Make hard things easy using the Ability Chain and tiny starts

Every habit you struggle with has a hidden snag. Sometimes it’s time. Sometimes it’s a dull knife or a missing link in the routine. The fastest way forward is to find the weakest link, then choose a path to ease. There are only three: gain a skill, get a tool or resource, or make the action tiny. Each reduces friction in a different way, and you can stack them.

Take meal prep. Alex, a fifth‑grade teacher, wanted to stop grabbing fast food on late days. His “Sunday batch cooking” plan kept failing. Time was tight, his knives were dull, and the sink was always full. He ran the Discovery Question: what makes this hard? Time and tools. He picked two fixes. First, he bought a mandoline and a decent chef’s knife. Second, he created a Starter Step: after washing dinner dishes, he’d place two containers of chopped veggies in the fridge. The first night felt clumsy. The second was smoother. By Thursday, lunch felt automatic.

Small starts matter. A Starter Step is the first micro‑move that tips you into motion, like setting the pan on the burner. Scaling back shrinks the target action, like walking to the mailbox instead of “going for a walk.” Both give you a success to celebrate and, more importantly, keep the habit alive on rough days. One parent told me he sometimes just opened the dishwasher and closed it. Odd? Maybe. Effective? Yes. He still counted it.

The environment often decides for you. If the floss is buried in a cabinet, flossing is a fight. If it lives beside your toothbrush, it wins. If your phone sleeps in the kitchen, scrolling in bed dies quietly. Put the right objects in the right places and many “motivation problems” vanish without debate.

Underneath is a simple design rule: simplicity changes behavior. When you remove time pressure, reduce cost, lower physical or mental effort, and thread the action into your existing routine, the behavior climbs above the threshold where it happens even on low‑motivation days. Then it can grow.

Ask yourself what makes this behavior hard, then point to the first weak link in time, money, physical effort, mental effort, or routine. Choose to build a skill, add a useful tool, or make the behavior tiny—often a mix works best. Decide on a Starter Step or a scaled‑back version, move the right props into place, and give yourself a small win to celebrate tonight. Keep the tiny version alive on busy days so the habit survives and can grow. Try placing the sharp knife and two containers on the counter after dinner.