Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything

Why it's worth it

BJ Fogg's Tiny Habits shrinks the first step until failure is basically off the table — two push-ups, one flossed tooth. It's the book to hand someone who's tried to change and stopped, because it removes willpower from the equation almost entirely.

Fogg's core move is to make the habit so small it feels silly. Not thirty minutes of yoga. Two breaths. The logic is that willpower is unreliable, so you should design a behavior that doesn't need any. If you've abandoned a habit in week two before, you already know why this matters — the thing you quit was probably too big on day one, and you never got to find out whether you'd have liked it.

The recipe format does a lot of the work. After I [something I already do], I will [tiny new thing]. Anchoring the new behavior to an existing one solves the remembering problem, which is where most habits actually die. You'll design your first one before you're far into the book, and that early win is deliberate.

From our review of 5 books on building habits, by David Sinclair, Managing Editor

What we like

• +Fogg's core move is to make the habit so small it feels silly
• +The recipe format does a lot of the work
• +Then there's the celebration part, which feels ridiculous until you try it
• +Fogg's tone reads like a coach who's seen a lot of people fail and isn't judging you for it

What to know

• –It's repetitive. The central idea takes about thirty pages to explain, and the book runs three hundred
• –Tiny is the strength and the ceiling