Make It Easy, Make It Hard

You moved the app into a folder. A week later you’re opening it as often as before. Here’s why.

Friction is the effort, or the number of steps, between a cue and an action. Small amounts of it matter more than they seem, because the habit route doesn’t weigh things up: it follows whatever route is easiest from where you are. A step you’d barely notice when choosing deliberately can be enough to stop a habit firing, as long as it’s on the route the habit actually uses.

On the lawn, it’s a hedge planted across the path. People stop crossing there, but only if there’s no gap a few yards along.