Metric
Habit pulse (SRBAI)
Mean of the four SRBAI automaticity items (7-point agreement) about the core value action, among users who did it at least once, surveyed at days 7, 30 and 90. Measures automaticity, not frequency.
Plain label: self-reported automaticity scoreAlso known as: SRBAI, habit strength survey, automaticity index
The four endings: done automatically, without having to consciously remember, without thinking, and started before realizing. Reliability is mostly .80-.97 and it tracks the full 12-item index closely Evidence grade A. Robust evidence: replicated, peer-reviewed research.. Pair it with unprompted share and time-of-day consistency. Habit plateaus took a median of about 66 days in one small study (range 18-254), so early pulses show direction only.
Limits
What we don’t claim
- Habit metrics need the longer habit horizon (weeks to months) before they can be read.
Sources
Towards parsimony in habit measurement: the SRBAI · Gardner, Abraham, Lally and de Bruijn, IJBNPA 9:102, 2012
Evidence grade A. Robust evidence: replicated, peer-reviewed research.How are habits formed: modelling habit formation in the real world · Lally et al., European Journal of Social Psychology, 2010
Evidence grade A. Robust evidence: replicated, peer-reviewed research.
Source IDs: F15
Book content is paraphrased, never quoted at length. Last verified October 24, 2026.
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