The Compound Effect of Ridiculously Small Habits
Published on 11/16/2025
5 pages a day is embarrassingly small
TLDR: Starting with actions so small they feel ridiculous—like reading 5 pages a day—isn't about the immediate output. It's about identity transformation through consistency. The goal isn't completing 5 pages; it's becoming someone who reads every day.
Summary:
The core insight here draws from James Clear's Atomic Habits and challenges our instinct to set ambitious goals. When someone with a busy 9-to-5 job and young kids says "I want to read but don't have time," the typical response is to find more time. But the actual barrier isn't time—it's identity. You're not "a reader" yet, so committing to reading for an hour feels like pretending. But 5 pages? Anyone can do that. It's so small you can't say no.
The author visualized this concept through three iterations, each one revealing how designers think about making ideas stick. The first version was a simple bar chart—clean, precise, effective at showing the comparison. Reading 5 pages daily yields dramatically more books than reading sporadically. But it was generic. Nothing about it said "reading." Version two replaced bars with book stacks, making the metaphor literal and more contextual. Better, but still not engaging.
The breakthrough came in version three by enlarging the contrast. One side shows a sad little stack of 3-4 books. The other side? A tower that extends beyond the frame, suggesting infinity. This isn't about factual precision anymore—it's about emotional impact. The exaggeration makes the message impossible to ignore: small, consistent actions compound into something massive. Strong contrast always works because when the difference is dramatic, the insight becomes visceral rather than intellectual.
What makes this particularly relevant for architects and teams is the meta-lesson about how we approach system improvements. We often wait for the perfect moment—"when we have more time," "when the roadmap clears," "when we're ready" to refactor that legacy module or adopt that new practice. But the truth is simpler: you start by starting. Want to improve test coverage? Don't commit to 80% coverage by quarter-end. Write one test today. Want to document your architecture? Don't plan a comprehensive wiki. Write two sentences about one decision. Want to adopt TypeScript? Don't migrate the entire codebase. Convert one file.
The tiny action doesn't just build the habit—it rebuilds identity. After 100 days of writing one test daily, you're not "trying" to improve quality. You're just a team that writes tests. The 5 pages aren't magic. But 5 pages every day creates a different person (or team) a year from now. The visual captures this beautifully by making the endpoint feel limitless—because once identity shifts, the behavior becomes effortless.
Key takeaways:
- The barrier to forming new habits isn't time or energy—it's identity; you need to become someone who does the thing, not someone trying to do it
- Start with actions so small they feel embarrassing (5 pages, 2 minutes, 1 sentence) because they're impossible to refuse and don't trigger resistance
- Visual communication works best when it uses strong contrast and metaphor; exaggeration for emotional impact beats factual precision when you're trying to shift mindsets
- Compounding happens in identity formation, not just in the immediate results; 100 repetitions of a tiny action transforms who you are, not just what you accomplish
Tradeoffs:
- Gain immediate accessibility and reduced resistance but sacrifice the dopamine hit of ambitious goal achievement
- Emphasize identity formation over outcome tracking, which means initial progress feels invisible and underwhelming