Identifying Your Cue

About half your “bad” habits may not be bad decisions at all—just the same tiny spark firing over and over. You grab your phone, open an app, or pour a drink, and it feels automatic. In this episode, we’ll hunt for that spark: the hidden cue that quietly starts it all.

Roughly 40–45% of what you’ll do today will unfold on habit, not fresh choice. But instead of trying to “fix” the behavior itself, this episode zooms in one step earlier: the moment right before you act.

In habit research, that moment is called the cue—what you see, feel, or experience that quietly steers you toward the next move. It might be a Slack ping that sends your hand to your phone, a certain time of night that nudges you toward Netflix, or a subtle feeling of tension that pushes you back to email instead of deep work.