Habits: Bad days matter more than good ones 🏋️
Plus: Never start from scratch again
In this letter:
🔄 Overcome bad days with these powerful habit-building plays.
📝 Leverage online inspiration to create faster and better.
📖 Enjoy the latest posts from the LinkedIn Career Content Library.
📅 Grab a pre-built learning plan for the week.Featured Tool: Meco
I’ve talked about Meco before. And I’ll talk about it again.
Meco helps me organize newsletter reading in a simple, easy-to-use feed. Instead of combing through my inbox — running into distractions left and right — I simply jump into Meco and start learning. I use it every day.
If newsletters are a part of your learning toolkit, give Meco a look. Use this partner link to support the ongoing creation of Develop Daily content.
Ok, let’s get to today’s #1 topic.
Ugh, Bad Days
We’ve all had lousy, no-good, terrible days.
The kind of days where everything goes wrong. The kind of days where energy and motivation drop to zero. The kind of days where we just want to sit and do nothing.
On days like this, how can we maintain positive habits?
This was the central topic of a conversation between podcast host, Tim Ferriss, and productivity expert, James Clear. Two titans of getting stuff done.
And they introduce an idea that might seem counterproductive.
In the long run, I almost feel like the bad days matter more than the good days.
Let’s take a closer look.
New Habits
When launching a new habit, we tend to picture our best day.
Showing up to the gym full of energy.
Meditating with a clear mind.
Learning in a distraction-free setting.
We set goals based on this picture. We hold ourselves to a standard based on this picture. And in doing so, we miss the realities of life.
Our best day is rare.
A unicorn.
Does it happen? Sure.
But if we’re looking to build a habit that can stand the pressure cooker of everyday life, it’s critical to widen the lens.
It’s critical to rewire the brain.
The Fluency Illusion
Why don’t our brains naturally factor in bad days?
We’ve all had bad days. We know they’re part of life. And yet, we routinely overlook them when building new habits.
To answer this question, let’s look at the fluency illusion.
Woo-kyoung Ahn teaches a class called “Thinking” at Yale. For the last 10 years, hundreds of students have eagerly signed up to learn more about how the mind works.
Ahn compiled her coursework into a helpful book, Thinking 101: How to Reason Better to Live Better.
And in Chapter 1, she introduces the fluency illusion.
Simply put, this mental fallacy tricks us. It tells us we’re better at something than we actually are — just look at the data on drivers. And, in the process, the fluency illusion holds us back from appreciating the real challenge of success.
It ignores:
Obstacles
Complexity
Bad days
To lock in habits, we need to push past this illusion.
Here’s the playbook.
The Bad Day Playbook
To prep for bad days, let’s take a look at 4 key plays:
Recognize the importance of bad days.
Create systems (not just goals)
Test your habit whenever possible.
Build in a cushion.
Recognize the importance of bad days
Let’s hear from James Clear again:
If you show up on the bad days, even if it’s less than what you had hoped for, you maintain the habit. And if you maintain the habit, then all you need is time. So, it counts for a lot.
Habits compound.
They need room to grow day after day.
If we’re able to push through the bad days, strong habits can reshape our lives. We keep the momentum going and build a powerful mindset.
You also proved yourself. You know, you can look at yourself in the mirror at the end of the night and be like, “You know what, circumstances weren’t ideal. The situation wasn’t perfect. But I still found a way to show up.”
Create systems (not just goals)
Another James Clear quote, this time from Atomic Habits:
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
A well-built system is the answer to bad days. Systems kick in when motivation and even goals fail.
Consider:
Scenario 1: You’re looking to lose a few pounds, so you set a workout goal. Maybe it’s even a S.M.A.R.T. goal. Lose 10 pounds in a month. Then, a bad day comes and throws you off track.
Scenario 2: You pair your goal with a system. You establish the inputs that will help you meet your goal every single day. I’m going to spend 30 minutes in the gym Monday through Friday. When a bad day comes, you lean into your system and power through it.
Which scenario do you think is primed for success?
—
P.S. This is exactly why Develop Daily is built on 15 minutes of learning each day. It’s a system, designed to grow your career even on bad days.
—
Test your habits whenever possible
Next, let’s look at a tip Woo-kyoung Ahn offers to overcome the fluency illusion:
While fluency effects stem from adaptations in our cognitive system, that doesn’t mean we are powerless to overcome them. One simple solution is to make a task disfluent by physically trying it out.
Simply put, testing habits is a meaningful way to prepare for bad days.
When we test habits out — instead of planning exclusively in our minds — we start to see where stress lines form.
Going back to the workout example, you might test out 30 minutes of daily workout for a week. Odds are, one day that week will be harder than the others — sick kids, work tasks, etc. This will give you a hands-on look at bad day management.
Build in a cushion
Lastly, Woo-kyoung Ahn provides a simple rule of thumb:
Unexpected events, however, are known unknows. One thing about life that we know for certain is that there is always something. We just don’t know what it is. My own solution, not based on any scientific evidence but from having personally experienced plenty of planning fallacies, is simple: I always add 50 percent more time to my initial estimate.
This final play factors in the bad days. Instead, of marching forward with an idealistic view of how long meaningful progress will take, we build in a cushion.
Losing weight? Add 50% to your timeline.
Learning a new skill? Add 50% to your timeline.
Pursuing a promotion? Add 50% to your timeline.
Keep your habits continuous and your expectations reasonable.
To Wrap
Forming high-powered habits is hard.
And one of the biggest obstacles is an idealistic view. Planning for the good days and overlooking the bad ones.
Take it from these productivity and thinking experts. Own your bad days to maximize your progress and maintain momentum.
Here’s the playbook:
Recognize the importance of bad days.
Create systems (not just goals)
Test your habit whenever possible.
Build in a cushion.
Never Start From Scratch Again
These days, I create a lot:
Copywriting (emails, newsletters, blog posts, etc.) for our clients at Damn Smart Marketing.
Visuals for my daily LinkedIn content.
Long-form ideas for this newsletter.
The creation process requires a lot of time and energy. It requires making a million tiny decisions about formatting, structure, word choice, and more.
Honestly, it gets a bit exhausting.
👉 One process that’s helped me immensely is avoiding the blank page.
Instead of starting from scratch, I’ve built a catalog of online resources I can lean on for inspiration.
Copywriting: Copywriting examples, really good emails
Design: Dribble
Newsletters: A curated feed of top newsletters organized in Meco
All purpose: ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude.
If you routinely create for work — whether it’s learning designs, sales decks, or high-impact copy — my recommendation is simple. Don’t start from scratch. Take advantage of the wealth of online inspiration that’s available 24/7.
As Austin Kleon says in his excellent book Steal Like an Artist:
If we’re free from the burden of trying to be completely original, we can stop trying to make something out of nothing, and we can embrace influence instead of running away from it.
Happy creating!
Update: The LinkedIn Career Content Library
This week, the library added 5 new posts. There are now 385 career-boosting posts available anytime.
Here’s what is new:
Giovanni Torres reached out to top LinkedIn creators with a simple question. “What essential advice would you give your younger self at the start of your career?” To find out their answers, check out his full post here.
Omar Halabieh offers a powerful look at Stoic philosophy. From mindset and suffering to happiness and fear, this post is packed with time-tested advice. Check it out here.
David Hannan shares a must-read for anyone looking to network. In this post, he shares a strategic approach to build relationships and get in front of decision-makers. If you’re in the job market, or simply looking to improve your networking, don’t miss this. Grab the playbook here.
Andy Storch recently gave a keynote on critical skills for the future. In this video, he breaks down WHAT these skills are and WHY they’re so important. Looking to future-proof your career? Check out the full post here.
Shyvee Shi shares a powerful set of visuals. In this post, she spotlights comfort zone, failure, perfectionism, and more. Ready for a mental boost? Read the post here.
Friendly reminder. As a Develop Daily subscriber, you have free lifetime access to The LinkedIn Career Content Library. My gift to you.
Develop Daily w/ This Learning Plan
Sunday:
Pull up your calendar; block 15 minutes for learning each day.
Set a (stretch) goal for the week.
Lay a strong foundation with this growth mindset affirmation:
"Challenges are opportunities for growth."
Monday:
Start by considering the impact of bad days on your habits.
Listen to Tim Ferriss and James Clear discuss the topic (start at 13:00 if you’re short on time).
Write down the #1 habit you’re looking to build.
Tuesday:
Consider your creation routines.
Do you have a go-to list of inspiration sources? Have you found websites or AI tools that give you a creative boost?
Start building your list. Search “[industry] examples” or “[industry] inspiration.”
Wednesday:
Return to habits.
Review the playbook provided here. Identify how you’ll plan for the bad days that inevitably will impact your habit-building efforts.
Write down your new system and updated timeline.
Thursday:
Consider picking up Steal Like an Artist.
Block your calendar to read this book 15 minutes a day.
Take notes on how you can use inspiration and artistic “stealing” to improve your work and speed up the process.
Friday:
Share your takeaways from the week with a friend or colleague.
Strike up a 15-minute discussion on a key topic.
Seek out 1-2 resources that argue the opposite point.
Saturday:
Explore freely.
Pull up LinkedIn, your favorite newsletter, or head to the library.
Spend 15 minutes learning something new.
Impact: By the end of the week, you'll have an updated habit system equipped to handle bad days. You'll also have sources of creative inspiration that can take your work to new levels.
Total Investment: <2 hours
Love your shoutout to Meco! I'm reading Develop Daily on Meco after your great recommendation!
Also a big fan of "testing your habits" - I found that time blocking a new habit helps me see if I'm actually executing. If a week goes by and I'm not actually using the blocked time, I know I need to adjust my habit