Inc. Magazine
Behavioral science shows that tracking a streak can help you build habits. Start small, fit the streak into your routine, track progress, and allow occasional exceptions. Streaks gamify your progress, keeping you motivated and making habits easier to maintain.
1 Weird Trick Helps You Build Habits and Reach Your Goals, According toBehaviorall Science
Author: Minda Zetlin
How can you build a new habit and make sure you stick with it? Use the power of the streak. That intriguing advice from behavioral scientists showed up in a recent New York Times article geared to helping people keep to their New Year’s resolutions. Tracking a streak lets you use gamification to subtly reward yourself for sticking with your new habit.
I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions. But whether you’re a skeptic like me or you diligently make one or more resolutions each year, getting on a streak can help you reach whatever goal you set. Game designers know all about streaks. That’s why whenever you play a LinkedIn game or the Times‘ own insanely popular Wordle, it will tell you how long a streak you’re on and encourage you to keep it going.
Streaks can work in other contexts too. For instance, Nell McShane Wulfhart, who wrote the article in the Times, says she herself goes running every single day, even though she doesn’t love it, because she’s got a seven-year streak going and she doesn’t want to break it. If you’re struggling to complete a project—or, like me, you have cluttered spaces that need clearing out—creating a streak of spending, say, 15 minutes a day on these tasks can help keep you motivated until the job is done. Here’s how to harness the power of a streak.
1. Make it manageable.
Wulfhart writes that she runs a mile every day. Even for a very slow runner, that can’t take much more than 15 minutes. If it were five miles, that might be a harder streak to maintain.
You want your streak to be sustainable, so start with something modest that won’t take hours of your time. You can always add more later on. And by the way, a streak doesn’t have to be a daily habit. If, for example, you publish a blog post every Sunday and never miss a week, that’s a streak too.
2. Fit the streak into your existing routine.
Figure out how your planned streak will fit in with the other things you do. For example, if you want to go to the gym every day, how will that work with your existing schedule? Can you block out an hour at, say, lunchtime for your workout?
Fitting your streak into your existing routine also means you can use habit stacking to keep your streak going. For example, I always floss when I brush my teeth before bed, and I never skip that step. So when I wanted to remember to take a pill every night, I stored the pill bottle next to the floss.
3. Track your streak.
A streak won’t do you much good if you aren’t aware of it. So find a way to keep track of how long you’ve been on your streak. One simple approach is to just note on your calendar every day that you keep the streak going, but other methods work too. For example, putting a quarter in a jar for every day that you maintain your streak and then using that money to buy yourself a treat.
4. Allow for exceptions.
Don’t be too rigid about your streak. There will always be days when there are special occasions or minor emergencies or other factors that interfere with keeping up your streak. So if circumstances interfere with your streak once in a while, don’t be too hard on yourself. In particular, don’t tell yourself that messing up the streak once is a reset to zero that will undo everything you did on the days when you maintained it. “One popular strategy is to allow yourself to miss one day of a streak occasionally, but never two in a row,” Wulfhart writes. “By giving yourself that one-day allowance, you can continue the streak.”
There’s a growing audience of Inc.com readers who receive a daily text from me with a self-care or motivational micro-challenge or tip. (Want to learn more? Here’s some information about the texts and a special invitation to a two-month free trial.) Often, they text me back about their thoughts and experiences and we get into a conversation. Many of my subscribers are solopreneurs or run small businesses, and they’re constantly looking for ways to stay motivated and keep making progress on tough tasks. Using a streak can be a fun way to make that happen.
Credits: TCA, LLC.