Within sight, within mind

Here’s a habit forming hack that just works:

Out of sight, out of mind.
Within sight, within mind.

If you want to do something repeated, just make sure you’re always bumping into it in your environment. Create some minor friction, even.

An example: Wake up early to exercise? Place your shoes and gear somewhere out of place in your room or home.

For me, the habit I wanted to have was spending time to answer questions on the r/Carrd subreddit. I always said I want to do more of it as part of marketing for my Carrd plugins, but I never did. I’d do it once, and then forget to go back the next day.

Then, I did just one small thing that got me going back not just once a day but multiple times a day.

Just one small environmental cue.

Just leaving one browser window open on r/Carrd all the time.

This small act made sure that I would see r/Carrd every time I hit the Mission Control key. And I do hit that key more than ten times a day to find the window I am working on. Each time reminding me to get back on there to do the reps. And very often I would be hitting that key in between work sessions when I got a few minutes to spare.

Just one small cue, with 10x rewards.

Out of sight, out of mind.
Within sight, within mind.