Coaching practices for When to Increase a Habit

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For When to Increase a Habit, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• My tiny habit is finally rock solid, so my instinct is to crank up the targets on a schedule
• The tiny version is working and a few days in it feels so easy that I get impatient and crank it way up
• I just landed in the new place and I keep telling myself I’ll start the good routines once I’ve settled in and unpacked
• My new habits only survive on the good days when I’m rested and motivated, then the first hard, exhausting day comes and they collapse
• I keep meaning to start a good new habit

Practices that may help

1. Let the habit grow on its own
   Once the tiny habit is automatic, let it expand naturally instead of forcing more.
   Tiny Habits, Made Practical
2. Scale up only after the habit is automatic
   Grow the habit gradually, and only once the micro version runs without effort.
   Micro Habits: Start Absurdly Small
3. Install target behaviors in the new context from day one
   Begin the desired habit in the new environment before the new context develops its own competing cues.
   The Habit Discontinuity Effect
4. Shrink the behavior until it’s tiny
   Scale the habit down to something you can do even on your worst, busiest day.
   Tiny Habits, Made Practical
5. Engineer cues for habits you want
   Place obvious, consistent triggers in your environment to start a desired routine.
   The Power of Habit, Made Practical
6. Build the capture habit before anything else
   Install one habit at a time — start with ubiquitous capture — before adding other ZTD practices.
   Zen To Done (ZTD), Made Practical
7. Identify your cue
   Pin down the exact trigger that fires the habit before you can do anything about the habit.
   The Habit Loop, Made Practical
8. Shrink the habit until it is guaranteed
   Cut the behavior down until skipping it would be more effort than doing it.
   Micro Habits: Start Absurdly Small
9. Run one chain at a time to prevent dilution
   Start a second chain only after the first has run for at least 30 days without breaking.
   The Seinfeld Strategy: Don’t Break the Chain
10. Build a craving deliberately to cement a new habit
    Create an anticipatory craving for the reward of a new behavior before the reward arrives.
    The Habit Loop, Made Practical

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.