Free course · Habits and behaviour change

Habit Lab — how habits work, and how to build or change one

Free — no account needed to read

Cues, environment, motivation, planning, routines and consistency, in 103 lessons across 10 modules, grounded in research you can check. A habit troubleshooter, 60 techniques, book notes and myth checks help you fix the habit you are actually struggling with.

Understand

What a habit is and how it forms

• Module 1 · Start here — The nine ideas that make everything else easier. You will know what a habit really is, why motivation is a poor foundation, what actually builds a habit, and how to design your first one. (9 lessons)
• Module 2 · How habits work — The mechanics: automaticity, cues, reward, friction and why habits fail. You will have a working model of habits — how they start, strengthen, fade and change — and see through the common myths. (11 lessons)

Build & change

Design a new habit, change an old one

• Module 3 · Build better habits — Six steps from a vague wish to a behaviour that runs on its own. You will design a habit precisely — the behaviour, the cue, the easiest version, the reward, the signal it’s done — and keep it stable. (12 lessons)
• Module 4 · Change & break habits — Understand what an unwanted habit does for you, then redesign the system around it. You will map what triggers an unwanted habit and what it gives you, change the situation around it, and handle slips without giving up. (10 lessons)

The forces behind behaviour

Motivation, environment, planning

• Module 5 · Motivation & mind — Why people act or don’t — motivation, confidence, temptation, procrastination and identity. You will understand what motivation can and cannot do, why intentions stall, how procrastination really works, and how habits shape who you become. (13 lessons)
• Module 6 · Environment & context — Habits are not only about inner discipline. Design the places, screens and people around you. You will read your surroundings as a set of cues and costs, and redesign your space, your phone and your social world to make good habits the easy default. (11 lessons)
• Module 7 · Planning & self-regulation — Turn intentions into action: goals, if–then plans, obstacles, prompts, monitoring and review. You will set goals that help, write plans that trigger action, prepare for obstacles, and run a simple review loop — connected to your MFJ habits, goals and schedule. (9 lessons)

Systems that last

Routines, consistency, maintenance

• Module 8 · Routines & systems — Stacking, sequences and the routines that carry your mornings, work, study and evenings. You will anchor new behaviours to stable routines, design sequences that flow, and adapt routine ideas to your own life instead of copying someone else’s. (9 lessons)
• Module 9 · Consistency & maintenance — Keeping habits going through busy seasons, travel, boredom, plateaus and life changes. You will keep habits alive over months and years — managing how many you run, travelling with them, adding challenge, recovering from gaps and letting go on purpose. (9 lessons)

In depth

The research, for the curious

• Module 10 · The science in depth — For the curious: how researchers measure habits, the brain, the frameworks and the debates. You will read habit research like a careful scientist — what is measured, what is known, what is contested — and apply that thinking to your own experiments. (10 lessons)

How each lesson works

Each lesson starts from the problem it solves, explains the idea simply and says what kind of evidence stands behind it. It shows the same moment read twice — the ordinary first approach, and the same moment with the idea — then gives you a tiny exercise and a few questions to reflect on.

Nothing here promises a habit in a fixed number of days, and nothing scores you. Techniques are things to test on your own habit and keep only if they help.

Fix, try and look deeper

• Habit troubleshooter — Pick what is going wrong — forgetting, losing motivation, falling off after a bad week — and see the likely causes and what to try.
• Habit techniques — 60 techniques, each with the steps, an example, a common mistake and an honest evidence note.
• Habit book notes — The big ideas of the well-known habit books, with their limits and the research that bears on them.
• Frameworks — Popular models of behaviour change, what they claim and how well they hold up.
• Habit myths — Common claims about habits checked against the research.
• The research — Every study the lessons cite, with what it found and what it does not show.
• Learning paths — Routes through the lab for a first habit, breaking a pattern, sleep, study, exercise and more.
• Practice exercises — Worksheets for designing a habit, planning for obstacles and reviewing what happened.