01
Choose tasks from your day
A task can be part of your routine or something you only need to do once.
02
Choose tasks with a clear finish
Morning
- Make the bed
- Put away yesterday’s clothes
- Fill a water bottle
Home
- Wash the dishes
- Take out the trash
- Put one load of laundry away
Errands and movement
- Take a short walk
- Pick up one needed item
- Return a package
End of day
- Clear the kitchen counter
- Set out tomorrow’s clothes
- Plug in the devices you need tomorrow
03
Make each task specific
Use a task you can clearly mark complete. “Clear the kitchen counter” has a clear finish; “Clean” does not.
- Instead ofExercise
- TryWalk for ten minutes
- Instead ofGet organized
- TryPut the clean laundry away
BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits and James Clear’s Atomic Habits share a practical idea: make the action small and easy to begin. In , that could be “Walk for ten minutes” instead of “Exercise.”
04
Keep the list short enough to finish
The routine is complete when every task on the list is done. Start with a short list and add another task when you have room for it.