Guides to keeping a habit

Straight answers about building habits, including where the popular advice is wrong. Written to be useful whether or not you ever install this app.

• Why habit tracker apps end up unopened after three weeks

  The failure is usually in the design of the tracking, not in your discipline. Six specific mechanisms that turn a tracker into a chore, and what to change about how you set one up.

• Does it really take 21 days to form a habit?

  No — and the story of where the number came from is worth knowing, because it explains why so many people conclude they are broken in week four. What the actual research found, and what to do with it.

• Your streak reset to zero. Here is what to do next.

  Losing a long run hurts more than the missed day did, and the hurt is what usually ends the habit. What is actually lost, why the day after matters more than the day you missed, and a plan for the next seventy-two hours.