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One action small enough to start right now.

The Tiny Action Deck deals 80 small actions, two, five or ten minutes each, one card at a time. Filter by the time and energy you have, skip what doesn’t fit, pin up to three to today, and tie each to a moment you already have: “After I pour my coffee …”

Open the deck See what’s in it
  • 80 cards
  • 8 areas
  • Free, no account

How it goes

A minute to choose, then two to ten minutes to do it.

  1. Say what you have

    Pick the minutes you can spare, how much energy you have and, if you like, the areas you care about today. The deck shows only the cards that fit.

  2. Deal until one fits

    Each card says what to do, why it helps and a question for afterwards. Not now sends it to the bottom. Smaller shows the two-minute cards in the same area. Do it now starts a timer.

  3. Pin three, then do them

    Today holds three cards, each tied to a moment that already happens, like sitting down at your desk. Mark one done and it fills today’s square in your last four weeks.

What’s in the deck

8 areas of 10 cards, each with two-, five- and ten-minute actions for low, medium and high energy. Open the deck on one area, or add cards of your own.

Why tiny works

BJ Fogg’s model of behaviour has three parts, and a tiny action leans on the one you control.

  • Motivation comes and goes

    Fogg’s model says a behaviour happens when motivation, ability and a prompt meet at the same moment. Motivation is the least reliable of the three; it is high on Monday and gone by Thursday.

  • Ease is something you can choose

    The easier an action, the less motivation it needs. A two-minute version clears the line on a low day, which is why the deck leads with small cards and Smaller is one key away.

  • Progress feeds itself

    Teresa Amabile’s diary studies found that small wins on work that matters lift people’s mood and motivation more than anything else in a workday. Finishing one card is a small win you can see.

Fogg’s action line: motivation up the side, ease along the bottom. Above the curve, a prompt leads to the action. “Run five miles” sits below it, so it doesn’t happen on an ordinary day; “Put on your running shoes” sits above it, so it does. Motivation Ease hard easy action line Prompts here lead to action Run five miles Put on your running shoes
Same person, same Thursday motivation. The hard action sits under the line and the easy one sits above it.

After I …, I will …, then celebrate

Each pin takes the recipe from Fogg’s Tiny Habits. The first and last parts are what most to-do lists leave out.

After I pour my morning coffee, I will write one specific thank-you message, then say “done” and mean it.

  • An anchor, not an alarm

    “After I sit down at my desk” ties the action to something that happens every day anyway, so the moment itself is the reminder. Researchers call this an implementation intention, and across 94 tests it made people noticeably more likely to follow through.

  • A moment of feeling good

    When you mark a card done, the deck says so. Fogg’s advice is to add your own: a quiet “yes”, a smile. That small good feeling, right after the action, is what helps it stick.

Days, not streaks

20 of the last 28 days

  • A filled square

    A day you finished at least one card. One is enough; three is not worth more.

  • A blank square

    Just a blank day. Nothing resets, and the next filled square counts the same.

  • No streak to break

    The log fills a square for each day you did at least one. There is no streak to break, because in Phillippa Lally’s study a single missed day did not set habit-building back.

Your day stays yours

What you pin and what you finish is nobody else’s business.

  • Where it is kept

    In this browser, saved as you go: your filters, pins, anchors, cards of your own and the log. If you are signed in, it also follows your account to your other devices. Nothing is shown to anyone else.

  • What it is not

    A to-do list, a tracker with a score, or a programme to finish. It is one small move at a time, for the days you want one.

  • On a low day

    Minutes
    2
    Energy
    Low
    Then
    Do it now, and stop when the timer does.

What it is built on

Five sources, used for what they say and no more.

  • The Tiny Habits recipe BJ Fogg, Tiny Habits, 2019

    Shrink the behaviour until it is easy, anchor it to an existing routine with “After I …, I will …”, and celebrate straight away. The pins, their anchors and the moment after Done follow that recipe.

  • The behaviour model BJ Fogg, “A Behavior Model for Persuasive Design”, Persuasive ’09, 2009

    Behaviour happens when motivation, ability and a prompt are present at the same moment. The action line in the chart above, and the reason the deck offers smaller versions before bigger ones, come from here.

  • Implementation intentions Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 2006

    A meta-analysis of 94 independent tests found that if-then plans, deciding in advance when and where you will act, had a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals (d = .65). The “After I …” field is one.

  • How habits form Phillippa Lally and colleagues, European Journal of Social Psychology, 2010

    96 volunteers repeated a daily behaviour for twelve weeks. Reaching near-automatic took a median of 66 days, ranging from 18 to 254, and missing a single day did not materially affect the process. Hence days, not streaks.

  • The progress principle Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, The Progress Principle, 2011

    From nearly 12,000 daily diary entries by 238 people at work, making progress on meaningful work was the event most often behind their best days. Small wins counted, which is the case for finishing one tiny thing.

Questions

  • What counts as a tiny action?

    Something concrete you can finish in two, five or ten minutes, with nothing to buy or set up first: write one sentence, cancel one subscription, send one message. Each card says exactly what to do, why it helps and a question to ask yourself afterwards.

  • Why can I only pin three to today?

    Three is a list you can finish. A long list of small things quickly turns into one more backlog, and the point of a tiny action is that it gets done. Finish or unpin one to make room for another.

  • What is the “After I …” line for?

    It ties the action to a moment that already happens in your day, like pouring your coffee or sitting down at your desk. BJ Fogg calls this an anchor: the existing moment reminds you to do the new thing. It is optional, but it is the part most likely to make the action happen.

  • Why does it tell me to celebrate?

    Fogg found that a moment of feeling good right after a behaviour helps it stick. A quiet “yes”, a smile or a fist pump is enough. It feels silly the first few times, which is fine.

  • What if none of the cards feels doable?

    Make it smaller. Set the energy to low or the minutes to two, or press Smaller on a card to see the two-minute cards in the same area. Skipping is fine too: Not now moves a card to the bottom of the deck, and Set aside takes it out until you put it back.

  • Can I add my own actions?

    Yes. Add your own card with a title, what to do, its length and its area, and it joins the deck like any other. Your cards stay in your browser.

  • Does missing a day break anything?

    No. The deck counts the days you did something, not an unbroken streak. In Phillippa Lally’s study of habit formation, missing one day did not set people back.

  • Where are my pins and my log saved?

    In this browser, saved as you go. If you are signed in, they also follow your account to your other devices. Nothing you write is shown to anyone else.

Books on starting small

Tiny Habits Atomic Habits Mini Habits The Power of Habit

Pick one small thing and do it

Open the deck, say how much time you have, and deal until a card feels easy. That one counts.

Open the deck

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