Habit book notes · Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky · 2018

Make Time — the big ideas

Choose one daily highlight, build friction against distraction, and keep energy up — tactics to test rather than rules.

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Two designers offer a flexible system: choose one daily highlight, create friction against distractions, manage energy, and reflect — tactics to test rather than rules.

The big ideas

Daily highlight

Pick one thing each day to prioritise and protect.

Laser focus

Add friction to distractions, especially on phones.

Experiment

Treat each tactic as an experiment and keep what works.

Key concepts

• Daily highlight
• Distraction-free phone
• Energy
• Reflection

Limits

• A practitioner toolkit without formal testing.
• Written from a specific working life; adapt it to yours.

What the research says

• Harkin, Webb, Chang, Prestwich, Conner, Kellar, Benn & Sheeran (2016) — Pooled 138 experiments with close to 20,000 people. Interventions that increased how often people monitored their progress also improved goal attainment on average, and effects were larger when progress was physically recorded or shared with others. Limits: An average across very different goals; monitoring can feel like a chore, and what you choose to monitor matters.

Apply this idea

Choose tomorrow’s one highlight tonight, and protect a time for it.

Described in our own words with the source named — not a summary of the whole book.