A Timeless History
Counting on wood is older than writing. A notch in a stick was the first record of a repeated thing: days, animals, debts. Alpine villages kept their grazing rights on notched tally sticks into the 1800s; the English Exchequer kept its accounts on split hazel sticks for six centuries. Franklin, tired of scraping holes in his paper chart, moved it to ivory leaves wiped with a wet sponge — and carried it all his life.
SourceFranklin, Autobiography (1791; Gutenberg #20203) · UK Parliament, The tally sticks · Image: Alpine tally sticks, Swiss Alpine Museum, Bern — Wikimedia Commons, Sandstein (CC BY 3.0)
Science In Action
Cue — a habit starts with a context: same time, same place, same object; the slider is the cue • Repetition — automaticity rose with each repeat in a 12-week study, then levelled off on a curve • Reward — responses that are rewarded get repeated, a rule psychology has known since 1898 • One miss — skipping a single day did not materially affect habit formation in that study
SourceLally, van Jaarsveld, Potts & Wardle, Eur J Soc Psychol 40 (2010) 998–1009 · Wood & Rünger, Annu Rev Psychol 67 (2016) · Image: a pocket pedometer, engraving by Porter after Farey — Wellcome Collection (PDM)
Arts
The reminder as a jewel. In 1770s Paris a lady carried a 'souvenir': a slim gold case, no bigger than a bank card, holding ivory leaves and a pencil for the day's engagements. C. De Roy's Souvenir of 1773–74 in the Met is 8.6 × 5.1 cm of gold and green lacquer — the same idea as our sliders, in wood instead of gold.
SourceThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, Souvenir, C. De Roy, Paris 1773–74, 17.190.1371a–c · Image: the same object (CC0)
Applications Today
Step counters — from the clip-on pedometer to the wristband, counting the repeat is still the nudge • Screen-free — a wooden slider has no notification to dismiss; it sits where you will see it • Classrooms and teams — a visible tracker on a desk or in a pocket makes a routine shared
SourceWood, Quinn & Kashy, J Pers Soc Psychol 83 (2002) · Image: mechanical pedometer, c. 1970 — Wikimedia Commons, Sarang (PD)
One more thingIn the reference study, a new daily habit took a median of 66 days to feel automatic — and anywhere from 18 to 254 days depending on the person and the habit.
SourceLally, van Jaarsveld, Potts & Wardle, European Journal of Social Psychology 40 (2010) 998–1009
About 43% of what people do in a day is repeated almost daily, usually in the same place.
Tally sticks from the Swiss Alps (Alpbeilen) — Alp Blattiberg (Lauenen BE) 1786/1815, Alp Hinterschneit (Saanen BE) 1778 and others; notches record cow rights (87 rights among 23 owners) — Photograph: Sandstein (Wikimedia Commons user), own work — objects 1778–1815; photo 2009 — Swiss Alpine Museum (Alpines Museum der Schweiz), Bern — permanent collection display — File:SAM PC 1 - Tally sticks 1 - Overview.jpg (4884 × 3816)
