Small shifts, major gains
Are tiny habits worth it? Can you build from small changes to noteworthy results? The book summary + the Tiny Habits Challenge included.
On June 18th, a beautiful sunny breeze-free morning (unusual in the UK), whilst having my 8:00 AM coffee break at work and browsing the Notes, I came across a Tiny Habit Challenge idea from
. The luck would have it. I only finished the summary of Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg that weekend, so I jumped on the offer. I said I’d be interested in the challenge and that we should do crosspost to spread the word more.Before Izel begins the challenge, I will explain the tiny habits and what they can do for you.
Site note: To prepare this particular book summary, I read through the book and listened to any interview I could get on my iPhone with the author, BJ Fogg, PhD. There are many! I will include links in the footer.
I’ve always been fascinated by people's stories, how they got to where they are now, their motivation for their work, their often squiggly path to success, and the struggles they had to overcome. So, whenever I include the book summary, I go a few steps further and share what we can learn about the personality behind the book.
From July, I plan to start the “Behind The Substack” series, where I will interview one of the writers and extract all the learning nuggets about them, their journey, their writing process and routines, and, of course, their publication.
If you are a Substack writer and would like to be interviewed and are interested in crossposting the interview on your publication, email me at jana@coffeebreaknewsletter.com or send me a DM to discuss the details. You’ll get to share your stories with my readers, collaborate, and share some small or big learning lessons.
For now, let’s get back to the book.
Tiny Habits1 is not a new book; it was released in December 2019, but I wanted to include it as one of the early summaries simply because of its applicability and universal principles that can be applied to ANY area.
If you read and related to any of my past weeks' articles, tiny habits will help you get past the funk, reframe your mindset and get you back behind the keyboard.
About BJ Fogg, PhD
BJ Fogg, PhD, is a professor at Stanford School of Medicine and the founder of the Behavior Design Lab. His research won Stanford’s Maccoby Prize.
Back in December 2011, Fogg came up with a method to create habits by taking small steps, which he called: "Tiny Habits". This was then included in the Success magazine2 by JENNIFER CHANG3 in the article with the same title. He even gave two TEDx talks on this and related topics, which were viewed over 2 million times.
The message was simple yet powerful, and the word was spreading fast, ultimately leading to the publication of Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything.
So what should we take away from this The New York Times Best Seller and 4.14 score on Goodreads?
“Tiny is might. At least when it comes to change.”
This is how the author opens up the book and introduces the book. And us, readers, we nod in agreement. We’ve all been there, willing to admit it out loud or silently feeling guilty. Often, we set out with the best intentions, but somehow, our plans fall short.
It’s frustrating. It’s disheartening. It brings a lot of shame and guilt.
We often take on too much at once and end up feeling overwhelmed.
You might have done something similar when it comes to Substack. You want it to work, get engagement, and count subscribers, so you get into the cycle of all the wisdom and advice available—”How to do Substack…Follow this publication, get involved here, publish weekly, daily, bi-weekly, and be on notes…often…daily”.
It’s overwhelming.
It piles up like a stack of pancakes until it’s hard to take a bite.
Big changes end up disrupting your daily life to the point that it’s too much. That brings about doubts, and with small nudges, motivation slowly slips away.
A simple two-step approach
According to Fogg, the secret lies in thinking small. Tiny, even. Instead of vowing to write the next Great American Novel in a month, how about starting with a sentence a day?
Here’s the formula:
Stop beating yourself up about past failures. (Yes, even that abandoned blog from 2015.)
Break your "quit my job and become a full-time writer" dream into microscopic steps.
It's not sexy. It won't make for a dramatic Instagram post. But it might just work.
The Motivation Mirage
Yet, having the right information doesn't necessarily lead to action. You might set out to publish on your Substack regularly, yet that does not prevent life from happening around you and squiggling over your big plans with non-erasable Sharpie.
Fogg suggests that three key factors drive our behaviour: motivation (how much you want to do something), ability (your capacity to do it), and prompts (triggers that remind you to act).
Align these and change your behaviour, which will become much more likely, says Fogg.
To get started, you need motivation, yet as we know, motivation is not a reliable friend; it’s a flaky friend. It's like that work friend who swears they'll join you for happy hour but always bails at the last minute.
This is when you need to bring in another friend—aspiration. This is big-picture stuff. What are you aiming for?
For us aspiring writers, it might look like this:
Motivation: The burning desire to never sit through another team-building exercise again.Ability: Your capacity to string words together without crying.Prompts: That notification reminding you it's time to write.My aspiration for the Coffee Break newsletter is to be the newsletter my readers choose to read—to spend time with like-minded people who enjoy reading, learning, and, of course, coffee. I want to create a community beyond the newsletter that provides that virtual coffee break with your friend—a reliable friend who shows up. Imagining my readers on the other side of the screen helps me post regularly. Because I am a loyal friend and know that you’re expecting to hear from me.
That does not mean that the process of preparing a newsletter is easy. On the contrary.
I don’t use AI to write articles for me or read books or other Substacks; it does not search podcasts for the most relevant ones. I also don’t rely on AI to do research. I do the work, which brings us to time constraints. There’s only so much one can do around daily commitments, job, and quality time out, such as taking daily walks.
Focus on the barriers.
To bridge the gap between where we are and where we want to be, we need to focus on our everyday behaviors.
Fogg’s answer to that is this: The easier a habit is, the more likely we are to stick with it.
To make desirable behaviours easier, you start by identifying what makes behaviour difficult in the first place. What's stopping you from writing?
This could be time, money, energy, and fitting in with our schedule.
Identify these obstacles and then create tiny habits that fit into your existing routine.
The Prompt Revolution
Fogg talks about "action prompts"—existing behaviours that can trigger your new, desired habits. It's like inception but for productivity.
For example:
After you check your work email for the last time (ha!) each night, write one sentence.Before you scroll through LinkedIn, pretending to network, draft a newsletter outline.While waiting for your sad desk lunch to heat up, brainstorm article ideas.To best explain prompts, I am going to include a picture from the book, the prompt that the author uses himself:
Designing prompts is an experiment, so it's best not to take on too much at once.
This is a big point that changed a lot for me because it encouraged me to fit my new habits around existing routines—and, may I say, existing routines that I could not change, such as working to pay my bills and taking care of myself so I won’t burn out again.
Here are some of my prompts:
After I brush my teeth and wash my face, I put airpods on and listen to podcasts.
After I return from work and have my afternoon coffee, I catch up on the Substacks newsletters.
After I read the article, which I enjoyed, I leave thoughtful comments or make sure I hit the heart to show appreciation to a writer who put a lot of effort into creating this piece.
Now, it’s your turn. What are your prompts going to be? And please, if you’re comfortable, share them in the comments below. Hearing from you makes the difference!
After I…I will…Setting up your prompts is a good starting point for getting ready for the Tiny Habits Challenge.
Fogg's tiny habits aren't a magic bullet. They won't transform you into a best-selling author overnight. But they might just be the start of something big. Something life-changing. Something that doesn't involve PowerPoint.
Your writing dreams aren't too big. Your steps to get there have just been too large.
https://www.success.com/tiny-habits/
BJ Fogg Interviews and talks:
Forget big change, start with a tiny habit: BJ Fogg at TEDxFremont
The Secret To Creating Habits That Stick: Professor BJ Fogg | Feel Better Live More Podcast
Changing Behaviour with Wanda Wallace and BJ Fogg (The sound on this one is really bad, so watch out and be patient)
Thank you so much for the amazing opportunity Jana 💕
Love this framing, it's so powerful.