The Aspirin vs. Vitamin Habit Test: Why Some Habits Stick, Others Die by February, and How to Create Habits Successfully

Welcome back to the Productivity Podcast where I give you a daily productivity tip so

you can get the most out of your time, your talent, and your ideas.

I'm your host Brandon White, here we go.

You set a new year's goal.

You were excited to achieve it.

You bought the journal, downloaded the app, blocked time on your calendar, and then February

hit.

And the whole thing quietly died.

You're not familiar, you're not lazy.

You probably just built a vitamin habit when what you actually needed was an aspirin.

Today we're breaking down the aspirin versus vitamin test, what it is, where it comes

from, why psychology backs it up, and the three ways you can use it to build habits that

actually stick and make you more successful.

The aspirin and vitamin frameworks started in the startup world.

Answers would ask founders one question, is your product an aspirin or a vitamin?

An aspirin solves a real immediate pain.

You have a headache, you take an aspirin, no convention required.

A vitamin is different, it's good for you.

You know you should take it, but if you skip it today, love and terrible happens.

The same split happens in habits.

Aspirin habits fix something that genuinely hurting you.

The inbox that costs you an hour every morning, the back pain that limits your work day,

the constant arguments with your partner because you're always distracted.

Vitamin habits are nice to have, reading more, meditating, and learning Spanish.

Vitamin habits aren't bad, but they require willpower to maintain.

Aspirin habits come with built-in motivation because skipping them hurts.

If something genuinely solves a problem, you feel every single day, you find a way to

keep doing it.

A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology titled, a higher

article model of approach and avoidance achievement motivation found that people motivated to

avoid a negative outcome, meaning they want to stop something from hurting them, show stronger,

more sustained behavioral commitment than those motivated purely by positive gain.

People will drag themselves to physical therapy after a knee injury in ways they never

drag themselves to the gym when everything was fine because if they don't go, they can't

walk.

That's aspirin motivation.

Aspiration matters, but when it comes to sticking with a habit, having real consequences

for skipping it, something that actually costs you when you don't do the thing is what

separates the routines that last from the ones that quietly disappear.

So how do you put the aspirin versus vitamin test to work?

Number one, run the test on every habit before you start.

Before you commit to any new routine, ask yourself honestly, what breaks down when I don't

do this?

If the answer is, nothing really, that's a vitamin.

You could still build it, but no going in that's going to take more structure and accountability

to keep it alive.

If skipping it costs you real time, real stress, or real relationships, that's your aspirin.

That's where you put your energy first.

Number two, find the aspirin inside your vitamin habits.

Sometimes a habit looks optional until you trace what it's actually preventing.

These looks like a vitamin until you realize the afternoon brain fog that takes your most

productive hours disappears when you work out in the morning.

That's not a vitamin anymore, that's an aspirin.

Look for the real cost your nice-to-have habits are preventing.

Keep a short list of what your worst days look like when you skip certain routines.

That written reminder will help you in the early days of creating a routine for yourself.

Number three, stack vitamins onto aspirin habits.

Want to build a habit that's genuinely optional?

Taking your actual vitamin, stretching in the morning, even something like flossing, attach

it to something you already do because skipping it actually hurts.

You're already making coffee every morning because life without it is basically a low-grade

emergency.

Put the vitamin bottle right next to your coffee pot.

You don't need willpower when something's already locked into a real-daily habit and you

make it easy to do.

Your brain will fight to keep doing things that solve real problems.

It'll walk away from anything that just sounds like a good idea.

So before you build your next habit, run the test, aspirin or vitamin.

Because aspirin habits are the ones that still keep going in February.

Your move.

Thanks so much for listening to the Productivity Podcast.

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show.

We'll see you in the next episode.