The X Effect

Day 238 / 366

There are lots of good subreddits to follow if you want some good productivity tips. The best one for me has been this one technique for forming habits — The X Effect

https://www.reddit.com/r/theXeffect/

The concept is simple. The key to forming habits is discipline. You’ve got to never miss a day. Only after putting in consistent daily efforts for a significant amount of days does the habit starts becoming second nature. So the X Effect provides a way to track your daily progress.

To do so, take a piece of paper or a card and draw a 7 X 7 square grid on it. On top of that grid write the habit that you want to form. This way you have 49 squares

Now at the end of each day, if you manage to stick to your habit, mark a cross on that day. If you skip a day, you have to start again with a fresh card.

This gamifies the process of habit formation, and it's so easy to do. Marking the cross at the end of the day feels like a small win, and helps keep you motivate to stick to the plan. This is why the method is so effective.