Self-leadership
05 / Habits & Cycles
Key question
What carries you through the year?
Grand resolutions rarely last. What remains are small habits and regular reflections. They form the rhythm through which self-leadership constantly renews itself.
Learning objective: You will be able to design small habits so that they stick, set up regular reviews, and recognise your own cycles.
Small habits take you further than big resolutions.
5.1 / Small Habits
Start small, build on something.
Habits follow a simple loop that was popularised by, among others, the journalist Charles Duhigg:
01
Trigger
A set moment to anchor the habit to: after the first coffee, when closing your laptop.
02
Plot
So small that it almost seems ridiculous: writing a single line, tidying up for two minutes.
03
Reward
A great feeling straight after: a tick on the list, a quiet moment, a favourite song.
Behavioural scientist BJ Fogg calls this Tiny Habits: attaching a tiny action to an existing routine. If it grows on its own, great. If it stays small, that's fine too. The main thing is that it sticks.
Attach the new to something that is already there.
5.2 / Reviews
Pause for a moment before moving on.
A review is a brief pause in the passage of time: what gave you energy, what drained it, what do you drop, what do you keep? Five questions, ten minutes, once a week.
Over time, the collected reviews reveal patterns that are easily missed in everyday life. Once a quarter, it is worth taking a broader look—for example, with the self-audit in the toolbox.
Those who look back see patterns.
5.3 / Your cycles
Everything has its season.
Energy and ideas also come in cycles: phases where a lot is created, phases where you sort things out, and phases where everything settles. The Work Phases tool calls them Expansion, Curation, and Integration.
Anyone who understands their cycles doesn't need to find every phase equally productive. A quiet month after an intense project isn't a step backwards, but part of the cycle. And so the circle closes, bringing us back to the first module: you're back at a starting point, just a new one.
Every phase has its purpose.
Exercise
Your rhythm for the next quarter
Task: Establish a small habit and a review ritual, and plan your next quarter in phases.
STEP 1
Choose a tiny habit and attach it to an existing routine.
STEP 2
Set a fixed time for your weekly review and complete your first one using the tool.
STEP 3
Map out your next quarter: when will new things emerge, when will you clear things out, and when will you let everything settle?
STEP 4
Schedule an appointment for a major review in three months' time.
Evaluation: Are you still keeping up the habit after two weeks, without having to force yourself?