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Plan and develop your mini habits carefully.
Now that we’ve discovered the benefits of mini 
habits, it’s time for you to create your own action 
plan. So where should you start?
First, choose your habits wisely. You can start 
with a list of habits that you’d like to have at 
some point in your life. You might want to 
practice a new language, read more, improve 
your math skills or become fitter.
Next, ask yourself why these habits are 
appealing to you; this is to ensure that you’ve 
got the right motivations. Why, for example, 
might you want to pick up more languages? If 
you’re passionate about travel and different 
cultures, then you’ve got pretty good reasons.
But if you’re simply determined to impress 
colleagues and friends, carefully consider 
whether you might just be under external social 
pressure. Don’t let this influence your habits! 
Habits should only be informed by what you 
really want to achieve.
With a list of motivated habits established, it’s 
time to create mini habits to match. If you want 
to learn Spanish, make it a mini habit to learn 
one Spanish word a day. If your mini habit is so 
small that it sounds silly to you, that’s great! 
That’s exactly how they should be.
Mini habits shouldn’t be daunting at all. They 
should be so small that you can incorporate 
several of them into your daily routine, starting 
out with two or three per day. After you’ve 
determined your mini habits, define and write 
down your habit cues.
Habit cues are signals that remind you it’s time 
to perform your mini habit. Say you want to do a 
yoga pose before breakfast; the time of day, or 
the fact that you’re getting hungry, could be your 
cues to engage with your mini habit.
Monitor your progress and don’t forget to 
reward yourself.
Mini habits are easy to achieve, so you shouldn’t 
just aim for a 95 percent completion rate – go 
straight for 100 percent. The simplest way you 
can avoid skipping or switching your mini habit is 
by recording what you do, so be sure to write 
everything down.
A psychological study conducted in 2013 
demonstrated that all thoughts have a stronger 
presence in your mind when you write them 
down. New apps such as Lift or Habit Streak 
Plan are perfect for helping you document your 
habits, or you can go for the old-school 
approach and use a big calendar to monitor your 
progress.
Whichever method you choose, it should be 
something you look at every day. This way, you 
can keep reminding yourself to complete your 
habits, maintain your progress and even build up 
more positive habits along the way.
Soon enough, you’ll be powering ahead. You 
might even find that you achieve far more with 
your habit than you originally planned. Say you 
go well beyond your target of writing 50 words 
and write 500 – these bursts of energy are great, 
but don’t let them confuse you!
Suddenly switching your habit to writing 500 
words won’t do you any good, and you’ll find it 
hard to maintain, even if it seemed so easy the 
first time. If you manage to exceed your goals, 
pat yourself on the back, but remember to see 
that as a bonus, and not a signal to push 
yourself harder.
But what if writing just 50 words feels boring? 
Well, that’s good! This signals that your mini 

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habit is a bona fide habit. It’s something you do 
automatically, without any resistance to 
complete it. This is something to celebrate, so 
reward yourself!
Remember, it’s not just the goal that your habits 
lead to that’s important. Developing a daily 
routine that is full of helpful rituals is something 
you can be proud of too.