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Habits, Systems & Productivity How habits actually form and break, how to design an environment that does the work for you, and the systems that turn effort into compounding results.
43 cards · space to flip · 1–4 to grade · d to go deeper
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Reading list The works this deck draws on, in the order worth reading them. Cards point to a specific chapter or paper where one fits.
01 Book Atomic Habits · James Clear The best starting point: the four laws, identity-based habits, habit stacking, and the two-minute rule in one readable system. Light on evidence, so pair it with Wood. 02 Book Good Habits, Bad Habits · Wendy Wood The research-grounded one, from the psychologist who ran the studies. Context, friction, and why willpower is the wrong lever; read it to learn which popular claims actually hold. 03 Book Tiny Habits · BJ Fogg The most usable design method for the first weeks of a habit: the behaviour model, anchors, shrinking the behaviour, and celebration. 04 Paper Implementation Intentions: Strong Effects of Simple Plans · Peter Gollwitzer, 1999 The paper behind if-then planning, the best-evidenced technique in this deck. Short and readable. 05 Paper How Are Habits Formed: Modelling Habit Formation in the Real World · Phillippa Lally et al., 2010 The study that measured time to automaticity in daily life and found a median of around 66 days with a wide range. The source to cite when someone says 21 days. 06 Book The Power of Habit · Charles Duhigg The cue-routine-reward loop and keystone habits, told through stories. Good for the mechanism; treat the business case studies as illustration rather than evidence. 07 Book Deep Work · Cal Newport The attention side of the deck: why undistracted work matters, attention residue, and time blocking. Part 2 holds the practical rules. 08 Book The Willpower Instinct · Kelly McGonigal Practical and humane on self-control, lapses, and the what-the-hell effect. Its ego-depletion material has not held up well in later replications; read the rest with that in mind. 