When the heap came back — It can be done today

It'll happen. A busy fortnight, a couple of missed sweeps, a week of "I'll do it tonight", and there's an envelope on the side again and seven tabs and the feeling, and with it the thought that you're back where you started.

A fortnight isn't the habit back. It's a fortnight. Lally's finding was that a missed day didn't undo a forming habit, and a missed fortnight is more than a day, but the sweep you built is still there, and so is the list, and so is the knowledge from the clear-out that the actual size is an hour. The heap came back because the rule stopped running for two weeks, and the rule starts again the next time something arrives, which will be today.

Forgive the fortnight. Chapter 17 and Wohl's students. The ones who forgave themselves put off less next time, and the ones who dwelt on it didn't change. "Two weeks, done now." That's the sentence, and then the next thing.

Do one clear-out. Not a full hour if the heap's only a fortnight deep. Twenty minutes, this evening, the list, the ten-minute test, the tabs closed. The heap has an actual size and you've measured it before, and it'll be smaller than the carry says, and finding that out again is the fastest way to remember why the rule was worth having.

Work out which belief got through. Was it "I'll do it tonight", because you were busy and tonight seemed close? Then chapter 20's "now means now", because tonight is where the heap is made. Was it a missed sweep that became two and then a week? Then the same time again from tomorrow, and nothing else, because the sweep is the part that keeps the list honest. Was it an avalanche? Then chapter 24, and the rule bends, and asking for help.

No streaks. Don't count days without a heap. Count sweeps done, and let a missed fortnight be a gap in a list that's mostly ticks. And notice, because it's the whole book in one observation, that the heap in the fortnight cost you more than the fortnight's sweeps would have, and that you knew that, and that knowing it is why you're clearing it tonight and not next month.