Tiny habits
A method for building habits by starting absurdly small, anchoring to an existing routine, and celebrating immediately.
What it means
Tiny Habits is Fogg's practical method for behavior formation built on his behavior model (B=MAP): make the new behavior so small that almost no motivation is needed, attach it to an existing routine that serves as the prompt (the 'anchor'), and immediately generate a positive emotion ('celebration') to wire in the habit. The core insight is that ability, not motivation, is the lever most reliably under your control, so shrinking the behavior to the point of triviality guarantees it can be done on bad days; growth comes later, naturally. The celebration step is distinctive — Fogg argues that emotions, not repetition alone, create habits, so feeling success cements the loop quickly. Its limit is that very tiny behaviors may not, on their own, deliver the outcome people want until they scale. It matters because it operationalizes habit science into a concrete, low-willpower recipe that sidesteps the usual failure mode of over-ambitious resolutions.
Examples
'After I brush my teeth (anchor), I will floss one tooth (tiny behavior), then say “yes!” (celebration)' — trivially easy, so it sticks and naturally grows.
After I sit down at my desk (anchor), I write one line of tomorrow's plan (tiny behaviour), then grin — small enough to survive a terrible Monday, and it grows into the whole list.
Instead of resolving to do thirty push-ups, you do two after every trip to the loo and celebrate — ability, not motivation, is what carries the habit on bad days.
First described in B. J. Fogg, 'Tiny Habits' (2019).