Don't break the chain calendar (printable)

Where does the chain method come from?

The method is usually credited to comedian Jerry Seinfeld, through a story told by writer Brad Isaac: Seinfeld wrote jokes every day and marked each day on a wall calendar. The story is secondhand and Seinfeld has not been shown to confirm it, but the technique itself is simple and easy to test.

What makes the calendar useful is not magic in the red marker. It turns an abstract intention into a visible count, and it makes today's decision small: you are not deciding whether to become a writer or a runner, you are deciding whether to put one mark in one box.

How to use the calendar

Set it up once, then it takes a few seconds a day.

1. Choose one habit. Write a single habit on the Habit line. A chain with two habits is really two chains, and a day that satisfies one but not the other becomes an argument with yourself.
2. Define a day that counts. Decide in advance what earns the mark, for example ten minutes of practice or one page written. A small, fixed bar is easier to clear on a bad day than a vague promise to try hard.
3. Print it and put it where you will see it. Tape the sheet next to the place where the habit happens: the desk, the kitchen counter, the door of the wardrobe. A calendar in a drawer does not work.
4. Mark the box straight after you finish. Draw the X right after the habit, not at night from memory. The mark is the small reward, and it works when it is attached to the action.
5. Start a new sheet at month end. Count the marks, write the total at the bottom, and print the next month. A finished sheet is also a record of what you actually did.

What counts as a link in the chain

Agree these rules with yourself before the first mark:

• A day counts when you reached the minimum you wrote down, even if you wanted to do more.
• A day does not count if you did the habit after midnight and the day has already ended, unless you decided on a cut-off hour in advance.
• Doing the habit twice in one day earns one mark, not two, so the chain measures consistency rather than volume.
• A planned rest day is written on the sheet before the month starts, so it is a plan and not a gap.

What to do when you miss a day

Most people who use the calendar eventually miss a box. The research on habit formation is reassuring here: in a 2010 study led by Phillippa Lally at University College London, missing a single opportunity to repeat the behaviour did not materially affect the long-run process of habit formation. A gap is data, not a verdict.

A useful rule is to never miss twice. Leave the empty box empty, do not try to fill it in later, and make the next day's mark as small as you need it to be. The danger is not the first missed day; it is the story that the chain is ruined and there is no point continuing.

Why a paper calendar still has a place

A sheet on the wall is seen without opening anything, it cannot send you a distracting notification, and it takes no setup. The limits are real too: it does not travel with you, and it will not calculate your longest run for you. If you want the same chain on your phone, that is what a habit tracker app is for, and the printable sheet is a fair way to find out whether the method suits you first.

Common questions

Can I use the same calendar for more than one habit?

It works better with one habit per sheet. If you want to track several, print one sheet for each and keep them together, so each chain can survive or break on its own.

Does the calendar start on Monday or Sunday?

Weeks start on Monday on this sheet, which is the international standard. The month and year selectors let you print any month, so you can start a chain in the middle of a month if you like.

How long should the chain be before it feels automatic?

There is no fixed number. In the Lally study the time to reach a plateau in automaticity varied from 18 to 254 days, with a median of 66 days, depending on the person and the behaviour.

Is the sheet free to print?

Yes. The sheet is generated in your browser, nothing you type is sent anywhere, and you can print as many copies as you like.

Sources

Where the facts on this page come from:

• How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world, European Journal of Social Psychology, Lally, van Jaarsveld, Potts and Wardle, 2010
• 'Don't Break the Chain' to Build a New Habit, Lifehacker, relaying an account by Brad Isaac, 2007