There is a growing recognition, in online and offline discourse, that only a few of our habits can determine the rhythm of our routine and most of the life choices we end up making. Charles Duhigg, in his iconic, genre-defining self-help book The Power of Habit, called them keystone habits. These small, strategically placed practices have large returns because they stabilize the nervous system, strengthen self-trust, and boost behavioral consistency. Keystone habits not only improve our productivity and emotional well-being, but also change and prime the internal environment from where our behavior emerges. One can think of them as behavioral “linchpins.” When you put them in, everything seems to move with less resistance. Take them away, and even the simplest of actions demands twice the effort. 1. The Ten-Minute Non-Negotiable When we’re trying to make a big change in our lives, we’re likely to write off small, incremental steps as unhelpful. However, both productivity gurus and researchers seem to agree on this: what you do is hardly ever as important as how often you do …