> I spent a month of the year just flossing 1 tooth each night (ridiculous, I know!), then 5 months just flossing 1 row (better!)

Not directly related to the habit formation part, but this reminded me of something my dad used to tell us as kids about flossing and brushing teeth when we'd complain about it:

Dad: You know, you don't have to floss and brush them all.

Us (amazedly): Really?

Dad: Nope, just the ones you want to keep.

Just let the kids smell some rotting piece of food inside their mouth after flossing. Guaranteed they floss every time from then on.

The book was released today.

https://www.amazon.com/Tiny-Habits-Changes-Change-Everything...

I wrote some educational apps for language learning. Are there techniques that I could use to help and motivate my users?

I would highly recommend taking his bootcamp course. As a first stab, I would recommend not approaching the problem as “how do I motivate my users?” Instead, assume that their motivation is nearly zero. If you assume that, then what sort of things can you ask them to do, and how/when do you have to ask them to do it? This is the rationale behind “smallest possible habit.” It requires almost no motivation whatsoever to take 3 deep breaths.

Motivation is a fickle beast that ought never to be counted on.

I've read "Atomic Habits" by James Clear and "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg. Does "Tiny Habits" bring anything new to the table? Or is it a reformulation of these other ideas?

I can't speak about Fogg's new book, but I've read Atomic Habits and read or listened to some of Fogg's other work. I think you're past the point of diminishing returns, especially compared to spending that time tweaking how you apply it. For example, by making triggers more obvious (daily email nag), progress more consequential (BeeMinder, blog), or goals more fun (choose valuable habits!).

If you want Fogg's take in a nutshell, here's a short podcast interview: https://boxofcrayons.com/2016/08/bj-fogg-on-behaviour-change... . tl;dl: Have an explicit trigger that you can't ignore.

The book was released today but you can still buy a used copy on Amazon. Were those pre-releases or something? Odd.

ARC's aren't supposed to be listed... I'm not sure how many causal sellers that stops though.

Sounds just like the popular book Atomic habits, is it different?

James Clear credits the research of BJ Fogg in that book.

> I spent a month of the year just flossing 1 tooth each night (ridiculous, I know!), then 5 months just flossing 1 row (better!)

Was this because you hated it so much that you couldn't bring yourself to do more than one at a time, or is it important to effective habit building that you intentionall hold yourself back? (I can't imagine getting as far as remembering to do it, getting out the floss, tearing off a piece, flossing one tooth and then not saying, eh, I'm already here, might as well do more.)

It isn't a "practical" thing, it is a mental thing. "flossing my whole mouth feels overwhelming, so I'm not going to do any of it", vs "I just need to floss a single tooth, that is easy". Sure "just grow up and do it" sounds nice, but learning to build habits that generally feel unrewarding when starting out (e.g. working out, learning instrument), is extremely difficult for some people (e.g. me).

It's a bit strange that something that takes less than two minutes can seem so overwhelming, yet we've all been there.

For me it is the chore factor, the feeling that it's something bothersome that has to be done. One way around that I've found is to convert it to a desire - saying to myself "I deserve clean, healthy teeth" is enough motivation, for me, to pick up the floss. Similarly, "I deserve a clean, tidy home" gets me picking up the vacuum and mop, "I deserve a healthy body" is a useful mantra for eating well and exercising.

Very true. For me, it is the feeling of 100 small 2-minute things. I find myself looking how to get out of as many as possible.

To me it goes like this; I just did it yesterday, there’s nothing there to get out. So I’d forget about it for another week.

Yes I hated it and yes I’m exceptionally stubborn :)

In my case the flossing problem was solved by trying out certain rubber sticks made for that purpose. They're MUCH more convenient to use than the classic dental floss and make the whole process quicker, to a degree it took me almost no effort to consistently do it every day.

My flossing tip is Gum's Butlerweave dental floss. My dentist recommended it to be about 7 years ago. I had been flossing twice a day for years with OK results using some dental floss on a stick thing, but I still got a talking to by the dentist because my gums we're not in great shaoe. He pulled out some Butlerweave and showed how to floss for real, and now my dentist appointments are quite boring.

> showed how to floss for real

For me, that was the key development. Up to that point, I hadn't understood that the goal is to scrape plaque off the teeth, and had only been flossing to get food out from between my teeth. Once I understood that, flossing became much easier, not to mention, after a couple of weeks of reduced gun inflammation, more comfortable.

It was a dental hygienist who explained it to me, not a dentist... I think for dentists, there may be a bit of a conflict of interest.

Same here! The reach was a Godsend for me.

Do you have any brand to recommend?

I don't use the rubber ones but "flossers" which uses a piece of actual floss. I've found GUM brand to be the sturdiest, some brands fray easily which I hated. These made me go from literally flossing a few times in my life to doing it multiple times a week. Once you get used to the clean feeling you'll feel just like you hadn't brushed your teeth if you don't do it.

It went from this very unpleasant finger tourniquets and hands inside my mouth to doing it one handed while I read or watch a clip online.

Fraying floss is the worst!

I floss semi-regularly but will go periods of time without flossing due to the annoyance factor. I will try these. Just looked them up and are decently cheap.

TePe easypick, the orange ones. Feels a bit unusual at first but basically you just push them inbetween the teeth once and pull out again, and all the dirt comes out with them.

My dentist recommended those, works like a charm for me. Although keep in mind they're thicker than dental floss, meaning they may not fit between certain pairs of teeth if they're very close together.

I use Oral-B's floss picks (mint flavor). Way more easy to use than a thread. I also use an inter-dental brush.

Didn't work for me, I simply started forgetting to do the new "habit" after a few days. I guess if it's just after flossing you can add a note next to the toothbrush, but for others that's not practical.

Did you reward yourself after? It really is important but I feel many people skip out on it because it sounds (and is) ridiculous.

Other thing he recommends is “practicing” your habit, especially if your context changes e.g. you’re staying in a hotel for a week. This would mean for example to mimic brushing your teeth in front of the mirror then walking to the bed to sit and close your eyes 5 times or so.

To start it’s probably worth picking something up that you can easily prompt yourself to do (such as a note on your mirror). The only one that failed for me was posture related which relied on a too-irregular prompt.

> take on stress

What a wonderful mental model. Thank you for that phrasing.

My tendency, and I think most people's tendency around me, is to discuss stress in terms of how to limit it.

Taking it on changes my relationship to it (at least in my mind). Taking it on, gives me control over it.

I can confirm that this is one of the best uses of one's hour to acquire a valuable new skillset. I was part of the first batch of test subjects back when BJ was just starting the tiny habit experiment on Twitter. I used it to help me make running outdoors a viable exercise, despite not even being able to run a mile. A long series of small victories later, I ran a marathon. Then, I ran another. Etc. Now, I just maintain 3-4 miles five days a week.

I highly recommend everyone buys his new Tiny Habits book and gives the program a try.

If you're serious about trying to form a new habit, BJ - and people he's trained and bots they've created - runs a free 5-day program: https://www.tinyhabits.com/join

(I'm unaffiliated)

Just picked it up on Kindle.

Thanks so much for the book recommendation and the pointer towards BJ Fogg.

Re: flossing and Step 2: Make it the absolute smallest possible version of itself - you only have to floss the teeth you want to keep.

Haha. I tell myself I just have to floss one tooth. But once I've got that far I finish the job.