Cue types
Physical (a water bottle that runs out, a door you walk through). Digital (an app, a calendar reminder). Social (a colleague who walks at lunch, a meeting you stand in).
Different cue types have different reliability and different friction.
Best cues for movement
End-of-meeting transitions. Coffee breaks. Bathroom breaks. Apps that fire at specific intervals. Each is reliable enough to anchor.
Stack multiple cue types for redundancy.
Removing the bad cues
Auto-play next episode. Notifications that pull you back to the screen. The endless email reply chain.
Each is a sedentary cue. Disabling them helps.
How Upster supplies cues
Cues are exactly what Upster does.
- Calibrated digital cues.
- Reminders that escalate gently.
- Variety so they don’t become wallpaper.
A cue-stacking plan
Multiple cue types.
- Digital: Upster reminders.
- Physical: water bottle that empties.
- Social: walking 1:1s when possible.
Habits, not heroics
Habit-change literature converges on a single point: tiny, anchored, rewarded actions stick. Ambitious overhauls collapse. People who change their lives don’t do it through massive willpower; they do it through small actions that didn’t require willpower in the first place. Build the system, then forget about it.
If you find yourself relying on motivation to hit your habit, the habit is wrong — too big, not anchored well, or missing a reward. Make it smaller, attach it to something you already do reliably, and add a tiny reward (a streak, a satisfying check-off). The smaller and easier you can make the action, the more reliably it happens.
Install the smallest version, today
Pick the smallest possible version of the habit you want to install. Smaller than feels useful. Sixty seconds of movement after every meeting. Three deep breaths before the next email. One glute bridge after every bathroom break. The smallness is the point — it removes friction and lets the habit happen automatically.
After two weeks, scale up gently. The smallness brought you here; don’t abandon it before the habit is automatic. Once it’s running on its own, you can extend the duration or add complexity. Most people scale up far too soon and the habit collapses.
Source: Duhigg, The Power of Habit — Habits run on cue–routine–reward loops; changing the cue or reward changes the habit.
Keep reading: the home page, how Upster works, movement habits, consistent with breaks, and psychology of sitting.