Last week, I ate two packets of chips in one sitting and I felt filthy. The next day, I woke up determined to atone for my health sin and entered ‘hyper-weight-loss mode’, consisting of a track, ab and leg workout in the same day. I got injured as a result, which prevented me from burning off those yummy saturated fats. Yep – the activities meant to cure my fat sickness made me more ill. Nice.

It’s easy to convince ourselves that massive progress requires massive action. Whether it’s finishing an assignment, writing a book or building a business, we give ourselves pressure to make some great leap in improvement that we can proudly look back on.

Unfortunately, this isn’t always sustainable – illustrated with my injury – and that’s where small habits kick in.

Take the following graph from James Clear’s Atomic Habits. If you get 1% better each day for one year, you’ll end up 37 times better by the time you’re done. Conversely, if you get 1% worse each day for one year, you’ll decline to nearly 0.

It’s easy to forget that time multiplies whatever you feed it. Good habits can make time your best friend. Bad habits can make time your worse enemy. As James Clear writes,

Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. Your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits. You get what you predict.

Alas, here’s a reminder for myself to choose the 1% better wherever possible. Examples include:

Domain	Better	Worse
Health	Fruit	Chips
Entertainment	Read a book	Play games
Social	Call a loved one	Scroll social media

This is not to say the worse category should always be avoided. Kettle chips, group gaming sessions and the occasional meme do wonders to light up the human spirit. But if we repeat 1% errors in duplicating poor decisions or rationalizing little excuses, our small choices compound into toxic results.

On the other hand, making a choice that is 1% better over a long time might be the difference in determining who we are versus who we want to be. And that is really exciting.