Just a little bit, every day.

In Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about getting 1% better every day. He really drives home this idea that success is made up of small, incremental improvements that compound over time. This really resonated with me, and I started looking for opportunities to put this idea into practice. What I discovered is that James Clear is full of bullshit. Well, maybe half full.

Around the time that I was reading Atomic Habits, I was also obsessed with the idea of neuroplasticity. My kids can learn so much faster than me, so I guess my obsession had more to do with my own neuro-rigidity. To combat this, I thought it would be fun to learn how to memorize the sequence of a deck of playing cards. There’s a clear method to learn this skill (you can google it) that involves mapping numbers and suits to people and actions, then imagining people doing those actions in 52 different locations around your home. I started with just the spades, thinking I could memorize 13 cards pretty easily. For 2 weeks, every day, I would spend 15 minutes practicing. One percent every day, right? Wrong! I improved over the first few days. I could memorize the 13 cards in about 2 minutes. Then my ability plateaued. The practice sessions were mentally painful. I dreaded doing it the next day, and after several days of no improvement, I quit. Stubborn. Rigid. Neurons.

Still obsessing about building some flexibility in the gray matter upstairs, I put the 1% rule to work on the piano. I’ve always been musical, but never classically trained. I figured if I pick a piece and spend 15 minutes every day working on it, it will come together over time. Guess what? It works! Practicing and improving on the piano is a great way for me to exercise and build connections in my brain, and I think there are a ton of connections at play! (pun intended). Playing piano requires (at least for me) three out of my five senses. And all of these have to work together to produce the musical result I’m after. Currently, I’m working through Maple Leaf Rag, and while my progress is comically slow, I notice that I’m improving every single day.

A common area where people like to apply the 1% rule is in the gym. Fitness gurus rightfully preach consistency over everything else when it comes to staying in shape. I’ve had some mixed results. Over a year ago, I started a daily push-up habit. Start with 10, every day (easy peasy!). Then, increase by 1 every week. I did this for about 6 months. I was up to 32 push-ups in a row, and I was curious if I’d ever reach a maximum and what would that look like? I mean, it was pretty easy to add just one push-up each week, so I really didn’t see an end in sight. Then, my shoulder answered my question for me. They call it an “overuse injury.” For me, the 1% rule is not a helpful motivator for staying fit. Instead, I look to the mental, physical, and emotional benefits of daily activity, and I’ve given up on getting to some fabled “peak” 1% at a time.

Mr. Clear probably didn’t mean for his 1% rule to be universally applicable. He also didn’t mean that you can improve 1% per day in perpetuity – if this was true, then I would be doing 7,812 pushups in a row by now! Nonetheless, the 1% rule is a great mental model to remind us that small habits, practiced with consistency, can pay great dividends.