Blog
The quiet workof becoming.
Thoughts on goal setting, habit building, and the quiet work of becoming who you want to be.
March 21, 2026
·10 min read
Optimal Difficulty: The 85% Rule for How Hard to Practice
Too easy and you drift. Too hard and you quit. What the 85% Rule says about optimal difficulty, what it does not prove, and how to aim for it.
In machine-learning simulations, learning runs fastest when training holds success near 85%, not too easy, not too hard
March 14, 2026
·10 min read
Why Unfinished Tasks Follow You Around
Unfinished tasks keep tapping your shoulder while you try to focus elsewhere. The fix isn't finishing them. It's writing down exactly when you will.
Writing a specific plan for an unfinished task quiets the intrusive thoughts, even with zero progress on the task itself
February 28, 2026
·9 min read
Subtraction Goals: Why You Add When You Should Remove
The additive bias explained: why people add instead of remove, what the Lego study and its replication found, and how to set subtraction goals.
People asked to improve something default to adding, and overlook the option of removing (Adams et al. 2021)
February 21, 2026
·10 min read
Present Bias: Why Later You Keeps Losing to Right Now
Present bias is why you plan the workout, then skip it. What it means, how it differs from impatience, and three ways to plan around it.
Choosing a snack for a week later, people leaned toward fruit; choosing it for right now, they took the junk food far more often
February 14, 2026
·9 min read
What to Do After Achieving a Goal So the Result Lasts
Nobody plans for the day after the finish line. What to do after achieving a goal, from the research on why keeping a result is its own skill.
Keep the weight off for two years and the risk of regaining it drops by nearly 50%. Maintenance has its own learning curve
February 7, 2026
·10 min read
When Tracking Backfires: What Not to Measure
Tracking reliably helps people reach goals. It can also turn a hobby you love into work. When tracking backfires, and what to stop measuring.
Measuring an enjoyable activity - walking, reading, coloring - made people do more of it while enjoying it less
January 31, 2026
·9 min read
False Hope Syndrome: Why You Keep Setting the Same Goal
False hope syndrome: relaunching the same goal on unrealistic hopes about speed, amount, ease and payoff. Why it repeats, and the four settings to fix.
After 48 weeks of treatment and an average 16-kg loss, 47% of patients had not reached even the weight they themselves had labeled disappointing
January 24, 2026
·10 min read
Process Visualization: Picture the Work, Not the Win
Everyone tells you to picture the finish line. In the lab, process visualization beat outcome visualization on a real exam. Here is how to use it.
Visualizing the studying beat visualizing the grade by 8 points on a real midterm exam
January 17, 2026
·10 min read
Should You Keep Your Goals Secret?
One camp says announce your goal. The other says keep your goals secret. Both cite real research. What you share, and who hears it, decides who's right.
Sharing a goal raised commitment only when the audience was seen as higher status; telling a lower-status audience worked about the same as keeping it private
January 10, 2026
·10 min read
Money on the Line: Do Commitment Devices Work?
Commitment device apps let you bet real money on your goals. Here's who wins, who loses their cash, and the stake that doesn't cost a dollar.
Offered a reward program for quitting, 90.0% of smokers accepted; asked to risk their own $150 deposit, only 13.7% did