Break it where it's weakest
Cue → Craving → Response → Reward. Pick a bad spending habit and jam friction into the Response step. Watch it die off.
The habit loop
Every habit is a 4-part loop. You can't easily kill the cue or the craving, but you can jam friction into the Response.
It's late, you're bored and scrolling in bed.
A quick hit of novelty and anticipation.
Open the store app and one-tap checkout.
The dopamine of an incoming package.
Insert a friction point
Tap an intervention to drop it into the Response phase.
Projected habit frequency
Add a friction to see the loop weaken over time.
The biases inside the loop
Hyperbolic Discounting
Now-you keeps robbing future-you.
You want stuff now and barely care about later. Future-you feels like a stranger.
Default Bias
Whatever box is pre-checked is what you keep forever.
People stick with the option that is already picked, because changing it takes effort. Companies set that option to whatever pays them.
Scarcity Mindset
"Only 2 left" turns your brain off.
When something looks about to run out, you panic and stop thinking. Suddenly you need it. You did not need it four seconds ago.