You can’t trust your memory to measure change.
I add and remove habits regularly. I run small tests across my life and business. Each one shifts something. The problem is that three weeks later I can’t remember how I felt before the change. The water temperature adjusted and I adjusted with it.
This is the boiling frog problem applied to self-improvement. A 1% gain here, a 2% gain there, a 3% improvement somewhere else. Each one compounds. Together they’re significant. Individually, they’re invisible. And because I only notice extreme differences, I miss the compounding.
The flip side is worse. A habit that’s quietly draining me by 1% a week looks fine in the moment. Without a reference point, I can’t tell if I’m trending up or down.
My solution is forced review checkpoints. When I start or stop a habit, I set three calendar dates: one week, one month and one quarter out. Each checkpoint, I run the same check. Average tempo since the change versus the average before.
Tempo is the signal I use. I rate my day from -4 to 4, every day. It’s subjective, but the trend line tells truth. Because tempo is already in my daily log, the checkpoint costs nothing extra. I just pull the averages. If tempo averaged 3.2 before the change and 3.8 after, that’s signal. If it dropped to 2.9, that’s signal too.
When I start or stop something, I add a short note in that day’s entry.
Tempo is 4. Adding a 10-minute walk after lunch.
That’s the baseline. A month later, I have something concrete to compare against instead of a vague memory.
Most people add habits and move on. The habit survives by default. Forced review checkpoints make survival earn its place.
🌡️
How do you know your current routine is working?
