I had to debate "Should I go today or not?" every time. For English, I just automatically started when I got on the subway. Consistency turned out to be not a matter of willpower but a matter of systems.
The Importance of Routines
It's easy to think of consistency as "a characteristic of people with strong willpower." But in my experience, consistent people often have well-designed systems rather than strong willpower.
People pay a decision-making cost every time they have to form a new resolve. Psychology calls this decision fatigue. Conversely, routines automate behavior. When a trigger occurs, you execute without thinking. The power of routines is making it so you don't ask "Should I or shouldn't I?"
How to Form Routines
The biggest mistake when creating routines is "starting grandiose."
Fix the trigger - Concrete triggers attached to actions are better. Things like "after brushing teeth," "before brewing coffee."
Start with 2-5 minutes - Not an hour of exercise but 10 squats, not a whole book but 3 pages. If you do a 2-minute routine for 30 days, your body remembers.
Define by action, not result - "Read one book" is a goal, but a routine should be a unit you can execute today, like "read 3 pages daily."
Stack routines - I linked "brew coffee → 3 minutes stretching → start work." Each one is small, but when connected like a chain, it's hard to break.
Managing Routine Sustainability
Set an SLO - Rather than 100% achievement, set a service level objective like "success if 5 times per week." If you aim for 80-90% from the start, it's okay to take a day off.
Keep only 1 observable metric - I just mark O on Google Calendar. If recording becomes annoying, routines collapse.
Create a failure response plan - Not "if I missed it, double tomorrow" but fallback routines like "on days I can't, the 1-minute version."
Consistency is structure, not emotion. If you make routines small to fit yourself and operate them so they can be reattached even when broken, at some point consistency becomes not "effort" but "default." Like brushing teeth daily, you just do it.
Why not start just one thing? 2 minutes is enough. Just repeat those 2 minutes for 30 days. At some point, you'll find your default has changed.
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