No Zero Days

Make a little progress on your most important goals every day, even if it’s something small. Any time you let things slip, it’s easier to slip again and eventually it becomes a habit. The rule of no zero days prevents that and provides evidence of your changing identity every day.

See also:

  • This reddit thread where the phrase ‘no zero days’ originated
  • Atomic Habits talks about ‘showing up’ as an important factor for initially forming a positive habit and how actions reinforce one’s identity.
  • A Third of Sales Comes from Doing Nothing at All

    Good salespeople know that a third of their sales come from doing nothing at all. If you talk to enough people, some will buy it. Like the people who sell hats in Times Square, merely asking if you want to buy one results in sales.

  • Cutting Your Losses

    It becomes exponentially more difficult to make up for losses as they increase. A loss of 90% would need a gain of 900% to recover from it. Cutting your losses is important so that you don’t fall into the trap of an exponentially larger hole.

  • One Pull Request Per Day

    Productive engineers should write one pull request per day. One pull request per day creates forward momentum. Forward momentum leads to progress. Progress is how teams overcomes their biggest challenges.