# Habit Design & Recovery Card

Use this for one habit at a time. Trying to design three habits at once usually produces zero.

## 1. The Habit, Precisely

- What you want to do:
- How often:
- Minimum version (the version you do even on a bad day):

## 2. The Cue

Pick something concrete and already-existing in your day — not "when I feel motivated."

- Cue type (time / location / preceding action / existing habit):
- Exact cue:
- Where you will put a physical or digital reminder, if any:

## 3. Environment Change

Make the habit easier to start and the competing behavior harder to fall into.

| Make it easier | Make the alternative harder |
| --- | --- |
| | |
| | |

## 4. Friction Audit

- Steps between "cue happens" and "habit starts" right now:
- Which step can you remove or pre-stage the night/hour before?
- What has caused you to skip this before, specifically?

## 5. Recovery Rule

Decide this now, while you are calm — not after you have already missed a day.

- If I miss one day, I will:
- I will not try to make up for a missed day by:
- The rule for getting back on track (e.g., "never miss twice in a row"):

## 6. Two-Week Evidence Log

Log context, not judgment. "Skipped, meeting ran long, phone was in another room" is useful. "Failed again, lazy" is not.

| Day | Did it? (Y / N / minimum version) | Context (cue present? what got in the way?) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | | |
| 2 | | |
| 3 | | |
| 4 | | |
| 5 | | |
| 6 | | |
| 7 | | |
| 8 | | |
| 9 | | |
| 10 | | |
| 11 | | |
| 12 | | |
| 13 | | |
| 14 | | |

## 7. Review After 14 Days

- Pattern in the misses (day of week, time, trigger):
- One change to the cue or environment for the next two weeks:
- Is this still the right habit to be working on?

## Boundary

This card is for ordinary personal habits — exercise, reading, a work routine, a small daily practice. It is not a treatment plan for addiction, compulsive behavior, disordered eating, or a diagnosed psychiatric condition, and repeated failure at that scale is a signal to talk to a qualified professional, not to redesign the cue.