The two-day rule is the easiest way to build new habits
A master of habit
Maya Angelou—a world-renowned storyteller, poet, and civil rights activist—would wake up at 05:30 every day. By 06:00, she’d be ready for a coffee. Her husband would join her. Half an hour later, it was time to work; she’d go to a hotel room—a “tiny, mean” room with a bed, and sometimes, if she could find it, a face basin. She always kept a dictionary, a Bible, a deck of cards, and a bottle of sherry in the room.
Angelou would arrive at around 07:00. She’d sit. Then she’d write until 14:00 before heading home. If it was going well, she’d stay longer. If it went badly, she’d leave early. It’s lonely. And it’s marvelous.
Back home, she’d read over what she wrote that day. Then she showered and prepared dinner; when her husband came home, she didn’t want to be absorbed in work. They’d eat. They’d drink. And after dinner, she’d sometimes read to him what she’d written that day. He wouldn’t comment. He’d never comment. But hearing it aloud helped to snoop for dissonance. She would sort it out the next morning.
This was her process—taken from the fascinating book, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. And they aided her creative method: A sharp jolt of sherry; a hotel room rented by the month; a deck of cards to free her mind for deeper thoughts.
But do you know what these actions are? Habits. Her routine, from the bottom up, was a mix of carefully crafted habits—nearly (or completely) involuntary behaviours. For Angelou, they were very good ones.
“One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency.” – Maya Angelou
Habits govern our life
Like many of the greats, Maya Angelou was a master of habit. And she crafted them–carefully and thoughtfully—to achieve her lofty ambitions.
They made up a large proportion of her day-to-day. Always repeating. Always working in the background like a well-oiled machine. But how much of her day can we roughly attribute to habit? And, for that matter, how much of yours?
Dr. Wendy Wood, a professor of psychology at USC, led research on how much of our day is driven by habit. Researchers beeped and followed the participants hourly. When beeped, they told the researchers what it was they were doing (and thinking) at the time. The result? 43% of the time they were beeped, they were doing the same thing—often, at the same time of day.
The irrefutable science: Nearly half of our daily behavior can be boiled down to, well, habits. Idly dragging your thumb through Instagram; bringing your slightly bruised water bottle everywhere; waking up at 04:30 in the morning to exercise.
To be blunt, most of us do what we always do. And, naturally, we don’t even think about it. Why would we? I don’t stand in front of my coffee machine every morning questioning how to use it, what to do or why I’m having a coffee. I grind it. I pour it. I drink it. My brain is free to ponder and deliberate on other things—all whilst I make and sip my delicious long black. Tasty.
So yes, we need good habits—those that match our ambitions. But how do we build them. And, most importantly, make them stick? Enter the two-day rule.
What is the two-day rule?
The two-day rule is this: When building a new habit, never miss two (or more) consecutive days to perform the action. It’s simple. And it’s brilliant.
This is a productivity technique first coined by award-winning filmmaker and YouTuber, Matt D’Avella, in his video The Two Day Rule. This very rule enabled him to build more muscle mass in six months than he was able to build in ten years. And its efficacy is rooted in science.
A study in the European Journal of Social Psychology says that "missing one opportunity (or, a single day) to perform a new behavior did not materially affect the habit formation process."
Meaning? It’s not perfection—or intensity—that wins. It’s consistency. A commitment to practice a behavior regularly with an element of choice and flexibility. It’s the two-day rule.
Benefits of the two-day rule
It makes habit building simple
A study by John Norcross, PhD, tracked the success of 200 people's New Year's resolutions over two years. After one week, 77% maintained their pledges. Fast-forward two years and only 19% of these New Year’s resolvers kept their habits. That’s 38 people—a failure rate of 81%. But there’s more.
The key finding is that “successful resolvers reported employing significantly more stimulus control, reinforcement, and willpower than the unsuccessful over the 2 years.”
Meaning? Having a technique to build habits—the two-day rule—significantly increases the chances of sticking with a new practice. And it makes it much easier.
It gives you permission to live your life
We work. And socialize. And eat. And travel. And sleep. In short, we’re busy with cast-iron calendars, long meetings, and fluctuating moods. The two-day rule knows this. Well, sort of.
If you’ve woken up and just can’t face the music, take the day off. If you want to meet a friend for a coffee instead of a long run, do it. The two-day rule provides flexibility to live your life. Just remember to show up the next day. Refreshing. And simple.
It builds strong habits that die hard
The two-day rule will build new, strong habits. And they won’t leave you anytime soon. Why? New habits trigger new neural activity patterns in the basal ganglia—an area of our brain critical to habits, addiction and procedural learning.
These neural patterns begin to fire differently—they learn and grow increasingly efficient. And, as we’ve all experienced, these habits become very hard to break. The good ones. The bad ones. And, yes, the ugly ones.
How to apply the two-day rule
If you take one thing from this page, let it be this: Never miss two (or more) days in a row to perform a new action. If you do this—and keep doing it—you’ll build a new habit. Consistency. Not intensity.
But if you’re able to take a few more things from this page, take these three (simple) steps to implement the two-day rule.
Start with keystone habits
I recently had a health scare. And I took a long, forced break from weightlifting. Weeks later, I noticed my eating habits declined—a chocolate biscuit here, an almond croissant there. Then, my motivation fell-off. And with it, my desire to put my dressing gown on in the morning and start my day.
It was strange. I knew it wasn’t just to do with my health scare. That was the root, yes. But it wasn’t all that was happening here. I was certain.
Months later—bingo. I realized. Exercise was my keystone habit—an action that, when performed, triggers a wealth of positive changes in other areas of life. Now it seems obvious: You train, you want to eat well. You eat well, you feel better. You feel better, you feel motivated.
The bottom line? One very good habit will create more good habits. And that one very good habit is the keystone.
So, consciously build one using the two-day rule. My suggestion? Wake up at 05:00 every day. It might just change your life.
Use ‘habit stacking’
In the New York Times bestseller, Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about a concept called habit stacking. It refers to taking advantage of existing habits to build new ones. And it’s nothing short of game changing.
Let’s assume you want to build a new habit—to read more books. Great. To use habit stacking, in this context, simply pick one habit that you already do every day and stack this new behavior onto it—before, or after. Take these examples:
“After I pour my coffee, I will read one page of my book.”
“Before I pick up my phone for my nightly Instagram time, I will read one page of my book.”
Habit stacking is a valuable tool for your productivity chest. And it works because your current habits are already established. So, if you use one, the chance of making this new action permanent grows significantly.
Keep track of your progress
Open your calendar. Take your pen—or thumb—and make a note of when you plan to perform your new habit. Start by tracking it over the course of one week. Remember, never skip two or more days.
Done? Good. You’ve just made a written commitment to yourself. And that makes this goal up to 1.4 times more likely to happen. Nice one.
Remember, every time you perform the action—even for five minutes—put a great big “X” next to it. Track it. Celebrate it.
And if you fail to follow the two-day rule at any point, don’t panic. We’re human. Take a moment to valuate why and come back stronger.
Try the two-day rule for one week
You have the tools. All that’s left to do now is, well, try it. Pick one habit you want to form. And plan to do it over the course of one week. Then two. Now three. You get it.
Simply, remember the golden rule: Never miss two (or more) days in a row to perform this new action.