Learn the habits on the rising side, from research.
Movement, life, work and money. What studies have found about habits and income, with the country, the data and the kind of study. Studies describe averages; nothing here promises you higher income.
Work
- Adult Qualifications and Pay: Evidence from the UKIn 15 years of UK panel data, women who gained a qualification as adults had hourly wages about 10% higher in the medium run. For men, the gap disappeared once wage growth before the qualification was taken into account.
- Decide When and WhereDeciding in advance when, where and what you will do (an implementation intention) had an average effect of d = 0.65 in a meta-analysis of 94 tests. A newer meta-analysis of 642 tests estimates a smaller effect once publication bias is corrected.
- Don't Just Accept the First OfferIn a US survey of 149 new hires, those who negotiated had starting salaries about $5,000 higher on average. Here is how to prepare, in three parts.
- Negotiation and the Gender Gap Depend on Whether Asking Is AllowedIn a US experiment with nearly 2,500 job seekers, saying "wages are negotiable" in the job ad made the gender gap in negotiation disappear. We read it alongside real negotiation data from Sweden.
- Self-Study and Pay in Japan: What Kind of Learning MatteredIn a Japanese national panel survey, regular employees who did self-study saw their annual income grow 5.2% over two years on average, against 3.4% for those who didn't. But once job quality and attitudes were taken into account, the gap disappeared.
- Tracking Your Progress Helps You Reach GoalsA meta-analysis of 138 experiments found that prompting people to monitor their progress improved goal attainment (d = 0.40). Here is how to turn a one-line daily note into material for reviews and negotiations.
- Training and Wages: What German Data ShowIn German panel data, people who took training in general, transferable skills earned about 5–6% more on average. Firm-specific training showed no clear difference.
- What Procrastination Is Linked ToA meta-analysis of 691 correlations found procrastination most strongly linked to how unpleasant a task is, how far away the deadline is, self-efficacy, impulsiveness and conscientiousness. Understand the pattern, then act on it in small ways.
Money
- A reminder can change how you saveIn experiments at three banks in Bolivia, Peru and the Philippines, messages reminding people of their savings goal helped more of them reach it. Messages naming both the goal and the financial reward did especially well.
- Defaults are stronger than you thinkWhen a large US company switched its retirement plan to automatic enrollment, participation rose sharply and many people kept the default settings. The power of defaults, and the catch.
- Make the saving promise with your future selfAt a US company, people who committed part of future pay rises to saving went from a 3.5% to a 13.6% saving rate over 40 months. How it works and how to read it.
- Tie yourself to the mastIn a randomized trial in the Philippines, 28.4% of people offered a savings account that locks money until a goal opened one, and balances in the offered group were higher a year later.
- What changes when you can see your moneyIn Iceland, people who started using a personal finance app paid fewer insufficient-funds fees. The drop was small and other results were unclear. Read alongside research on tracking progress.
- Why sleep on a purchaseIn the US, people with a stronger pull toward the present carried more revolving card debt, and people who had just used up self-control spent more in an experiment. What the research says, and how strong the case for waiting a night really is.
- Your contract-signing self is a little too optimisticAt US gyms, members on flat fees over 70 dollars a month went only 4.3 times a month on average, paying over 17 dollars per visit. With phone plans, misjudging usage was estimated to cost 76 dollars a year.
Life
- Does time management work? What 158 studies sayA meta-analysis of 158 studies and about 54,000 people found a moderate link between time management and job performance, and a slightly stronger link with well-being. Here is how to keep a small daily plan going.
- Screens versus paper books before bedIn a US experiment, reading on a glowing e-reader before bed delayed falling asleep by about 10 minutes compared with a printed book, and people were less alert the next morning. The study was small, with 12 people, but the mechanism is clear.
- The experiment that limited email to three checks a dayIn a Canadian experiment, people felt less daily stress in the week they checked email only three times a day. They did not feel more productive in the week they checked as often as they liked.
- Too short or too long: sleep data from 80,000 workers in JapanA University of Tsukuba study of about 80,000 workers and more than 2 million nights linked both short and long sleep to lower productivity. Here is why the app says "about 7 hours".
- What research says about sleep and earningsA US study estimated that an extra hour of average weekly sleep in an area goes with about 5% higher long-run earnings. Among five countries, Japan lost the largest share of GDP to insufficient sleep, at 2.92%.
- Writing down what you drink: a trial in Japanese workplacesIn a randomized trial across six Japanese workplaces, people who logged their drinking every day for four weeks drank less and had more alcohol-free days. We also explain why this app does not link alcohol to income.
Movement
- Break up long sitting with short active breaksIn a study of Tokyo offices, workplaces that added short active breaks saw sitting time fall by 25.9 minutes per 8-hour workday. Here is what the study found, its limits, and how to build the habit.
- Can a little competition get you walking?In a US randomised trial of 602 adults, all three gamified approaches increased daily steps, and only the competition group kept a difference after the program ended. Together with a megastudy of 61,293 gym members, here is what helps a habit last.
- Do people who exercise earn more?Studies in the US and Germany find that people who exercise tend to earn more. The data are observational, so this is a correlation, not proof of cause. Here is what the research says and how to read it.
- Strength training two to three days a weekJapan's Physical Activity and Exercise Guide 2023 advises adults to do strength training two to three days a week. This article separates what the guideline says from what it does not, and suggests an easy way to start at home.
- What changed when Japanese employees started exercisingA Japanese panel study of 6,576 full-time employees found that people who started exercising showed higher work engagement, but no significant change in presenteeism. Those who stopped exercising showed lower engagement.
- What the sports line on your CV signalsIn a Swedish field experiment, listing leisure sports on a job application raised the callback rate by about 2 percentage points. The earnings premium for fitness shrinks once non-cognitive skills are considered. The researcher reads sport as a signal of sociability.
- Where the 8,000-steps target comes fromJapan's health ministry advises adults to take about 8,000 steps a day or more. An international analysis of 15 cohorts found that people who walked more tended to have a lower risk of death. Here is what the numbers mean and how to get closer without strain.
Reading research
- Habits take about 66 days, and missing a day is fineIn a UK study, the median time for a new behavior to become automatic was 66 days, ranging from 18 to 254 days between people. Missing a single day had little effect on forming the habit.
- How to read habit and income researchThe claims that people who exercise tend to earn more, and that more sleep leads to higher earnings, are not the same kind of claim. This guide sorts research into three designs so you can tell how far each one lets you go.
- Money knowledge and retirement planning in Japan, the US and GermanyStudies in the US, Germany and Japan find that people who know more about money tend to plan for retirement. In Japan's 2022 survey, 50.7% of household management questions were answered correctly. Across 76 randomized trials, financial education improved knowledge and behavior.
- Reading the Research on Education and Earnings: Twins and Birth MonthsDo people with more schooling earn more because of their education, or because of ability? Studies using twins, birth months and changes in the law estimate a gap of about 9% per year of schooling among identical twins in the US and Japan.
- What research says about streaks, tough talk and kind wordsShowing a streak as broken makes people less likely to keep going. More than a third of feedback lowered performance. Support for a person's own choices goes with longer-lasting change. Why UPSHIFT has a gentle supporter and a strict coach only for those who choose one.
- When research fails to replicate: the "brain drain" smartphone studyA 2017 US study reported that just having your smartphone nearby lowers your thinking ability, but a preregistered replication did not reproduce it. Here is how to read research, and how UPSHIFT chooses its evidence.