Dr Ezra Mallory
behavioural scientist
Experimental; tests everything on himself first
The Habit Clinic
Her editor turns her struggle into a public experiment. Maya tests habit science on her phone use, her work and her relationship, reports every failure in print, and discovers that some of the most famous habit advice does not hold up.
Planned · not started yet
Psychology & mental health Second chances Competing advice City life Lightly witty Hopeful
The premise
Her editor turns her struggle into a public experiment. Maya tests habit science on her phone use, her work and her relationship, reports every failure in print, and discovers that some of the most famous habit advice does not hold up.
The protagonist
Maya Lindgren-Osei — Journalist writing a column about habits who cannot stop scrolling at 2 a.m.
The council
Every council member is an original fictional character. None represents, quotes or is endorsed by a real person.
Dr Siobhan Okeke
sleep researcher
Matter-of-fact; starts every problem with sleep
Dr Arjun Patel-Wynne
clinical psychologist
Careful; watches for distress behind habits
How the story moves
A year of public experiments; readers of the column become characters, and Maya’s honesty about relapse matters more than her success.
What readers take away
- How habits form: cues, routines and rewards
- Friction and environment design
- Implementation intentions
- Attention and notification design
- Sleep and self-control
- Measuring behaviour honestly
- Which popular habit claims replicate and which do not
- When a habit problem may be something more
- Design a 30-day personal experiment
- Use temptation bundling and its limits
- Separate correlation from causation in self-tracking
- Spot overstated claims in popular psychology
The books
- 1The 2 a.m. column Planned
- 2Friction Planned
- 3Relapse Planned
- 4The new normal Planned
Book titles are working titles and may change before publication. No book is on sale until the complete series is finished, checked and released.